Game Freezing on launch

First off... I have thousands of hours playing SE, so it's ran on this computer perfectly fine before.

As of about 4 months ago, this is a fresh windows 7 pro sp1 install. So there was no leftover SE files.

Before i attempted to install & run SE, all my steam and non-steam games run perfectly. Still do.

When i went to install SE, during the process it said i needed to install .net 4.8, it prompted me, then proceeded to install.

I then restarted Steam & my PC.

Every time i launch SE, it seems to be going correctly... i get the splash screen... cursor hourglass as if its loading... then it just sits there forever with the SE splash screen up with no progression.

It has NEVER advanced past that SE splash screen. Not once.

Upon checking, I dont believe a config file has been created due to not fully launching.

The game doesnt throw an error, i left it while it loaded and came back an hour later and was still on the splash screen.

I've checked the event viewer and as soon as i click on the splash screen, Im given windows crash options to close SE or wait for it to respond, THEN an error pops up in event viewer that it was an Application Hang'(copy/pasted details at bottom)

Things i have tried:

1.) Uninstalled & reinstalled all the .net packages, including running 2 different .net wipe tools.

2.) Uninstalled & reinstalled DirectX.

3.) Steam file integrity check(2-3 times).

4.) SE uninstall & reinstall(manually deleting ALL SE files leftover in between installs).

5.) Tried installing on a mechanical and a SSD.

6.) Updated graphics card drivers even though they were updated.

7.) Tried launching on a different monitor with different resolutions.

8.) Ran spyware & virus check. System clean. ( I dont have ANY antivirus installed, so thats not the issue).

9.) Read many threads/posts/etc on what to do to fix this, tried many solutions and no change, such as:

- Changing windows sound quality level.

- Launching from within steam folder

- Launching as Sys Admin

- Launching in compatibility modes

- Forcing windowed mode via steam launch options.

- Forcing different resolutions via steam launch options.

- Forcing config reset via steam launch options.

- Closing unnecessary programs prior to launch.

- And more im sure im not thinking of this second.

Usually im pretty dam good at fixing issues with games not running, but im stumped here.

Any help at all in fixing this would be greatly appreciated. :)

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The program SpaceEngineers.exe version 1.0.0.0 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed. To see if more information about the problem is available, check the problem history in the Action Center control panel.

Process ID: cc8

Start Time: 01d6428ccd114a08

Termination Time: 26

Application Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SpaceEngineers\Bin64\SpaceEngineers.exe

Report Id: 19b1c76e-ae80-11ea-abeb-74d435408769

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