How To Bypass The Third-Party Launcher

This Is A Guide About Bypassing/Removing The Third-Party Launcher From Prison Architect, Its Simple And Easy.

Directions To Bypass The Third-Party Launcher

1) double click the drive steam was installed on.

- note: (in some cases you may have a second steam folder if you have moved games to another drive, in that case its that "drive:\SteamlLibrary\steamapps\common\Prison Architect\Prison Architect64.exe" %command%, or in the case of replacing or adding more drives and the drive letter changed for the game, simply edit in the drive letter to the steam launch option already in place.

- note: if steam is installed on your C drive, then you will likely find steam under "program files (x86)", then the rest of the path as follows below.

2) double click "steam".

3) double click "steamapps".

4) double click "common".

5) double click "prison architect".

6) move mouse to the bar above, left click on the bar and it should produce a drive path, then you can left click and drag to highllight, then right click to copy.

- note: you can also do the above through steam, under settings then storage, right click on game, choose "manage", then "browse local files", it opens the folder for said game and as above (step 6), mouse over bar above, left click, then left click drag and highlight, then right click and copy.

(example: mine looks like this) ^

7) navigate to your games library on steam.

8) right click on prison architect.

9) select properties.

10) under general tab, you should see a launch option box at the bottom.

11) you can right click and paste, then edit the command in the steam launch option box, or simply paste it to a text document for easier editing.

(example) (mine looks like this) ^

12) you will have to add the quotes, as well as Prison Architect64.exe , then add a space, then add %command% at the end, it should look just like mine above with the only difference being the drive letter your game(s) are installed on.

13) click ok (if edited in the launch option box), or (if you edited it on a text document) right click highlight and copy, then right click paste in launch option box and click ok.

now your set to run the game without the third-party launcher, it should start up as it did before the launcher was added.

Removing And/Or Uninstalling The Launcher

this may or may not be an option, but with the steam launch option the launcher wont even run, thus it wont be doing anything, tho you may still want to uninstall it and/or remove the files/folders.

your choice....

-----------------
to uninstall:
-----------------

1) click the home/windows icon in the taskbar in the bottom left.

2) click on "control panel".

3) click on "uninstall a program".

4) search the list for the "paradox launcher".

5) right click and select "uninstall".

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
to remove the launcher files (your choice if you want to do this):
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1) navigate to through your steam folders to the prison architect files.

example: (driver letter)/steam/steamapps/common/prison architect.

2) (in the prison architect folder) right click on the "launcher" folder and select "delete".

- note: in other games this may or may not be all in the same folder (launcher folder), some may be in it and some may be outside of it in the list, just an fyi... if your trying this on another paradox game, or other games, it all depends on how the devs setup said files.

- note: this folder or files may or may not be re-added every time there is an update/patch, or if you ever have to verify the game files, so in choosing to do this, you may end up having to keep deleting said folder, or you can simply leave it there as its doing nothing when its uninstalled and/or bypassed.

Side Notes

i set this guide to every category so it can be seen easier.

if you feel i should add something or i missed something, or corrections, let me know in the comments.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

as far as i know bypassing third-party launchers like this, works on all games with third-party launchers (not once had a problem with it not working so far), for paradox or other games, using the exe (be it 32/64) , works on all windows OS (may as well work on linux?)

this may or may not work on games with anti-cheat exe's.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

if your having problems with the launcher or other launchers, then use this to bypass it, if you for some reason like or dont care about third-party launchers, then this may or may not be for you.

this is the easiest way to bypass a third-party launcher, no need to create anything, modify anything, or install useless stuff, you simply copy and paste a drive path to steam launch settings, if you feel like doing other "guides" that have more complex and lengthy stuff to bypass a third-party launcher, then by all means... you can do those.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

please: thumbs up, rate and refer this guide to anyone who wants to remove and play without the launcher.

toss an award on this guide if you want, its your choice.

enjoy and have fun.

[MonkehMaster]

update: fixed some missed spelling mistakes.

[thunermay]

What is with MacOS? I can't open the game even if I want to use the Paradox Launcher... I want to play Prison Architect

[LordBurst]

How would this guide work for the Steam Deck? How to uninstall launcher files?

[SoulYard]

Amazing guide, as for getting rid of the launcher folder, it seems that the game requires it to launch, what we can do is remove the “launcher-installer-windows.msi” and create a text-file and rename it to: “launcher-installer-windows.msi”. Make sure it ends with “.msi”. After that, right click on “launcher-installer-windows.msi” then “Properties” and then click on “Read-Only” And then apply. This won't allow the launcher to redownload itself

[d513]

on Linux set command to:
"./PrisonArchitect" %command%

[Adi Tetac]

do note certain items require you to be logged into your paradox account to be placeable (like the guard pavalion)

[Helen Keller]

As the game is native in Linux, the .exe isn't so easily found. I just checked htop and only see what seems to be linked through the Paradox launcher with a flag of -pdx-launcher-session-token <data> and --paradox-account-userid <data>. (To be faaair, I did create a paradox account for some free stuff, but I thought I unlinked it. I had not played the game since March of last year, so somewhat surprised about that.)

I'm not good at Linux, but I'll look into it and if I remember, I'll repost how to run your workaround for it.

[MonkehMaster]

no problem, have fun.

[Vertigo_Shotts]

Well, time to break all my games to see which ones let me get away with this lol. Thanks btw

[Ace The Kangaroo]

Thank you so much.