Submit Feedback

SE launching issues + errors with saving world

Mark shared this bug ago

Investigating

Hello,

Since yesterday I started having issues running SE. The game launches as expected when Win11 has been restarted, but if the game has been closed it will only start up again as a background proccess. No error messages, just a background proccess in task manager. Only after another full system restart will the game launch propperly (one time).

Additionally I get an error when I save a world, saying it has no access to the save location. However the changes are actually saved. Deleting a blueprint instantly crashes the game.

I have attempted a clean re-install of SE.

- Made backups of blueprints and save files

- Unsubscribed form workshop mods and scripts

- Uninstalled SE via Steam

- Deleted remaining files in Steamapps/Common and AppData/Roaming

- Restarted the pc

- Reinstalled SE via Steam

- Restarted PC because game would not load

- Found that the config SpaceEngineers.cfg did not install

- Ran Steam file integrity verification (no change)

- Installed SE on laptop to get a fresh .cfg file

- Copied .cfg file to the PC and corrected the screen resolution data

- Restarted the PC

- Started SE, loaded a fresh word and made a BP

- Placed back the backup BPs and World saves

I have also have made other attempts to find a fix

- Ran SE as administrator (No luck, only runs as background task)

- Updated Nvidia Drivers

- Ran Windows Updates

- Used the .Net fixing tool

- Uninstalled EasyAntiCheat (allong with Sea of Thieves)

- Turned off Windows Core Isolation features (and turned them back on when it didn't help)

- Edit: I also turned off Nvidia/ Steam and Discord overlays

The issues keep persisting as discribed above.

I have attached 2 log files. One is when the game does launch after a restart, and the other when I try to run SE a second time, but it only launches as a background task.

I don't know what else to do in this case. I love Space Engineers and have played it for 1800 hours without issues.

Files:

Merged Objects

Alex Rice

Game won't launch to main menu/need help

could one of your programmers or devs help me? all of a sudden your game refuses to load into the main menu. I've tried running it on 2 different computers but oddly enough the problem persisted even on a different computer that had never had SE installed before. everything says it's running but it's not showing on the taskbar, not displaying any cpu activity on task manager, it just sits there. both computers I've tried have windows 11 pro and similar hardware. both gpus I've tested with are nvidia RTX 2080s. I've tested with as much as 64gb ram and it didn't make a difference. I've tried everything from simple steps all the way to fresh install but the problem is still there. I've updated the gpu drivers to latest but that only gave me one successful load in before the problem came right back again. please see my attached log file for what good it will do but maybe you'll find something that myself or others have missed. it was working just fine 2 nights ago and then microsoft updated my computer and SE hasn't worked reliably since. however, this seems to be the only game affected as I can load other games with no problems. it's just SE that goes funky when I try to load it to the main menu. it doesn't even make it past the window creation step (no splash screen/music). if you need more details, I can send you specs on both computers if I haven't provided enough details. I have played for 39 hours before this issue became an issue AND have also sunk about $200CAD into your game and dlcs so I'd like it if you are able to help me get it working again so that it' s not a waste of all that money. we are on disability so that was a LOT of money for us to spend! please help asap

Shadow

My Space Engineers game will not launch

Hello Keen support team, I hope this finds you well. About 2 days ago while I was playing Space Engineers, my game suddenly booted me to my home desktop screen. I tried to load the game again and was able to launch the game and tried loading the world I was previously playing on and when the loading screen reached 100% the game booted me back to my home desktop screen again. Now, when I try to launch the game, it says on steam that the game is running, but no tab appears for Space Engineers that shows the game is actually open. I have tried virtually everything under the sun to get the game working again, and on two occasions while deleting files, fixing GPU and other things, the game did manage to launch twice for me, and when I loaded a new world and gave mod.io consent and left the world to the home screen on space engineers, then exited to windows, I try to load the game again and find myself having the same issues of the game saying its running on steam, but does not have a tab open for the game. I have also uninstalled and reinstalled the game twice to no avail. I would love to have some help with this as I have run out of all options on what to do.

Thank you for your time

Sincerely: Shadow

Anderson Zú

The game wont start on Steam.

Since yesterday I installed the game and tried to play it. I hadn’t played it since last year, but the game won’t open at all. I verified the files, checked the drivers, and the Windows updates, and still nothing worked. Here is the log—please help me fix this. Please!!!!

David Schenkel

Space Engineers only runs in the background on PC (Steam)

SE was running well. I added in some DLC's and Automatic LCDs from the Steam Workshop. Those worked worked as expected. A few days later on April 15 I wanted to load Toolbar Manager (doing some automation work using timers and the toolbar - note I'm not on the C sharp learning curve yet...). To do that I installed Pulsar, and so it could load Toolbar Manager from GitHub. This also loaded and worked. Pulsar got launched each time I ran SE. During this period the PC got restared several times.

At some point late on April 15 launching SE did not work as it always launched SE into a background process in windows. Considering that this might have been caused by Pulsar, Toolbar Manager, DLC's or Automatic LCD's, I removed all of them (including all references to Pulsar and the pulsar launch string in Steam), to no effect.

I then backed up my games saves, blueprints and the .cfg file and then uninstalled SE on steam. I then deleted all references to SE by deleting A:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\SpaceEngineers and C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Roaming\SpaceEngineers.

I then re-installed SE on Steam. This however didn't fix the problem as SE still ran in the Background (with all the ).

Looked at the log file and it indicated that there was no config file, so I copied the old config file into C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Roaming\SpaceEngineers, and relaunched SE. The log file then showed that the config file was used, but SE still ran in the background.

Finally, repeated the entire sequence of uninstalling SE followed by uninstalling steam, then reloading steam, installing SE, and copying the confg file. This also did not resolve the problem.

Finally, I tried a reboot of the PC, which also had not effect.

I note that Windows 11 did install two security updates on April 15, which probably got done during one of the restarts. I can't remember the exact sequence of events (updates duriing reboots seemingly normal...). The two updates were:

2026-04 Security Update (KB5083769) (26200.8246)
2026-04 .NET Framework Security Update (KB5082417)

The windows version most recently on March 25, 2026 was:

Windows 11, version 25H2 (repair version)

So, I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to proceed to get SE working again... I'm in withdrawl, as I was just about to finish my mobile mining rig...

I'd be grateful for any assistance you can provide to help me get SE running again.

I didn't see anything like an error in the log files, but if you need anything, please just ask and I'll send it.

David Schenkel...

christopher Johnson

SE 1 Won't launch unless I restart my PC

I have done all the following: reinstalled, deleted shadercache, deleted .cfg, tried administrator for steam launch, updated gpu drivers. The only time the game will launch is after a restart the game will launch, however if I close the game and try to launch (without restarting) SE won't load.

Brenden

Space Engineers won't start/runs in background

Good day,

Space Engineers will no longer start for me. It looks like a config file is not generating on game launch. I've tried all the usual troubleshooting steps including fresh install. I heard the issues could be related to a recent .Net framework update for windows 11. Hopefully someone can help with a solution for this issue. Below is my log file for reference. Thank you.

2026-04-19 14:22:22.689 - Thread: 1 -> Log Started

2026-04-19 14:22:22.689 - Thread: 1 -> Timezone (local - UTC): -7h

2026-04-19 14:22:22.689 - Thread: 1 -> App Version: 01_208_015

2026-04-19 14:22:22.714 - Thread: 1 -> Is official: True [NO][IS][NAMP]

2026-04-19 14:22:22.714 - Thread: 1 -> Branch / Sandbox: SVN

2026-04-19 14:22:22.714 - Thread: 1 -> Client Build Number: 4

2026-04-19 14:22:22.714 - Thread: 1 -> Server Build Number: 4

2026-04-19 14:22:22.714 - Thread: 1 -> Environment.ProcessorCount: 8

2026-04-19 14:22:22.738 - Thread: 1 -> Environment.OSVersion: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro (Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.26200.0)

2026-04-19 14:22:22.739 - Thread: 1 -> Environment.CommandLine: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SpaceEngineers\Bin64\SpaceEngineers.exe"

2026-04-19 14:22:22.739 - Thread: 1 -> Environment.Is64BitProcess: True

2026-04-19 14:22:22.739 - Thread: 1 -> Environment.Is64BitOperatingSystem: True

2026-04-19 14:22:22.739 - Thread: 1 -> Environment.Version: .NET Framework 4.8.9325.0

2026-04-19 14:22:22.739 - Thread: 1 -> Environment.CurrentDirectory: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SpaceEngineers\Bin64

2026-04-19 14:22:22.741 - Thread: 1 -> CPU Info: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 8-Core Processor

2026-04-19 14:22:22.741 - Thread: 1 -> Default Culture:

2026-04-19 14:22:22.741 - Thread: 1 -> Default UI Culture:

2026-04-19 14:22:22.743 - Thread: 1 -> MyConfig.Load() - START

2026-04-19 14:22:22.744 - Thread: 1 -> Path: C:\Users\Brenden\AppData\Roaming\SpaceEngineers\SpaceEngineers.cfg

2026-04-19 14:22:22.744 - Thread: 1 -> Config file not found! C:\Users\Brenden\AppData\Roaming\SpaceEngineers\SpaceEngineers.cfg

2026-04-19 14:22:22.745 - Thread: 1 -> NewNewGameScreen: False

2026-04-19 14:22:22.745 - Thread: 1 -> MyConfig.Load() - END

I have the same bug

Best Answer

Keen SWH QA Agent 1 ●

Hello Engineer,

Thank you for reaching out and for the detailed description.

We have identified that this behavior may be related to a recent Windows 11 update (KB5083769). Our QA team experienced the same issue, and removing this update resolved the problem on our side.

As a temporary workaround, you can try the following:

Open Settings → Windows Update → Update history
Select Uninstall updates
Locate KB5083769 and uninstall it
Restart your PC

Please note that this is only a workaround, and removing Windows updates may have other implications. We recommend reinstalling the update once a permanent fix is available.

In the meantime, we are continuing to investigate the root cause.

Kind Regards,

Ludmila Danilchenko

Head of Space Engineers QA Department

Replies (5)

Space Engineers Support ●

Hello!

Thank you for contacting us. Since this is a bug report, I'm moving your ticket to our support page, where our QA team will take care of you.

Kind Regards,

Keen Software House

Reply URL

TheRebornAce ●

Seems the new Windows 11 Net Framework update from Apr 14 is the main culprit. Not sure if that is something that SE needs to fix or Microsoft.

Right now, the work around to this issue is to roll back your windows before this update and your game should launch properly.

Reply URL

David Schenkel ●

Followup with a bit more info...

Removing the .cfg file doesn't cause SE to generate a new one or present the install options for .NET framework etc.. I originally used the newer experimental .NET framework (10,11???) for potential better performance. When I had problems, I think I may have selected version 4. I had thought to review the choice of .NET, but it now donesn't appear when I now re-install SE.

Is there anyway to forece SE to present the installation options?

Reply URL

TheRebornAce ●

This is a Windows 11 and AMD related issue. A new Windows 11 update came out recently and all AMD users seem to be the only ones affected. The current workaround is to uninstall the most recent Windows 11 updates until a true fix comes out.

Reply URL

Mark ●

Thank you for sharing this. I'm running an Intel i7-13700K though. I might still try uninstalling recent Win11 updates if there are no other suggestions.

URL

Keen SWH QA Agent 1 ● ●

Hello Engineer,

Thank you for reaching out and for the detailed description.

We have identified that this behavior may be related to a recent Windows 11 update (KB5083769). Our QA team experienced the same issue, and removing this update resolved the problem on our side.

As a temporary workaround, you can try the following:

Open Settings → Windows Update → Update history
Select Uninstall updates
Locate KB5083769 and uninstall it
Restart your PC

Please note that this is only a workaround, and removing Windows updates may have other implications. We recommend reinstalling the update once a permanent fix is available.

In the meantime, we are continuing to investigate the root cause.

Kind Regards,

Ludmila Danilchenko

Head of Space Engineers QA Department

Reply URL

Mark ●

Thank you, this workaround fixed all issues!

URL