With the new release of Skyrim coming from BethSoft (Anniversary Edition), they’re changing the compiler for the games (Visual Studio) to a more recent distro. For some reason, Bethesda has decided this is also going to be pushed as a Special Edition update, which will have the effect of breaking every SE mod that depends on SKSE64, forcing modders to redo those mods for the new update.
Horrifying if you, like me, have many mods running in your game.
There is a workaround; setting it through Steam to update only when you run it, and ONLY running it through the SKSE64 executable. Running from Skyrim.exe and SkyrimLauncher.exe will trigger the update. Also, it might be a good idea to backup the game files just in case of brain fart.
Edit: Found another workaround for those who need it - go into your Steam/steamapps folder, and look for a file named appmanifest_489830.acf (this is the Skyrim SE manifest file), and right click it, then tick Read Only and Hidden, and click Okay. Should have the effect of kicking back a permissions error when Steam tries to update it. You’ll have to run the game through SKSE64.exe, but you should be safe from an update if Bethesda goes ahead and pushes this for SE.
More info for the curious:
