unable to load launchbox after update

[mrbigjonstud]

so a little background info, windows 10 if that matters and I'm pretty tech savvy about fixing application issues.
I have not been able to update launchbox since about a full year.  I can load it just fine using v13.18  and I have tried many different updates since then including the last one 13.24 .  if I click the main exe nothing happens, no errors, no crashes, it just sits there.  also verified it's not running in task mgr or anything.
I checked a few guides that mentioned something about a dotnet compatibility issue with certain plugins but I have no clue how to troubleshoot that. 
also my logs folder is empty currently. I tried rebuilding my settings.xml file, but same issue.

for now all I can do is downgrade it back to v13.18 and it works perfectly.

any ideas I can try to fix this? 
thanks for any help you can offer.

[AstroBob]

Hiya, thanks for the report here. Let's try a few things to get you sorted: 

- Regarding plugins, if you navigate to your LaunchBox directory and then temporarily move your Plugins directory to a different location, does that allow LaunchBox to load?

[mrbigjonstud]

well I actually tried that with no luck.  as another idea, I installed 13.25 freshly to a test folder (meaning a new library , no plugins) just to see if it loads but I have the same issue.
I checked event viewer and regardless of the versions 13.24 or 13.25 I get a similar error. 

copying my info below

Log Name:      Application
Source:        Application Error
Date:          1/28/2026 9:34:28 AM
Event ID:      1000
Task Category: (100)
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      DESKTOP-****
Description:
Faulting application name: LaunchBox.exe, version: 13.25.0.0, time stamp: 0x69340000
Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 10.0.19041.1706, time stamp: 0x458acb5b
Exception code: 0xc0000602
Fault offset: 0x000000000010fa32
Faulting process id: 0x7404
Faulting application start time: 0x01dc906b9709fdb8
Faulting application path: E:\LaunchBox-latest\Core\LaunchBox.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\System32\KERNELBASE.dll
Report Id: dc8075f0-0331-4333-b4d5-1fb383e6628e
Faulting package full name: 
Faulting package-relative application ID: 
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="Application Error" />
    <EventID Qualifiers="0">1000</EventID>
    <Version>0</Version>
    <Level>2</Level>
    <Task>100</Task>
    <Opcode>0</Opcode>
    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2026-01-28T15:34:28.4810789Z" />
    <EventRecordID>285201</EventRecordID>
    <Correlation />
    <Execution ProcessID="0" ThreadID="0" />
    <Channel>Application</Channel>
    <Computer>DESKTOP-J34L2TO</Computer>
    <Security />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data>LaunchBox.exe</Data>
    <Data>13.25.0.0</Data>
    <Data>69340000</Data>
    <Data>KERNELBASE.dll</Data>
    <Data>10.0.19041.1706</Data>
    <Data>458acb5b</Data>
    <Data>c0000602</Data>
    <Data>000000000010fa32</Data>
    <Data>7404</Data>
    <Data>01dc906b9709fdb8</Data>
    <Data>E:\LaunchBox-latest\Core\LaunchBox.exe</Data>
    <Data>C:\Windows\System32\KERNELBASE.dll</Data>
    <Data>dc8075f0-0331-4333-b4d5-1fb383e6628e</Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
  </EventData>
</Event>

[AstroBob]

Okay, thanks for that. The fact a new install exhibits the same issue and the fact that that error is pointing to a .dll makes me thinking Windows has a lock on one of the core files needed for LaunchBox to run. 

Can you run this command in powershell on your LaunchBox directory. This will bulk unblock files via powershell

Quote

Get-ChildItem "C:\Your\Folder\Path" -Recurse | Unblock-File

To be safe, run it on the new test install that you created first to see if it helps.

Keep me posted

[mrbigjonstud]

well I ran that admin powershell command for my test install of launchbox, sadly no changes, it doesn't even start to load.