7 Ways You Can Fix Fortnite Not Launching on a Windows PC

Fortnite is one of the most popular battle royale games for Windows PCs. However, some players can’t play Fortnite when that game crashes at launch. For example, one player’s Reddit post reported Fortnite not starting as follows: “Every time I try to launch Fortnite, it shows the initial splash screen then closes and opens the Epic Launcher again.” In many cases, Fortnite doesn’t show an error message when it doesn’t start. These are some ways to fix Fortnite not launching on a Windows 11/10 PC.

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Set Epic Games to Run as Administrator

Setting the Epic Games Launcher to run as an administrator is a potential resolution that has fixed Fortnite not launching for some players. You can apply this possible fix by permanently setting Epic Games to run with elevated privileges like this.

1. Right-click your Epic Games Launcher shortcut on the Windows 11/10 desktop and select Properties. If you don’t have a shortcut, you’ll need to select the Properties context menu option for the EpicGamesLauncher.exe file in this default folder location: C:\Program Files (x86)\Epic Games\Launcher\Portal\Binaries\Win32\.
2. Click Compatibility in the window’s tab bar.
3. Select the checkbox with the Run this program as an administrator label.
   
   

   The Run this program as an administrator option

4. Press Apply and click OK to set the new compatibility option for Epic Games Launcher.

Verify Fortnite’s Game Files

Selecting to verify Fortnite will run a scan that repairs corrupted game files, which can fix a wide variety of technical issues. Epic Games Launcher has a Verify option you can select to apply this potential solution. Check out this Epic help page for step-by-step instructions about how to verify files.

The Verify button

Select New Compatibility Settings for Fortnite

Selecting new compatibility settings for Fortnite EXE files means running the game in compatibility mode with fullscreen optimization disabled. Some Fortnite players who’ve applied this resolution confirm it fixed the game not starting. This is how you can select new compatibility settings for Fortnite.

1. Click the File Explorer shortcut within the Windows taskbar to open the Win64 binaries folder at this default path: C:\Program Files\Epic Games\Fortnite\FortniteGame\Binaries\Win64\.
2. Click the FortniteClient-Win64-Shipping.exe file with the right mouse button to select a Properties context menu option.
3. Go to the Compatibility tab in the FortniteClient-Win64-Shipping.exe Properties window.
4. Select Run this program in compatibility mode and the Windows 8 platform in the drop-down menu for that setting.
5. Next, click on the Disable fullscreen optimization checkbox to select it.
   
   

   The Run this program in compatibility mode setting

6. Click Apply to set all the compatibility options selected.
7. Close the FortniteClient-Win64-Shipping.exe Properties window by clicking OK.
8. Repeat steps two to seven for the FortniteLauncher.exe, FortniteClient-Win64-Shipping-EAC.exe, and FortniteClient-Win64-Shipping_BE.exe files in the same folder.

Repair Easy Anti-Cheat

Easy Anti-Cheat is one of the foremost anti-cheat services for multiplayer games required for Fortnite. Fortnite can often fail to start because of Easy Anti-Cheat issues. So, repairing that anti-cheat service might also fix Fortnite not launching on your PC. This is how you can repair Easy Anti-Cheat.

1. Bring up the Explorer window for navigating folders and open this directory location: C:\Program Files\Epic Games\Fortnite\FortniteGame\Binaries\Win64\EasyAntiCheat_Kamu.
   
   

   The EasyAntiCheat_Setup.exe file

2. Double-click on the EasyAntiCheat_Setup.exe file to bring up an Easy Anti-Cheat Service Setup window.
3. Select Current (Game 217) in the drop-down menu.
   
   

   The Repair Service button

4. Click on the Repair Service button.

Close Discord Before Playing Fortnite

Some players say they’ve fixed Fortnite not starting by closing Discord with Task Manager before starting the game. Do you have Discord installed on your PC? If so, make sure Discord isn’t running the background like this.

1. To activate Task Manager, press the Ctrl + Shift + Esc keyboard key combination.
2. Look for Discord on the processes tab.
3. Right-click any Discord process and select End task.
   
   

   The End task option

4. Try starting Fortnite after closing the Discord background app.

Set Fortnite to Run with DirectX 11

Some players need to fix Fortnite not launching because that game is set to start with DirectX 12 enabled. However, players can’t access Fortnite’s graphics settings to set DirectX 11 when the game doesn’t start. You can still force that game to run with DirectX 11 by setting a launch option in Epic Games Launcher like this.

1. Run the Epic Games Launcher app.
2. Click the user profile button to select Settings.
   
   

   The Settings menu option

3. Scroll down and click on Fortnite.
4. Select Additional Command Line Arguments to activate the launch option box.
   
   

   The Additional Command Line Arguments setting

5. Input d3d11 in the launch option box.

Install the Latest Visual C++ Runtimes

Fortnite needs certain Visual C++ Redistributable packages and runtime libraries to run. So, you might need to repair or install missing Visual C++ libraries to fix Fortnite not launching. This is how you can fix install or repair Visual C++ 2015-2022 runtime libraries.

1. Start the Edge web browser and open the Microsoft download page for Visual C++ Redistributable packages.
2. Click the X64 and X86 Visual Studio 2015-2022 download links to download 64 and 32-bit packages.
   
   

   The Visual C++ 2015-2022 download page

3. Activate Edge’s downloaded file list by pressing Ctrl + J.
4. Click the VC_redist.x64.exe file to open the 64-bit Microsoft Visual C++ window.
5. Next, click the checkbox for the I agree to the license terms option.
6. Select the Install or Repair option available.
   
   

   The Install option for Visual C++ 2015-2022

7. Repeat those steps for the downloaded 32-bit VC_redist.x86.exe file.
8. Restart Windows 11/10 after updating or repairing Visual C++ runtime libraries.

Other Ways to Fix Fortnite Not Launching on a Windows PC

The possible solutions above aren’t the only ways to fix Fortnite not launching. These are some extra troubleshooting methods for Fortnite startup issues worth trying:

• Execute the sfc /scannow command inside Command Prompt to scan and repair Windows system files. This Microsoft System File Checker page provides further details about how to utilize that command-line tool.
• Uninstall and reinstall your Fortnite game via Epic Games Launcher.
• Troubleshoot Fortnite’s compatibility by right-clicking the FortniteLauncher.exe file and selecting Troubleshoot compatibility.
• Set firewalls to allow Fortnite through them. This Microsoft help webpage explains how users can add apps to the built-in Windows 11/10 firewall.
• Set the EasyAntiCheat_Setup.exe file to always run as an administrator. Follow the instructions in this Microsoft help guide to clean boot your Windows PC.

Fixing Fornite startup issues can sometimes be tricky. However, applying the potential resolutions here will likely fix Fortnite not launching because they’ve worked for lots of players. I recommend getting in touch with Epic’s support service by clicking Contact Us on this help page if Fortnite still doesn’t start after applying all the troubleshooting methods above.