It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
Thanks, this fix works!
Post edited July 13, 2019 by sk3leton91
Saw this post and wanted to point out that god forbid you ever need to reenable the service for some unfathomable reason its safer to just take ownership of the gameux.dll file in both system32 and syswow64 and rename it to gameux.disable. this prevents it from loading but the registry keys and file remains intact so its easy to restore at a later date
avatar
mikeloeven: Saw this post and wanted to point out that god forbid you ever need to reenable the service for some unfathomable reason its safer to just take ownership of the gameux.dll file in both system32 and syswow64 and rename it to gameux.disable. this prevents it from loading but the registry keys and file remains intact so its easy to restore at a later date
This is a very bad idea, because you are proposing to make an irreversible change to the system files.
The right to all system files in Windows folder belongs to the system user TrustedInstaller
Of course, you can assign yourself the rights to the system files and then rename or delete the system files, but what will you do then when you need to restore everything back ??
You will not be able to restore the rights of the TrustedInstaller system user to system files, so you will only have one way: reinstall Windows 7

If you really want to disable Game Explorer using the “rename system files in Windows folder” method, then you need to use special programs that will be able to restore the rights of the TrustedInstaller system user.
For example, you can use the program Stop_Game_Explorer_1_1.zip (Read help !! ).
http://www.mediafire.com/file/2mrtxy4eo4pmi2g/Stop_Game_Explorer_1_1.zip/file
Warning: this program does not have viruses, but VirusTotal and Antiviruses very “dislike” this program because it works with system files.
Post edited July 16, 2019 by JackkyJack
avatar
Pouyou-pouyou: I just had a case of several of my old windows games refusing to start while the CPU would saturate doing nothing (Win 7).

After investigating a little, I found out that the cause for this was the Game Explorer (gameux) who meddled as soon as the game got started. It would try to connect to the Microsoft servers to collect infos. But it seems that the MS server (https://games.metaservices.microsoft.com/games/SGamesWebService.asmx) is dead now. So it loops indefinitely doing nothing, and all these game won't work anymore.

This bug affects all games listed in the windows registry at this location : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\GameUX. Others are unaffected.

This is totally silly, but can be easily solved. Some did it by deleting some dlls, but it is better to just change a registry key.

EvilEdDead explained it well here (thanks man !).
Just open Regedit, got to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\GameUX\ServiceLocation and change the server address contained in the "Games" chain value to 127.0.0.1 or localhost (do a backup first if you wish).

This will solve the problem once and for all for all the games which had it.

----------

Alternative method : copy-paste the text below to a txt file and rename the extension as .reg instead of .txt, then double-click on the file to apply it.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\GameUX\ServiceLocation]
"Games"="127.0.0.1"

And to undo the changes, do the same with this instead :

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\GameUX\ServiceLocation]
"Games"="https://games.metaservices.microsoft.com/games/SGamesWebService.asmx"
Thanks! I was having this issue and it seems to be fixed now. Much appreciated!
avatar
JackkyJack: If you really want to disable Game Explorer using the “rename file” method, then you need to use special programs that will be able to restore the rights of the TrustedInstaller system user.
But do I have to do this if I am to follow your advice about just renaming Half-Life 2.exe to Half-Life 2_1.exe?

Or do I only have to rename the launch file and not do anything else?

(I'm talking about your solution from the post from July 7th.)
avatar
JackkyJack: If you really want to disable Game Explorer using the “rename file” method, then you need to use special programs that will be able to restore the rights of the TrustedInstaller system user.
avatar
greeno77: But do I have to do this if I am to follow your advice about just renaming Half-Life 2.exe to Half-Life 2_1.exe?
Or do I only have to rename the launch file and not do anything else?
(I'm talking about your solution from the post from July 7th.)
Rename the Half-Life 2.exe startup file to Half-Life 2_1.exe and do nothing else.
***
You can disable “Game_Explorer” in any of these 3 ways, because all these methods are reversible (you can always return “as it was before”)
1. If you renamed the Half-Life 2.exe startup file to Half-Life 2_1.exe, then you disabled “Game_Explorer” only for game "Half-Life 2", so now "Half-Life 2" will work fine.
2. If you are editing the Registry (first post of this topic), then you have completely disabled “Game_Explorer”, now all 2072 old games are working fine, including Half-Life 2
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/old_games_not_launching_and_eating_100_of_the_cpu_on_windows_7/post1
3. If you installed the program “Stop_Game_Explorer”, then you have completely disabled “Game_Explorer”, now all 2072 old games are working fine, including Half-Life 2
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/old_games_not_launching_and_eating_100_of_the_cpu_on_windows_7/post78
***
NOTE: This theme is only for Windows 7 and Windows Vista. In Windows 8/10 “Game Explorer” is deactivated.
Post edited July 16, 2019 by JackkyJack
sorry i can't help you, been forever since i tinkered with windows 7
avatar
JackkyJack: Rename the Half-Life 2.exe startup file to Half-Life 2_1.exe and do nothing else.
Hey, my game works perfectly now! Thank you so much for your great and simple advice
avatar
JackkyJack: Rename the Half-Life 2.exe startup file to Half-Life 2_1.exe and do nothing else.
avatar
greeno77: Hey, my game works perfectly now! Thank you so much for your great and simple advice
Thank you thank you thank you!
Simple, easy fix, works perfectly.
This is silly as it will be necessary to redo the same for every game affected.
This is not a solution, this is a workaround.

Why not settle this once and for all with the OP's solution ?
Post edited July 17, 2019 by Pouyou-pouyou
avatar
Pouyou-pouyou: This is silly as it will be necessary to redo the same for every game affected.
This is not a solution, this is a workaround.
A workaround is a solution imo

It's not a big deal to change the name of every game you want to play, especially if you're like me and only have one game that needs this fix. The fix takes literally like a minute to do
avatar
mikeloeven: Saw this post and wanted to point out that god forbid you ever need to reenable the service for some unfathomable reason its safer to just take ownership of the gameux.dll file in both system32 and syswow64 and rename it to gameux.disable. this prevents it from loading but the registry keys and file remains intact so its easy to restore at a later date
avatar
JackkyJack: This is a very bad idea, because you are proposing to make an irreversible change to the system files.
The right to all system files in Windows folder belongs to the system user TrustedInstaller
Of course, you can assign yourself the rights to the system files and then rename or delete the system files, but what will you do then when you need to restore everything back ??
You will not be able to restore the rights of the TrustedInstaller system user to system files, so you will only have one way: reinstall Windows 7

If you really want to disable Game Explorer using the “rename system files in Windows folder” method, then you need to use special programs that will be able to restore the rights of the TrustedInstaller system user.
For example, you can use the program Stop_Game_Explorer_1_1.zip (Read help !! ).
http://www.mediafire.com/file/2mrtxy4eo4pmi2g/Stop_Game_Explorer_1_1.zip/file
Warning: this program does not have viruses, but VirusTotal and Antiviruses very “dislike” this program because it works with system files.
Renaming a file does not modify or delete it it just makes things pointing to it unable to load the file. Simply changing the name back would resolve most issues as Trusted Installer does not need exclusive rights to a file for the file to function most of the time typically this permission is used during windows updates and usually the system will reset this automatically. a permission setting of everyone - read and execute would be sufficient for normal operation if the computer has more than one user that needs to access the file.

"You will not be able to restore the rights of the TrustedInstaller system user to system files"
not even close to true

Open elevated command prompt (edited forgot the grant trusted installer full control before setting ownership back)
icacls <FilePath> /grant "NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller":F
icacls <FilePath> /setowner "NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller"
(i think the reason so many people seem to think you cant do this is because they just try to type setowner trustedinstaller without including the NT SERVICE designator)

Also more detail on what icacls does and how to assign pretty much any owner can be found here
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/icacls
Post edited July 25, 2019 by mikeloeven
avatar
mikeloeven: Open elevated command prompt (edited forgot the grant trusted installer full control before setting ownership back)
icacls <FilePath> /grant "NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller":F
icacls <FilePath> /setowner "NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller"
(i think the reason so many people seem to think you cant do this is because they just try to type setowner trustedinstaller without including the NT SERVICE designator)

Also more detail on what icacls does and how to assign pretty much any owner can be found here
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/icacls
Thank! This is useful information ... but it is a dangerous tool for ordinary users.
It is interesting to make a 2 bat-file to disable and to enable Game Explorer, with all the rights and permissions of the TrustedInstaller system user ...
***
Unfortunately, today there is no professional exe-patch to disable / enable Game Explorer, with checking "virus free" on VirusTotal....
My Stop_Game_Explorer program does not pass a virus-free check on VirusTotal.
***
... On the first page, the topstarter offers to disable "Game Explorer" through the Registry, but this method does not solve the problem, because "Game Explorer" can restore the entry in the Registry.
***
Today, players do rename the game's start file. This solves the problem "Game Explorer" for only one game.
avatar
JackkyJack: ... On the first page, the topstarter offers to disable "Game Explorer" through the Registry, but this method does not solve the problem, because "Game Explorer" can restore the entry in the Registry.
It's possible to make the key read-only using this method.
Weirdly, for me, this only applies o some games in my Games Explorer folder (GOG, DVD-based, or steam), and not to others. In all cases, the simple workaround (not good enough for along-term solution, but good enough for tonight) on Win 7 Pro x64 is to open one copy of one of these games, let it idle at 2000K bytes of Memory (Private Working Set) used, DO NOT end the process, and then open a new copy.

Also note: https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/0/1643167006278123752/#c1643168364660742216
Post edited August 08, 2019 by Microfish_1