Re: Command and Conquer Remastered -- Failed to launch

@rapple5454 The issue requiring the switch workaround that you're referring to was seemingly fixed by EA weeks ago. If you are getting the same error messages, then you are probably encountering the admin rights issue that has been discussed at length in this thread. Basically, you need to be logged in as an administrator and you need to have UAC set to high. Read back through the last couple of pages if you require more details.

As an aside though, just for your potential future reference, the below earlier post in this thread has step by step instructions and screenshots for accessing Manage / View properties etc:

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Command-Conquer-Games/Command-and-Conquer-Remastered-Failed-to-launch/m-p/12315120#M46716

Joining in, same issue.  None of the thread fixes seem to work for me, at least.    Same with others, Red Alert and Zero Hour worked just fine with Origin, but with EA app cannot quite get it to launch and do anything past the "hold up..." pop-up.

Summary of items I've tried with no avail

- Set UAC settings to LOW (did not solve)

- Set UAC settings to HIGH (did not solve)

- run EA app in Admin mode (did not solve)

- run game.exe in admin mode (did not solve)

- verified that my windows account is an admin, it's the only one (did not solve)

- added the "-REDALERT" to advanced properties (did not solve)

- uninstalled games and reinstalled (did not solve)

- uninstalled / resintalled EA desktop (did not solve)

- per EA help desk for C&C generals specifically - Locate your C&C Zero-Hour folder and find the file dbghelp.dll Delete the file, Attempt to start Generals again. (did no solve)

- per EA help desk - clear your cache https://help.ea.com/en/help/faq/clear-cache-to-fix-problems-with-your-games/ - (did not solve)

- per EA help desk - https://help.ea.com/en/help/origin/origin/your-vc-runtime-package-has-not-installed-correctly-error-troubleshooting/ (did not solve)

I'm attaching my perflog as a previous poster recommended.  I'm not sure what to look for but worth a shot posting.

@antpitt  There aren't any errors in your EA logs that point to the problem, so it doesn't appear to be related to the admin rights issue. Can you provide a bit more detail as to what is happening exactly when you launch each game? For example, when launching Generals, does the selection screen display asking you to choose Generals or Zero Hour? When launching, does the exe appear to run? Maybe you get a flash of a screen before it exits? What errors do you get?

@bleearghh thank you for glancing at my EA logs.   A bit more detail - when launching Generals or Red Alert, it never makes it to the normal game display to choose between Generals or Zero Hour (as it used to on Origin).  Instead, when I click launch, an EA pop up says "hold up, need permission, click ok to give".  When I click OK, it thinks for a couple seconds and then nothing happens, goes back to the EA desktop homepage.

I took a couple screenshots in order of what I see.   See attachments 1-3.  After screengrab 3, it goes back to screengrab 1.

@antpitt It looks like your game launcher exe is bombing out to me. Are you on Windows 11? I'd maybe try reinstalling the games away from Program Files, using an unrestricted folder instead. It's possible the exe is not gaining write access to that location.

@bleearghh I'm on Windows 10 Pro.    Interesting perspective - I did uninstall games and reinstalled away from Program Files and in an unrestricted My Documents folder instead.   Unfortunately the exact same error occurs.   🤔    I just can't figure out why it worked a month ago on Origin, and now the EA app mandatory install now won't launch it.

@antpitt Well the EA App is garbage and it's been plagued with issues. Some have gone back to Origin by editing an XML file to stop the forced migration. There's more discussion on that at below post:

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Command-Conquer-Games/Command-and-Conquer-Remastered-Failed-to-launch/m-p/12358680#M46892

Other than that, there's a bunch of other things that some users say have fixed issues with the EA App but you've probably tried most / all of them to no avail. Things like disabling in-game overlay in EA App, changing game resolution to match desktop in game ini file, re-applying any config / patches that you had to use in order to get game working on Origin, trying different compatibility settings on game launcher exe etc.

Oh and are there any application errors for the game launcher exe in your event logs? You might also see the launcher flash up in task manager briefly when you launch the game, which would  confirm that it's at least starting.

@bleearghh Thanks for pointing me to the event log.  I can trace the error to an activation.dll fault each time I attempt to launch the game.  Error snippet below.

Searching other forums for this topic doesn't seem to yield any fruitful solutions.   One recommends to use a NO-CD Crack to bypass - I'll look into it.

Faulting application name: Generals.exe, version: 1.0.0.1, time stamp: 0x50415093
Faulting module name: Activation.dll, version: 4.2.0.27, time stamp: 0x5032e444
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00001c50
Faulting process id: 0x1d70
Faulting application start time: 0x01d96410237f5c63
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\EA Games\Command and Conquer Generals Zero Hour\Generals.exe
Faulting module path: C:\PROGRA~2\EAGAME~1\COMMAN~1\Core\Activation.dll
Report Id: c1414cdf-20ec-46a7-a6da-208b123d19c5
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

@antpitt Yeh it doesn't look like there's an obvious fix. I'm guessing same thing happens if you run game directly from the launcher? It'll still then go via the EA app but you never know, worth a try.

Yeah, cracking the game to "free" it from the broken launcher starts to sound better and better. EA is literally forcing as to do it. They don't keep their side of the sales contract (deliver a working product), why should we? We have a right to play what we paid for. If it weren't for the risk of catching something ...