Cant start Bigbox outside of Launchbox.

[BrBybee]

Title says it all. I can start BigBox when I am in Launchbox fine. But when I try to run it directly from the exe it just hangs on the starting logo. Task manager shows 0 CPU/Memory ect.. Any ideas?

[Jason Carr]

@BrBybee What happens if you try to run LaunchBox\Core\BigBox.exe instead of LaunchBox\BigBox.exe?

[BrBybee]

That also hangs. I did find that it works ok if I run it as administrator. Is that normally a requirement?

[Jason Carr]

8 minutes ago, BrBybee said:

That also hangs. I did find that it works ok if I run it as administrator. Is that normally a requirement?

No, not at all. That could mean that you have it installed to the wrong folder though. What folder did you install it to?

[BrBybee]

4 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

No, not at all. That could mean that you have it installed to the wrong folder though. What folder did you install it to?

C:\Users\BrByb\LaunchBox

This is the default directory of the installer if I remember correctly. 

Just some background info. This is a fresh install of Windows 10 for a dedicated gaming box I am putting together. My goal is to replace the windows shell with BigBox so that it boots directly into BigBox. But to do that I need to have a working shortcut to Bigbox first. I COULD have it run as Administrator. But then every time I boot it will have that annoying UAC prompt. 

[Jason Carr]

1 minute ago, BrBybee said:

C:\Users\BrByb\LaunchBox

This is the default directory of the installer if I remember correctly. 

Just some background info. This is a fresh install of Windows 10 for a dedicated gaming box I am putting together. My goal is to replace the windows shell with BigBox so that it boots directly into BigBox. But to do that I need to have a working shortcut to Bigbox first. I COULD have it run as Administrator. But then every time I boot it will have that annoying UAC prompt. 

Yeah, you don't really want that, if possible. Honestly, I don't understand why it would be requiring administrator at all, other than if the file permissions got messed up somehow, or if your system is configured with some really weird group policy settings (such as if it's managed by a company or an organization).

What all customizations have you done? Is it a fresh install of Windows and also a fresh install of LaunchBox/Big box?

[BrBybee]

6 minutes ago, Jason Carr said:

Yeah, you don't really want that, if possible. Honestly, I don't understand why it would be requiring administrator at all, other than if the file permissions got messed up somehow, or if your system is configured with some really weird group policy settings (such as if it's managed by a company or an organization).

What all customizations have you done? Is it a fresh install of Windows and also a fresh install of LaunchBox/Big box?

Yea.. Both Windows and LaunchBox are fresh installs. Its a fast system with a NVME so it will probably take less time to just re-install Windows/launchbox than it would to mess around with it.  Ill try that and let you know. 

[BrBybee]

Ok. I re-installed windows/lunchbox with no luck. So I tried it on a completely different computer as well. Same result. It just hangs like this with no CPU/Disk activity.
 

BUT.. I did find that if I let it hang for 20+ minutes it eventually starts. It just takes a REALLY long time. Very weird considering this is a top end system with a fresh install. I only added 4 SNES games to test with and it launches fast if I launch it through launchbox or if I start it as administrator. 

Any ideas?

[Jason Carr]

5 minutes ago, BrBybee said:

Ok. I re-installed windows/lunchbox with no luck. So I tried it on a completely different computer as well. Same result. It just hangs like this with no CPU/Disk activity.
 

BUT.. I did find that if I let it hang for 20+ minutes it eventually starts. It just takes a REALLY long time. Very weird considering this is a top end system with a fresh install. I only added 4 SNES games to test with and it launches fast if I launch it through launchbox or if I start it as administrator. 

Any ideas?

Yeah, strange. Usually stuff like this is caused by an anti-virus or anti-malware program. Do you have anything like that installed?

[BrBybee]

The only anti-virus I have is windows itself. So I tried disabling defender and that didn't help. So instead of trying to fix the issue I decided to work around it without completely disabling UAC. In case anyone else runs into the same issue.. Here is how I did it:

1. Open the start menu, type in "task scheduler" and open it. 

2. Create a new folder and name it something you will remember. I named mine "BigBox".

3. On the right hand side click "Create Task", Give it a name and make sure "Run with highest privileges" is checked:

4. Go to the "Actions" tab, Click new and give it the location of BigBox.exe:

5. Right click your desktop, go to new, then to shortcut and give it this location:

5. Click next and give it a name. I named mine "BigBox". Then right click the icon, go to properties and add this to the target:

C:\Windows\System32\schtasks.exe /run /tn "BigBox\Launch BigBox"
Replace "BigBox\Launch BigBox" with the folder and task you created previously. 

I also changed the icon to match BigBox but you can have the icon as whatever you want.

You can now add this to your startup folder or wherever you want to launch BigBox from and it will launch it as administrator but without a UAC prompt.  Keep in mind that any emulator that gets launched by BigBox will also have admin rights without a UAC prompt. 

Edited November 9, 2021 by BrBybee