LaunchBox 13.23 Released!

[AstroBob]

Version 13.23 - Released August 21st 2025

Release Summary

Full Changelog: https://www.launchbox-app.com/about/changelog

 

Known Issues:

• Although FFMPEG provides some major advantages over VLC, it has both advantages AND disadvantages over WMP. See our doc here for a full breakdown and comparison
• For users experiencing crashing in Big Box on Version 13.23, we've put together a short troubleshooting guide to help with this.

 

New Features:

• Added a new Screensavers feature to Big Box, letting users discover games with fully themeable views and interact directly with the games shown
• LaunchBox and Big Box now include a brand new FFMPEG-based video playback option, delivering more reliable performance, with the old VLC engine now phased out
• LaunchBox now opens with a brand new Welcome Wizard that helps users quickly set up their games, preferences, and media so they can jump straight into the fun
• A new automation rule for Game Progress Tracking now allows games to be marked as paused if they have not been played in a user-defined number of days
• A new Media Settings section under Tools > Options > Media > Automatic Imports lets users customize which media files are downloaded during automated imports

 

Improvements:

• Platform detail views in both LaunchBox and Big Box now display numerical counts for games that are beaten, completed, or mastered, based on Game Progress Tracking stats
• When arranging by Game Progress, sorting now follows your user-defined order for progress values and headers
• The "Attract Mode Master Volume" option in Big Box is now called "Idle Master Volume" and now controls both Screensaver and Attract Mode audio
• Platform icons have been visually refreshed for Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo Game Boy Advance, and PICO-8 to better represent each system (Thanks to @Dan Patrick)

 

Fixed:

• Games hidden by the user will no longer appear in the Game Discovery Center
• RetroAchievements were not loading in Game Details when using a List View, resulting in no achievement data being shown
• Selecting a game too quickly in Big Box could prevent LEDBlinky from displaying the correct lighting behavior
• The Beat em Up clear logo now displays correctly under all conditions
• Resetting play time and play count now also resets these values for all additional apps attached to a game
• Hybrid views now provide proper audio feedback when navigating with a controller or keyboard
• Some custom LaunchBox themes were silently failing to poll the selected game, which could prevent item highlighting from working correctly
• In some custom LaunchBox themes, multiple carousel controls in the Game Details panel were not always updating as expected
• Legacy Big Box themes using Old Default theme code had a stray completed graphic that would always show, regardless of user data
• Removed the outdated Change Badge Images option from the Badge menu in LaunchBox, which no longer applied after the media manager overhaul in version 13.21
• A specific crash related to the MAME High Score system is now caught with error handling, and logging has been added to help identify the root cause

[kurzih]

Hi,

Just updated and launchbox is stuck in this state right now when it tries to start the latest version:

I haven't changed any playlists or anything else the last 3-5 times I started version 13.22

Is there a new function that deep-scans playlists for the first time for a very long time or any ideas why it doesn't open up?

EDIT: it did launch after roughly 20mins wait.

Edited Friday at 10:35 AM by kurzih

[KRI$85]

Interesting, interesting, it's a pity, but Screensavers plays random games from every platform, regardless of the platform we're on. In the case of platforms, categories, and platforms, it's average. I thought it would detect, for example, Platform Category Arcade, and detect and show only random games from these platforms: Mame, Neo-Geo, etc. And if you go to Mame, for example, does it detect and show only games from Mame, Neo-Geo, etc.?
I don't know about you, but it looks strange to me when Mame shows games from consoles, etc., and vice versa.
I hope that in the future, you'll add the option to choose whether they should
- Show randomly, as they do now
- Depending on the platform 
- Maybe if it doesn't detect background, image, or video, it will play randomly  

Of course, I hope you don't take this as hate and complaining, because you're doing a great job. I'm just presenting my view and I'm curious who else has a similar experience?

Regarding the Welcome Wizard, it's clearer than the previous one.

As for FFmpeg, hmm, I still need to test it, but so far it seems heavy and has problems displaying some of my videos, it also displays them with a delay after hovering over them, and it cuts and loops the background music, but it's probably because my PC is no longer the newest after this update. 😟

[AstroBob]

4 hours ago, KRI$85 said:

Interesting, interesting, it's a pity, but Screensavers plays random games from every platform,

This is a great idea! I've gone ahead and scoped it out on our feature board here:
🔗 https://feedback.launchbox.gg/p/context-aware-screensaver-mode-in-big-box

Let me know if that covers what you had in mind

[AstroBob]

For any users experiencing video related issues in Big Box or crashes, please see this troubleshooting guide. Please drop any reports over on that thread (following the instructions of what to try and provide)

 

[KRI$85]

3 hours ago, AstroBob said:

This is a great idea! I've gone ahead and scoped it out on our feature board here:
🔗 https://feedback.launchbox.gg/p/context-aware-screensaver-mode-in-big-box

Let me know if that covers what you had in mind

Yea That's the point

[DragonFyre55]

I got a virus alert from Windows Defender (running on Windows 11) when installing this version.

I initiated the update from BigBox (it poped up a message saying a new version had been downloaded and was ready to install).

 

Not sure if anyone else has seen or reported this.

[faeran]

34 minutes ago, DragonFyre55 said:

I got a virus alert from Windows Defender (running on Windows 11) when installing this version.

I initiated the update from BigBox (it poped up a message saying a new version had been downloaded and was ready to install).

 

Not sure if anyone else has seen or reported this.

Thanks for letting us know about this. Looks like Windows Defender has started flagging one of the temporary files that our installer creates while it is running. It looks alarming when it pops up, but it is just a normal helper file and not anything harmful.

These kinds of false alarms happen sometimes when Defender updates its definitions and gets a little too aggressive. We are already submitting it to Microsoft so they can correct it in an upcoming update.

Really appreciate you pointing it out. The faster we hear about this kind of thing, the faster we can get it resolved. In the meantime everything is safe to use and the update should still fully complete even with that error. Once Microsoft pushes the fix the warnings should disappear.

[Gaming.Zone]

51 minutes ago, DragonFyre55 said:

I got a virus alert from Windows Defender (running on Windows 11) when installing this version.

I initiated the update from BigBox (it poped up a message saying a new version had been downloaded and was ready to install).

 

Not sure if anyone else has seen or reported this.

I can confirm this was thrown at me as well by Microsoft Defender on Windows 11.  I ran a scan after on the Launchbox folder and no other concerns found.  Possible false positive?

EDIT: I see the answer was posted by an admin 2 minutes before I posted  that it is indeed a false positive.  Thank you for the fast reply faeran.

Edited Friday at 11:06 PM by Gaming.Zone
faeran posted response ahead of this post.

[Invader]

42 minutes ago, DragonFyre55 said:

I got a virus alert from Windows Defender (running on Windows 11) when installing this version.

I initiated the update from BigBox (it poped up a message saying a new version had been downloaded and was ready to install).

 

Not sure if anyone else has seen or reported this.

Same here. 

 

EDIT: Good to know it's a false positive. I thought it was weird that it "quarantined" this but didn't stop the update from running.

Edited Friday at 10:57 PM by Invader

[Madhead]

I've noticed it crashes when watching video snaps, fullscreening and pausing them etc. Definately a video thing. Perhaps to do with the ffmpg addition, teething troubles I imagine. It crashes without an error log btw, just a straight quit to desktop. LaunchBox not BigBox.

[faeran]

1 hour ago, Madhead said:

I've noticed it crashes when watching video snaps, fullscreening and pausing them etc. Definately a video thing. Perhaps to do with the ffmpg addition, teething troubles I imagine. It crashes without an error log btw, just a straight quit to desktop. LaunchBox not BigBox.

There's both WMP and FFME, if you try whatever one you are not using and it's still happening, it's possible it's something else. If you do crash, check Event Viewer for the Windows application .NET errors and send us a report here: https://feedback.launchbox.gg/?b=679a6c5745a6e9cef9dabfce

That will help us track things down.

[zugswang]

22 hours ago, kurzih said:

Hi,

Just updated and launchbox is stuck in this state right now when it tries to start the latest version:

I haven't changed any playlists or anything else the last 3-5 times I started version 13.22

Is there a new function that deep-scans playlists for the first time for a very long time or any ideas why it doesn't open up?

EDIT: it did launch after roughly 20mins wait.

Same for me using automatic update.

After 30 minutes I had to cancel it and manually download it.

It then installed fine, but then errored out when using BigBox.

[Joe35car]

If using the newest Video FFmpeg Launchbox crashes. I'm on Win11 and have a 3050 card.

[DragonFyre55]

13 hours ago, faeran said:

Thanks for letting us know about this. Looks like Windows Defender has started flagging one of the temporary files that our installer creates while it is running. It looks alarming when it pops up, but it is just a normal helper file and not anything harmful.

These kinds of false alarms happen sometimes when Defender updates its definitions and gets a little too aggressive. We are already submitting it to Microsoft so they can correct it in an upcoming update.

Really appreciate you pointing it out. The faster we hear about this kind of thing, the faster we can get it resolved. In the meantime everything is safe to use and the update should still fully complete even with that error. Once Microsoft pushes the fix the warnings should disappear.

Excellent, glad I could help and appreciate the quick response and confirmation on false positive.

[faeran]

A beta is out that should fix crashing issues when entering Big Box for users that are using a 30-series graphics card (and other cards that have issues with certain types of unstable hardware decoding). For users that were experiencing this issue, if you can confirm that the beta has solved this for you that would be wonderful.

[Madhead]

15 hours ago, faeran said:

There's both WMP and FFME, if you try whatever one you are not using and it's still happening, it's possible it's something else. If you do crash, check Event Viewer for the Windows application .NET errors and send us a report here: https://feedback.launchbox.gg/?b=679a6c5745a6e9cef9dabfce

That will help us track things down.

It doesn't crash using WMP. Only with FFM. I'm in Event viewer on Windows 10, can you tell me what to do and i'll send you a report. Cheers.

[faeran]

1 hour ago, Madhead said:

It doesn't crash using WMP. Only with FFM. I'm in Event viewer on Windows 10, can you tell me what to do and i'll send you a report. Cheers.

You'll need to go into Windows Logs > Application and find the error log that is a .NET application error. You'll usually find a group of 3 reports that deal with the crash. Also post your full hardware here as well.

[Headrush69]

2 hours ago, faeran said:

A beta is out that should fix crashing issues when entering Big Box for users that are using a 30-series graphics card (and other cards that have issues with certain types of unstable hardware decoding). For users that were experiencing this issue, if you can confirm that the beta has solved this for you that would be wonderful.

I have a 4060 and my issue was a complete freeze clicking on my second game with a video in LB. (Using FFPMEG, no issue with WMP)

First game chosen and video preview showed in game details tab. Click a different game and complete freeze of LB. Reproduceable on every start of LB. Not much info in Event Viewer.

This beta fixed my issue as well. Seems to be working as expected now.

 

[Madhead]

33 minutes ago, faeran said:

You'll need to go into Windows Logs > Application and find the error log that is a .NET application error. You'll usually find a group of 3 reports that deal with the crash. Also post your full hardware here as well.

I submitted a bug report, but found no where to include the error log in event viewer so I'll just put it here.

 

Application: LaunchBox.exe
CoreCLR Version: 9.0.525.21509
.NET Version: 9.0.5
Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.
Stack:
   at Unosquare.FFME.Container.MediaComponent.DecodeNextAVFrame()
   at Unosquare.FFME.Container.MediaComponent.ReceiveNextFrame()
   at System.Threading.Tasks.Parallel+<>c__DisplayClass32_0`2[[Unosquare.FFME.Common.MediaType, ffme.win, Version=7.0.361.1, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null],[System.__Canon, System.Private.CoreLib, Version=9.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7cec85d7bea7798e]].<ForEachWorker>b__0(Int32)
   at System.Threading.Tasks.Parallel+<>c__DisplayClass19_0`2[[System.__Canon, System.Private.CoreLib, Version=9.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7cec85d7bea7798e],[System.Int32, System.Private.CoreLib, Version=9.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7cec85d7bea7798e]].<ForWorker>b__1(System.Threading.Tasks.RangeWorker ByRef, Int64, Boolean ByRef)
   at System.Threading.Tasks.TaskReplicator+Replica.Execute()
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(System.Threading.ExecutionContext, System.Threading.ContextCallback, System.Object)
   at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.ExecuteWithThreadLocal(System.Threading.Tasks.Task ByRef, System.Threading.Thread)
   at System.Threading.Tasks.ThreadPoolTaskScheduler.TryExecuteTaskInline(System.Threading.Tasks.Task, Boolean)
   at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.InternalRunSynchronously(System.Threading.Tasks.TaskScheduler, Boolean)
   at System.Threading.Tasks.TaskReplicator.Run[[System.Threading.Tasks.RangeWorker, System.Threading.Tasks.Parallel, Version=9.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a]](ReplicatableUserAction`1<System.Threading.Tasks.RangeWorker>, System.Threading.Tasks.ParallelOptions, Boolean)
   at System.Threading.Tasks.Parallel.ForWorker[[System.__Canon, System.Private.CoreLib, Version=9.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7cec85d7bea7798e],[System.Int32, System.Private.CoreLib, Version=9.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7cec85d7bea7798e]](Int32, Int32, System.Threading.Tasks.ParallelOptions, System.Action`1<Int32>, System.Action`2<Int32,System.Threading.Tasks.ParallelLoopState>, System.Func`4<Int32,System.Threading.Tasks.ParallelLoopState,System.__Canon,System.__Canon>, System.Func`1<System.__Canon>, System.Action`1<System.__Canon>)
   at Unosquare.FFME.Engine.FrameDecodingWorker.ExecuteCycleLogic(System.Threading.CancellationToken)
   at Unosquare.FFME.Primitives.WorkerBase.ExecuteCyle()
   at Unosquare.FFME.Primitives.StepTimer+<>c__DisplayClass22_0.<ExecuteCallbacks>b__1()
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunFromThreadPoolDispatchLoop(System.Threading.Thread, System.Threading.ExecutionContext, System.Threading.ContextCallback, System.Object)
   at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.ExecuteWithThreadLocal(System.Threading.Tasks.Task ByRef, System.Threading.Thread)
   at System.Threading.ThreadPoolWorkQueue.Dispatch()
   at System.Threading.PortableThreadPool+WorkerThread.WorkerThreadStart()

 

And another log "Application Error":

 

Faulting application name: LaunchBox.exe, version: 13.23.0.0, time stamp: 0x67fe0000
Faulting module name: coreclr.dll, version: 9.0.525.21509, time stamp: 0x67fe9d00
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00000000002e5904
Faulting process ID: 0x2cc
Faulting application start time: 0x01dc144b082af26d
Faulting application path: G:\Emulators\LaunchBox\Core\LaunchBox.exe
Faulting module path: G:\Emulators\LaunchBox\Core\coreclr.dll
Report ID: 3a144205-89c5-40ab-81ba-0b64c306687e
Faulting package full name: 
Faulting package-relative application ID: 

 

Both logs were made 2 seconds after eachother.