Win 11 Launch problem fix if needed

[zenmaster]

Hi, cross posted this to Civ5 main forum in BillyB's thread re: Win 11 issues--

Since the latest Win 11 update, game wouldn't launch. Searched Steam forums which took me to reddit for this fix. It worked for me.

Hope it helps those of you looking for a quick fix. You can search reddit if need be for further details.
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What's happening​

When clicking 'Play', Steam will try to update the Civilization V executable files, which is necessary due to the removal of the 2K launcher. However, this process will fail most of the time, because it will not update all 3 necessary executables (sometimes, it doesn't update any of them). This will prevent the game from launching.

Fix​

1. Go to the Civilization V folder on your PC (in Steam: Select Civilization V in your library -> Gear icon -> Manage -> Browse local files).
2. In this folder, there are three executables named CivilizationV.exe CivilizationV_DX11.exe and CivilizationV_Tablet.exe (there's also a fourth one called Launcher.exe which you can ignore). These are the three executables which need to be updated by Steam.
3. Remove these three executables completely.
4. After removing the executables, go to Steam and verify the game files (select Civilization V in your library -> Gear icon -> Properties -> Installed Files -> Verify integrity of game files). This process will re-download the three executables. Note: the game won't work yet, this is just a way to keep track of the updating process.
5. After verifying the files, you should see the three executables again in the Civilization V folder. Take note of the time at which these files were modified, which will make the next steps a bit easier. Keep this folder open for now.
6. Now, try to launch the game normally via Steam. You can select any of the DirectX versions.
7. When the game is being launched, pay attention to the Civilization V folder and look for any changes to the executables. Sometimes you will see that one of the three executables will be updated. You can verify this by looking at the time at which an executable got modified; if the file is newer than the previously downloaded executables, it has been updated.
8. Wait until you can press 'Play' again.
9. Repeat steps 6-8 until all three executables have been updated. (For me this took 10-15 tries).
10. When all three executables have been updated, you can launch the game again and it should boot right up.

Tips​

• If you successfully managed to update one or two of the executables, but the last one doesn't want to update: Copy the updated executables to a place that you can find them again, then do steps 1-9 again. The goal is to let Steam also update the remaining executable. When that happens, you can copy the two earlier updated executables back to the Civilization V folder. The game should now boot.
• I tried to untick the mark next to the 'Read-only' box inside the properties of the folder while performing these steps. Not sure if this actually worked, but if none of the executables are being updated, you can try to do the same by right-clicking on an empty area in the Civilization V folder -> Properties -> untick the 'Read-only' check inside the General tab.