Warcraft 3 refuses to even attempt to launch

Gives no error codes or anything I see it pop up and try to run in task manager then closes a second later.

Processor Intel(R) Core™ i9-9900K CPU @ 3.60GHz 3.60 GHz
RAM 32.0 GB
64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Windows 10 Home
OS Build 19044.2728
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.4190.0

99% of the time, that’s a security app blocking the game from lunching.

1 Like

I do not have any security apps or firewall active though.

Hey there!

So while this issue is generally caused by interference from security software, it can be caused by any software on the system or network that is either interfering with the game client specifically or preventing the game client from accessing a system/network resource it needs.

The following steps should help with those potential causes:

Try doing a power cycle on your system. Turn off all devices including the modem. Wait 60 seconds, turn on the modem, wait 5 minutes, turn on any network devices, wait 2 minutes, turn on your computer and try the game.

Sometimes firewall or routing software/hardware will have some advanced settings to prioritize and manage types of network traffic. Normally that is not an issue but we have seen situations where it can interfere with the delivery of the data for our games/voice chat.

Let’s try turning off these features:

QoS
SIP ALG
RoG (ASUS Routers Only)
Security firewalls (Some ISP provided modems)

Not all devices will have these options and the steps for turning these functions off will be different depending on the make/model/software version of the devices and programs involved. If necessary look at the documentation for your security and routing products to find out how to turn these options off.

In some cases there is a corrupt or misconfigured setting within the router or modem. We cannot say what that might be offhand but the easiest way to resolve these conflicts would be to factory reset the router and/or modem.

You may need to look up your specific model for the steps on how to do this and in some rare cases you may need to have this done by the ISP. Feel free to reach out to them for assistance if necessary.

Try running your system in selective startup mode: https://battle.net/support/article/200483

Let’s reset the in game user options:

  1. Right click Windows Start, Open File Explorer
  2. Navigate to the documents folder on your PC
  3. Delete the War3Preferences.txt file under the Warcraft III folder.
  4. Empty the Recycle Bin.

Let’s manually clear the Battlenet Desktop Application and all supporting data from the system. This will not remove existing game clients.

  1. Open file explorer/file manager (Right Click Windows Start)
  2. Navigate to the folder where the desktop application would normally be installed. Delete that folder if it exists (usually program files x86)
  3. Type the following into the address bar (not the search bar): %APPDATA% and press enter.
  4. Delete the Bnet and blizzard folders inside the appdata folder if they exist.
  5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 with %PROGRAMDATA% %LOCALAPPDATA% and %TEMP%
  6. Empty the recycle bin.
  7. Now reinstall the app to the C: Drive.

Create a new administrator account: Blizzard Support - Creating a New Administrator Account

Once the account is created, shut down the computer, wait 60 seconds, restart, log into the new profile and try the app/client.

That should cover the obvious potential culprits but if the issue persists after doing all that, I recommend submitting a ticket with system files attached for more direct troubleshooting. (Click your name at the top right of this page, click support, click contact support.

You can include a link to this forum post to show what steps you have performed just make sure to also include the requested system files.

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