If you can't launch the game, try this... [ Edited ]

[Crusader765]

I have my answer. It was Windhawk- just a program that I was using to resize the Windows 11 taskbar buttons on my large display. 

I can only find one reference to Windhawk causing a game not to launch, but it was an EA game with the same symptoms as I've been having with F1:

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/Battlefield-2042-EA-Anticheat-Windhawk-game-doesn-t-launch/td-...

I suspect there are a lot of programs interfering with launching F1 24 and the permanent fix needs to come from EAs side. Having to rely on users to figure out the problem is ridiculous. Not being able to play a game for 5 days when I have paid for EA Pro monthly since it started is not acceptable. 

So I highly suggest closing every program you can and you will probably figure out what's causing it. 

[cerveau32]

@Crusader765 very nice info and something to look into on my system
I to paid for early access and have not yet even played the game.

[xahmol]

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@ppparkinson9 wrote:

So after all that it was Bitfender. I'm an idiot. But in case it hslps anyone create exceptions for F124.exe for the various protection programs in Bitdefender and it might work.

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Interesting, as I do have Bitdefender.

What kind of exceptions did you make?

will look into this this afternoon (no time this morning).

But as an IT security professional, programs that need AV or Windows integrity controls disabled sound very fishy to me. They should then still fix that even if the workaround works.

Especially as this is my sons laptop, need AV (and lack of admin rights) alsofo protect him from himself doing stupid things….

(did check if it would run logging in with my admin account by the way, still does not work, so lack of admin rights at least was not the issue apart from needing my password once in the first time anti cheat starts)

[ppparkinson9]

With a bit of trial and error the culprit appears to be Advanced Threat Defense, I had exemptions on Antivirus and Advanced Threat Defence. Removed the exemption from Antivirus- it booted up, removed the exemption from Advanced Threat Defense it threw me out to the EA App as usual.

Bear in mind I have also taken the other steps such as moving the install to the C:/ drive, making the exemptions for Exploit Protection.

Now I've run into the resolution issue but at least i can now get into the game. 

[cerveau32]

WOW Man, After days of this game not even working once, doing what you said ie

Adding an exception to "Advanced Threat Defence"  in BitDefender for the "EA AntiCheat Launcher.exe" and the game worked immediately.

THANK YOU for succeeding where EA failed

[EA_Groguet]

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@ppparkinson9 wrote:

So after all that it was Bitfender. I'm an idiot. But in case it hslps anyone create exceptions for F124.exe for the various protection programs in Bitdefender and it might work.

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Thank you very much for messaging your workaround. I'm going to edit my message on the first page and add yours with the others.

Hopefully, this helps players with the same issue.

-Groguet

[ppparkinson9]

Welll that's interesting, my exemptions were for F124.exe, but applying it to EAAntiCheat might work too.

[evil_mercenary]

sadly still no luck thus far for me using these 

[xahmol]

Thanks! But will be tomorrow before I can try, my son is all engaged in another game j9w 😉

[ovni_007]

I was having a different problem and finally got the game to launch. I was getting the error where it said that the game could not be activated on my computer (screenshot attached) . I did a whole lot of things and don't know which one fix it since i didn't do them one at a time. Below are the steps i took to get it working: 

*I had the game installed on a different drive other than the C:\, so i uninstalled it.

*Re-installed the game on the root of the C:/.

*deleted all the EA related folders with the exception of the one that had the EA app files to run.

  - C:\Program Files\EA

  - C:\Program Files\EA Games

  - If there are any EA folders in C:\Program Files (x86), delete them.

  - C:\ProgramData\EA Desktop

  - C:\ProgramData\eaanticheat

  - C:\ProgramData\Electronic Arts

  -C:\ProgramData\Origin

* Re-started my computer

*  Installed the original origin app from here:  https://download.dm.origin.com/origin/live/OriginSetup.exe

* logged in and it detected i had the EA App installed, i chose to update the app, it automatically un-installed the origin app and launched the ea app 

* i clicked the play button on the f1 24 game, got the splash screen, asked me if i wanted to play vr or non vr version, it successfully opened the game.

that is what got me to be able to play the game on the error from the screenshot, may work for others.