Now it takes at least TWO attempts to launch D3. First attempt only greys out the “launching” button for ~10 seconds but doesn’t actually start the game.
Second attempt will either start the game or repeat the above.
Seriously? You can’t even end seasons properly, and now you’ve broken your own launcher. Oh goody.
So, you’re sick of the Blizzard app, or you want to play more than one account at the same time. This is possible using a simple shortcut.
Using this method, you can start as many instances of the game as you like, from as many locations as you like. These instructions are for Windows 7, but the steps should be similar, if not identical, for Windows 10, assuming that you have modified Windows 10 to show a legacy-style Desktop. If not, remember that anyplace you get the right click, context-sensitive menu item “New” You can follow these steps. [But forget about creating a unique “Tile” for Diablo III. Creating Tiles in Windows 10 is a frustrating and futile endeavor.]
It will be necessary for you to know the installation location of Diablo III, in most cases this will be as follows:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Diablo III
You also need to know the exact name of the executable file that the shortcut will activate. For the 32-bit version, this will be:
Diablo III.exe
[Read further for 64-bit instructions.]
Note that you will not use the program executable “Diablo III Launcher.exe.”
You may have elected to install the game to a different or custom location, as in my situation, where I have the game installed on 4 different hard drives. Note that you do not have to have the game installed in multiple locations to use this method; you can start more than one instance of the game from the same game files, though if you have more than 2 instances running, you may experience slowdowns as each instance of the game accesses assets from the same location.
So, let’s get started!
Right-click the Desktop, and point to “New” in the context menu.
At the top of the menu, click on “Shortcut.”
In the Create Shortcut dialog box, you will either type the location of the game executable in the text field, or click the Browse button to navigate to it.
If you use of the Browse button, the Browse for Files or Folders dialog box will open.
In this dialog box, navigate to your game installation location, and select the “Diablo III.exe” file.
Click OK.
The path to the game will appear, enclosed in quotation marks.
Note: if you want to run the 64-bit version of the game, once you get to your Diablo III installation folder, open the “x64” folder, and select the
“Diablo III64.exe” file. The following instructions are exactly the same for this executable file.
In order to make the game run, you will have to add a “flag,” to this executable string. Insert your cursor after the closing quotation mark, add one space, and then type:
-launch
You will likely want to run this game in Windowed mode, since you will probably be running at least 2 instances. To do this automatically on game start up, insert your cursor after the launch flag, type one space, and then type:
-w
Click Next to continue.
In this dialog box, you will select a name for this shortcut. The name of the executable file will be the default name, and if you are only going to have the game running from one installation folder, you can simply delete the “.exe” and leave “Diablo III” as the name. If you’re going to have multiple instances running from different installation folder locations, you will have to give this shortcut a unique name, such as “Diablo III x64 on C Drive.”
Click Finish to exit the dialog box and create the shortcut on your Desktop.
Now, you never have to look at the BNet app! You can start the game anytime you want just by double-clicking the shortcut.
I have no idea what you just said so I just skipped straight to the end and: no I will not use the -launch because it requires me to login + authenticate every time.
you - - - do know there is a BUG forum for this stuff right?
