DW2 only working when launched as admin

[MorningDew]

Since the most recent update, I have to run DW2 as administrator. I cannot launch from Steam - it never appears. But if I run as administrator from file explorer it works.

Any suggestions?

[MaximKI]

Hey thanks for the report! We've noticed that some users are having issues launching DW2 and other titles due to a possible launcher issue that we're currently investigating. We've updated the Steam launch procedure where now you can choose whether to launch the game directly or you'd like the launcher.

If you're having launch issues that may be related to the Matrix/Slitherine game launcher please reach out to our support team here: support@matrixgames.com, so that they may help troubleshoot with you and help resolve this issue.

[Trumend]

I am having the same issue. I note that Steam is not giving me an option regarding the use of the launcher.

[MaximKI]

I am having the same issue. I note that Steam is not giving me an option regarding the use of the launcher.

Could you please check the games Logs folders found here: \Distant Worlds 2\data\Logs and see if there are Crash Dump files you could share with us? We'd like to confirm if there are particular files being caled in the crashes.

Regarding the launcher - the Slitherine game launcher has been disabled as that has caused issues for users on NVIDIA GeForce Now. At some point we intend to reactivate the launcher.

[Trumend]

There is a 100 KB Session Log from 18 Oct. There is a 0KB PlaceHolder log from 27 Oct.

The last DW2_CrashDump log was 13-10-2026 and has 1KB size. Haven't figured out how to send it on this forum.

[Trumend]

sent separately via e-mail