Top 5 Methods to Solve Payday 2 Not Launching

Amanda Gao
5 min readDec 9, 2020

Payday 2 is a cooperative first-person shooter video game. As a sequel to Payday: The Heist, Payday 2 was firstly released in August 2013, and it is now available for multiple platforms, including Windows, Linux, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3/4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

This video game has attracted lots of game lovers, but some players complain that they cannot launch Payday 2 at all. If Payday 2 won’t launch, perhaps it lacks administrator privileges or there are certain problems with the game files. You might also encounter the issue due to other factors, but you may fix it effectively.

Here are some possible solutions to Payday 2 not launching. Before you give up the game, you can try these solutions one by one to fix the issue.

Fix 1: Run the Game as Administrator

To run properly on a computer, Payday 2 requires the administrator permissions to access certain necessary files. So, you might fail to launch the game if it lacks administrator privileges. In this case, you just need to run the game as administrator.

Step 1: Right-click the desktop icon or the executable file of the game and choose Properties.

Now, try launching Payday 2 again to see if the issue has been resolved. If not, please move on to the next solution.

Fix 2: Change the Resolution of The Game

It has been proven that the improper resolution of the game could also lead to Payday 2 not launching. To fix the problem, you can change the resolution by following the steps below:

Step 2: Input %localappdata% and click OK button to open the Local folder.

Step 4: Locate the resolution settings (such as resolution=”1920 1080") and change the value to your display resolution. Save the file and restarting your game.

If you don’t know how to check the display resolution of your monitor, you can refer to this guide.

Fix 3: Verify Integrity of Game Files

If you are experiencing Payday 2 crashing on startup or not launching in Steam, it is possible that the game files are not complete. In this case, you can use the built-in feature of Steam to verify the integrity of the game files.

Step 1: Open your Steam client and go to LIBRARY.

Step 2: Right-click your Payday 2 and choose Properties.

After the verification process finishes, launch the game and check if the problem is fixed.

Fix 4: Reinstall Visual C++ Redistributable

The Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable is another factor that may trigger Payday 2 not launching issue. If it isn’t installed properly or its installation data is corrupted, you are very likely to encounter Payday 2 crashing on startup or not launching issue.

In this case, you need to reinstall Visual C++ Redistributable. To uninstall it from your system, you can follow the following tutorial:

Then, you can visit Microsoft website to download the corresponding versions of Visual C++ Redistributable that you’ve uninstalled and install them properly according to the given instructions. After installing all the needed packages, you can go to check if Payday 2 not launching issue has been solved.

Fix 5: Perform a Clean Boot

Your installed programs might conflict with Payday 2, which could also lead to Payday 2 not launching issue. If you’ve installed any new applications recently, try disabling them or removing them. If there’s no newly installed programs, you can clean boot your computer to figure out the problematic one.

Step 1: Input msconfig in the Run window and press Enter to open System Configuration.

Step 2: Click the Services tab, check Hide all Microsoft services, and click the Disable all button.

Step 4: When you go back to the System Configuration window, click Apply and OK button to save the changes you’ve made.

Restart your computer and launch Payday 2 again. If you can launch the game properly, you can go to re-enable these disabled programs one by one to find the problematic one and keep it disable or uninstall it.

If Payday 2 won’t launch still, it indicates that there’s no conflicts between your installed programs and the game, and you might need to reinstall the game or contact the developer for further support.

Related article: How to Fix PayDay 2 Mods Not Working?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Position: Columnist

Amanda has been working as English editor for the MiniTool team since she was graduated from university. She enjoys sharing effective solutions and her own experience to help readers fix various issues with computers, dedicated to make their tech life easier and more enjoyable.

She has published many articles, covering fields of data recovery, partition management, disk backup, and etc. In order to provide more useful tips and information, she is still committed to expand her technical knowledge.

Originally published at https://www.partitionwizard.com on December 9, 2020.

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