I'm sure I've asked before, but dammit yet ANOTHER game is doing it. It happens with SEVERAL games, and so far as I know, NO ONE has ever had an explanation for it.

You double click on an icon to start a game..... and nothing. Sometimes the cursor will spin a few seconds, sometimes not, but then... nothing. And then you open up task manager and discover the game is in fact "running" but as a PROCESS (fixed, thanks Gydion) instead of an app, so that nothing appears on your screen.

This happened again today, and has happened at least 5 or 6 other times in games. In fact, it's happened with games not from GoG, so it's not a GoG thing (if anyone was thinking that the stuff they do to get the old games to run on new OS's had something to do with it. Nope. I've had at least 1 and IIRC 2 non-GoG games do it. In fact, Firefox has done it several times. My browser. I'll double click on it like always and...nothing. So I'd double click on it again and a message would come up that Firefox is already running.... Huh? No it isn't. then I'd look and sure enough it's running as a PROCESS instead of an app and doesn't show up on my screen.)

There MUST be some explanation for this, or is it true that nobody in this whole wide world of computers and computer geeks can figure this out?

ADDED: I should add that this has only ever occurred for me in Windows 7 and Windows 10. (I never used Windows 8 even once). It never happened on XP or earlier to me. But I have read forums all over these internets and have seen that this happens to others as well (again, using Windows 10, or sometimes Windows 7) so it is, in fact, "an issue" yet I have never, in all of the sights and examples, seen an explanation for it. I've seen suggested fixes that sometimes work, sometimes don't (run the game as administrator.... change some dmmm (or something) files, close all other apps when starting.... etc. etc. etc. the kind of catch all stuff you try. But surely there must be a logical, scientific reason for why this is happening. Ask Microsoft maybe???? LOL, like I'd ever get an answer there.

You mean as a process I believe. Services has a separate tab.Might be Games Explorer.

Yes, my bad. You're right, process... not service. Added screenshot to show what's happening.

Does Windows 10 even have Games Explorer? I'm pretty sure none of the games that this has happened with were under Games Explorer.

Try launching the game as an administrator maybe its something funky with procedure call or whatnot.

Happens to me with half of my games. I remember once Compatibility mode worked but when I had that set on the required system it cancelled out a widescreen patch I had so I had to get 86 using the Combat Mode.

I just keep my task manager open. When I play a game I know does it, I start it, immediately close it in TM, and then restart it.

Pisses me off to no end but what are you gonna do? :P

Among the games doing it to me now is Emperor: ROTMK and Gothic 2 though they're have been MANY MANY others.

ANNNND I just noticed Army Men RTS is doing it .

The first thing I always try. The second thing is compatibility mode.

In this particular case, launching as administrator did nothing, while switching to XP compatibility got the game to start (and run as an APP yah!) with the introduction playing fine with sound and all.... and then the game locks up on the screen where it says initializing sound.

Replaced some lib files (as suggested in the EU forums) and that got the game to start and run.... but with no sound.

Anyway, for "most" of the games this happens too, I can usually eventually get them to run. But it would sure be nice to know WHY they do this, what is causing it, and thus be able to understand better how to maybe stop it from happening at all.

But again, as far as I can tell, I've never seen one explanation that explains this (the running as a process instead of an app) thing. That's what I'd love an explanation for. Not looking so much for each individual game's "fix" as I am for understanding why something that should be an app runs instead as a process. I just feel like if I understood that, it might help me then find better solutions to the individual games that have this issue.

Well, I'm no expert, but I'm thinking it's something in WINDOWS itself. You double click and it calls up the execution command. (That's what a .exe is, no?) It is probably something with command execution. A small issue, probably unexplainable on how it comes about, but it happens. I would say uninstall and reinstall windows, but that's the shitty IT guy method. So try and read the machine talk and see what it says. That should help explain why.

Believe it or not once I discovered with one of my games that was doing it (OOTP Baseball) whenever I shut down Steam (Steam starts up automatically at Start-Up so is always technically "running" unless I explicitly exit it) it stopped doing it and started normally.

I don't really think it was "Steam's fault" but I was able to reproduce it every time. Try and start OOTP 11 with Steam active and nothing... runs as a process. Exit completely out of Steam and then double click OOTP11 and voila, the game shows up on my screen.

That was on my old Windows 7 machine. Funnily enough, on this Windows 10 machine, OOTP 11 starts and runs just fine every time.... with or without Steam being active.

I really wonder if any human being on this planet really understands these confounded machines....

I generally don't have this type of problem.

I wonder if it's because i turn off themes and eye-candy, and it has fewer steps to go through...

Happens all the time.

I do also believe that it's a Games Explorer and/or compatibility issue. You run an executable, and the OS says "Hey, I think I know this program, let me check" and queries on the internet to see if it needs to download any additional info (game data and/or compatibility flags). For some reason, at that point the query will not get an answer, but the OS is still expecting one. Rerunning the process usually means the OS will skip the query this time, but will most likely do it again at a later point, with similar results.

So weirdly enough, try renaming the executable. It will not be in the list of identified programs, so it should get an "unknown" reply much faster.

P.S. And depending on which part of Microsoft you ask, you might actually get a proper, even if highly technical, answer.

Simple, you didn't dedicate enough playthroughs to the gaminggod.

It has something to do with Windows registry settings no longer recognizing executable. I don't know how those are fixed though since it gets complicated.

My brother does, but he isn't telling anyone for fear someone will start paying them to do his job. :P

How long have you waited for the game(s) in question to start?

Sometimes when I first boot up my Win7 machine, if I try to open a program (ex. firefox or notepad), nothing happens for awhile. Eventually it does start, sometimes several windows popping open at once because I got impatient and clicked again.