Hello,
I recently ran into the issue a lot of us have been facing with the app. In my case, it would not update Overwatch 2 and I would have issues in both uninstalling and reinstalling both the game and the launcher.
With the help of user YoHinomura and some support from chat GPT I found a solution that worked for me.
I will start by detailing some issues I faced along this road
-I tried to uninstall through all in house means (uninstall in settings/control panel); I even downloaded a third party app to uninstall and still received errors no matter what
-I also tried deleting all traces of both Overwatch and battle.net through program files, program data, and user data with seemingly no improvement
-In using the windows management instrumentation (WMI), I received multiple access denied errors when running command prompts
The Fix (Windows 10)
Below are the steps I used to help successfully get it back up and running:
Boot into safe mode
-run the command prompt as an administrator (shortcut Win+R) OR type in command prompt in windows search bar
-type msconfig and press enter
-go into the boot tab and check safe boot and select network
-click apply and okay and restart your computer
WMI Reset
-open command prompt again (Win+R) and type the following one by one clicking enter after each
- Command:
net stop winmgmt
Response: The Windows Management Instrumentation service is stopping.
The Windows Management Instrumentation service was stopped successfully.
2. Command:
winmgmt /resetrepository
Response: WMI repository has been reset.
3. Command:
net start winmgmt
Response: The Windows Management Instrumentation service is starting.
The Windows Management Instrumentation service was started successfully.
Notice: Access Denied Errors
You may run into an error message after the first command that looks like this:
The following services are dependent on the Windows Management Instrumentation service.
Stopping the Windows Management Instrumentation service will also stop these services.
Malwarebytes Service
IP Helper
Hamachi Tunneling Engine
Do you want to continue this operation? (Y/N) [N]: Y
System error 5 has occurred.
Access is denied.
If this is the case, you may have background services such as antivirus software that is running in the background. There are two work arounds to this issue. One is temporarily uninstalling these services. Two is the following:
- Go back into command prompt as adminsitrator with (Win+R)
- Go into the services tab and check “Hide all Microsoft Services”
- Uncheck the boxes of the services that are blocking your command. (in my case Malwarebytes Service IP Helper Hamachi Tunneling Engine)
- Check Apply and Okay; this should send you into restarting into safe boot where you should be able to successfully input the commands
Boot back into normal mode
-command prompt msconfig again and uncheck safeboot
-restart into normal mode
-optional: manually clean up files in program files, data, user data, (I did this just to be sure, but I do not think it is needed)
-redowload the launcher and any other games
To recap, I booted my PC into safe mode and used commands for WMI to clean up my system. I ran into problems with background antivirus software and had workouts to disable them or delete them for the meantime. This may not be a one size fits all solution, but I hope this steers people in the right directions. If you have any more findings about how to optimize this process feel free to share in the comments so the community is aware
I hope this helps!