Fallout 4 won't start on my main Windows account, but WILL start on a test account. How do I fix this?

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Fallout 4 won't start on my main Windows account, but WILL start on a test account. How do I fix this?

Anonymous

Hi all,

Got an interesting issue I've been working with Bethesda support to solve, and I've reached the limit of their expertise. Hopefully this will be an easy fix, as you'll soon see.

I recently overhauled my PC, reinstalled my games, and tried to run Fallout 4 from Steam on my new setup. No dice: the game wouldn't even start, the green "Play" button in Steam would just turn to the blue "Stop" button for about 15 seconds, then revert back. I checked that my setup met Fallout 4's minimum requirements, then went back and forth with Bethesda support to try the usual suspects: deleting the .ini files (already done), testing the RAM (clean), uninstalling and reinstalling multiple times (no luck and got a funny nastygram from my ISP).

Then their level 3 support asked me an interesting question: "Have you tried making a second Windows account on your computer and running it from there?"

Bam. Fallout 4 loaded and ran flawlessly.

So, now I have an interesting problem. This isn't a hardware issue, nor is it a driver issue: it's specifically an issue with how Windows 11's accounts interact with Fallout 4. My machine can run Fallout 4 just fine, but only if I run it on a second Windows account, not my main one.

Since this is an inconvenient way to access the game — and since Bethesda doesn't have the knowledge base necessary to figure out this problem — I would like to ask the Microsoft community if they've ever run into this problem before? And how exactly did you solve it?

Just to get things out of the way:

Windows 11 Home Edition
B650 AORUS Elite AX motherboard
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X CPU
64 GB of RAM
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER graphics card
Both Fallout 4 and Windows 11 installed on Samsung 980 2 TB SSD
Both Fallout 4 and Windows 11 have the most recent updates

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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4 answers

Answer 1

Hi Welcome to Microsoft community.I understand the issue you’re experiencing with Fallout 4 not starting on your main Windows account, while it works perfectly on a test account. That’s definitely a puzzling situation!To clarify, is this problem only happening with Fallout 4, are other games running fine on your main account? If it’s just Fallout 4, here are a few steps you can try:Delete Fallout 4 Configuration Files: Navigate to C:\Users[YourUsername]\Documents\My Games and delete the Fallout4 folder (make sure to back it up first). This will reset any configuration settings that might be causing issues.Change Steam to Offline Mode: Setting Steam to offline mode, go to Fallout 4's properties in Steam, click on the "General" tab, and under "Steam Cloud", uncheck "Enable Steam Cloud synchronization for Fallout 4". This is to prevent any conflicts between your cloud saves and local saves.Run the Game: After making these changes, *try launching Fallout 4 again. This should allow the game to create new configuration files.*Restore Your Saves: If the game runs successfully, you can copy your backed-up save files back into C:\Users[YourUsername]\Documents\My Games\Fallout4\Saves. Just make sure to only copy the files that start with "SAVE".If you continue to have issues, especially with the initial installation or if errors appear, you might also want to use the game file verification feature in Steam.Please let me know if you need further assistance. I’m here to help!Best regardsDerrick Qian | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Answer 2

Lester Bernard Reyes 79,430 Independent Advisor

Hi Mark, thank you for your detailed reply, and I do apologize it didn't work on your end, but there is nothing to worry other advisors can take a look at it and will share some other ways that can fix the issue.

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Answer 3

Hi Bernard, thanks for your quick reply.

I tried both the clean boot and the in-place update. I was able to perform both tasks without any additional issues, but neither method solved the problem; Fallout 4 still immediately crashes on the main account. What should I try next?

Answer 4

Hi Mark, thanks for reaching out. My name is Bernard a Windows fan like you. I'll be happy to help you out today, my timezone is UTC +8.

I understand the issue you have, there is nothing to worry I am here to help, based on your inputs, it is happening because the new account has less configuration and apps running in the background, one of the root causes of this issue is that the older account has more applications running in the background than the fresh account you have created, in this case, I suggest doing these sets of steps to the older account which you are having an issue:

Method 1. Do clean boot:

A “clean boot” starts Windows with a minimal set of drivers and startup programs, so that you can determine whether a background program is interfering with your game or program.

In the search box on the taskbar, type msconfig and select System Configuration from the results.
On the Services tab of System Configuration, select Hide all Microsoft services, and then select Disable all.
On the Startup tab of System Configuration, select Open Task Manager.
Under Startup in Task Manager, for each startup item, select the item and then select Disable.
Close Task Manager.
On the Startup tab of System Configuration, select OK. When you restart the computer, it's in a clean boot environment.

Troubleshooting reference: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929135...

If none will work from the above solution, I suggest doing an in-place upgrade wherein it will upgrade the device to the latest version and repair all issues without deleting any files.

Kindly follow the steps from this link:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/for...

Let me know how it goes and I hope that helps.

Bernard

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Fallout 4 won't start on my main Windows account, but WILL start on a test account. How do I fix this?

4 answers