New update - can't find SkyrimSE.exe

[FeycatG]

Vortex just updated and now when I try and run the game it says it can't find SkyrimSE.exe Literally nothing except the update has changed, I've been playing this loadout for the past 6 months or so. I was playing it last night at 1am for that matter, and now it says SkyrimSE is missing? I don't want to screw this up and lose my current playthrough. How do I fix this?

[NobodyNotable]

Vortex uses a registry key to find the Skyrim executable, and that key is populated by the launcher. Maybe that's un-set or got changed out/corrupted/busted/moved?

To test that:

Close vortex
Run the Skyrim SE/AE launcher (default function in Steam, or GOG; it's the thing that offers to check your video settings, has "Play" "options" "Support", etc).
Once the launcher has launched, but *before* you hit "Play", exit the launcher.
Try Vortex again

Good luck!

[showler]

Make sure you got the update that was fixed and not just the previous broken one.

[FeycatG]

Steam launches the game to the menu INSTANTLY. Still Vortex says the SkyrimSE.exe is missing.

 

@Showler, I download what it tells me to. It doesn't say I have any new updates since last night.

[NobodyNotable]

Steam will launch the game instantly under a few instances-

1. The skyrim_launcher.exe has been replaced by the game executable (or skse's executable).
   This would be a manual thing, like a drag/drop. Steam, Vortex, nor SKSE do this in an automated fashion.
2. the game is started with an unusual Launch option (one that I'm not familiar with) to skip the game.
3. the game is launched via a short-cut outside of steam.

In the case of 1, you can fix this by verifying the game local files (don't forget to re-do the xedit clean of the plugins). In the case of 2, remove the launch option from the general tab of the game itself. In the case of 3, launch the game from within steam's window, under library.

other than that, your guess is as good as mine?

[FeycatG]

SKyrimSELauncher.exe is sitting right in the game folder next to SkyrimSE.exe. The game itself doesn't launch instantly, it just immediately takes me to the vanilla start menu. If I double click the launcher exe it opens right up to the main game menu. Double clicking the plain SkyrimSE.exe also just opens the main menu box. I've been launching the game through Vortex this whole time though, once I got my mods set up.

 

When I go to the Vortex game menu to manually point it at the right exe, no exes show in the folder at all! It's just the folders without any of the ini, dll or exe!

[FeycatG]

The first screenshot shows that SkyrimSE.exe and SkyrimSLauncher.exe are in the file folder as expected.

 

The second is Vortex NOT seeing any files other than folders when I manually navigate there.

What's going on?

[showler]

It says "select folder", so you shouldn't need to see those files.

 

It also shows your installed version, so it seems to be aware that the path is correct.

 

Can you screenshot the error message you are getting?

[Pickysaurus]

If Vortex can't "see" the SkyrimSE.exe file (after selecting the folder which contains it) then it means something on your PC has likely changed in regards to permissions.

[nlmiller9]

Did you ever get a fix to this? I'm getting the same error. The other interesting thing for me is my Skyrim was working yesterday, then I saw the update today, updated vortex and it instantly stopped working

Edited June 26, 2023 by nlmiller9