Launcher error -2146697208

[Leifite]

Won't start the game. Gives me this error. -2146697208 I just updated to windows 10 today and updated my video drivers. Trying to launch in a compatibility mode for windows 8 isn't working what should I do?

This is what I see

[Xaamatu]

I'm getting the same exact error.
I upgraded to Windows 10 yesterday, was able to play all day long, slept, now this today.....

[RobbieH]

I'm getting the same exact error.
I upgraded to Windows 10 yesterday, was able to play all day long, slept, now this today.....

This is why i always disable Windows Update, i suppose an update messed it up.

Try to disable Windows Defender, Windows Firewall and all Security Software, such as Anti Virus etc

If it starts, start the Software you just closed, repeat this step until you see the problem gone.

I don't have Windows 10, but try to set the boot executable to compatibility with Windows 7/8 if there's that option.

[Wrexxy11]

Yea been here done this reinstalled lost all my settings and tweaked with windows and everything since upgrading to windows 10 after all of this i worked out that everything was being caused by the Avast Resident shield disabling that fixed the problem immediately wish id realised that before i deleted everything ..
oh well hopefully this saves someone else from the same outcome

[Raist]

Why I always add exceptions in my security...especially for online games. If you add the folders and executables you should be able to turn it back on for the extra protection. Might need to take the extra step and add the launcher's site also... frontier.ffxiv.com

[Vyth]

Why I always add exceptions in my security... If you add the folders and executables you should be able to turn it back on for the extra protection. Might need to take the extra step and add the launcher's site also... frontier.ffxiv.com

Using AVAST as well, found where to add the site to exceptions but not the executables. Do you happen to know how?

Disregard, just adding the site to the AVAST / Settings / Active Protection / Web Shield / Exceptions was enough to play again. thanks a bunch ^_^

[Raist]

Avast's interface has gotten kind of quirky over the years...but it has some nice features. One that I've really come to appreciate is the site blocking feature under webshield--can use wildcards to block ad servers (puts a message in the ad's frame that avast blocked it...can really speed up some page loads once you compile a decent list). It takes wildcards too, so you don't need the whole name either. So you can add a simple rule to block something like *ad.doubleclick.net* and kill a boat-load of ads in one shot (depending on where you are browsing, of course).

They've gotten really big with the integration of wildcards. It even works in the exclusion list for the webshield as well. Adding a rule like "http://199.91.189.*" unlocks an entire block of IP's (that's basically the SE-EIDOS subnet in Canada).

If you look a bit further down in the Web Shield's Exclusion panel, you will see a section for adding a specific process as well. This is like configuring a program to have access through a firewall (just drill down to each executable file and add it). This is so you can add specific executables to allow them to bypass scanning through the webshield (allows web communications for specific programs to bypass scanning).

Note that this is only for the network communications for that process once it is running. It is completely separate from the file shield scanning. They will still get scanned when being read, written, and executed from the hard drive and such. If you want to bypass scanning during those processes, you will need to add them to the File Shield Exclusions:

Settings -> Active Protection -> File Shield, click the "Customize" link, and then "Exclusions".

They've changed up the interface...you used to just browse to a location and either added the folder or specific files within the folder. Now it is designed more like a backup program. You drill down to a folder and click the check box in front of it and it generates a rule for it when you click the OK button. Once the rule is added, there will be a series of check boxes for the activity you want to exclude from scanning: (R)ead, (W)rite, and e(X)ecute.

If you want to create more specific rules for certain files, you can then edit the line so it points to the specific file. You can use wild cards as well so you can set a rule for a group of files. For example, you can drill down to the boot folder and putting a check in front of it to add this exclusion rule:

C:\Program Files (x86)\SquareEnix\FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn\boot\*

Then you can click in that field and move your cursor to the end of the line and edit it so it looks like this:

C:\Program Files (x86)\SquareEnix\FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn\boot\ffxiv*.exe

This changes the scheme of the rule to only apply to files that start with the letters "FFXIV" and have a .exe extension (like ffxivlauncher.exe, ffxivboot.exe, etc.)--but will still scan any DLL, DAT, CFG, etc file that may be in that folder or subfolder--it limits the exclusion to JUST specific executable files this way.

That may be a bit more specific than most need...for this scenario just adding the exclusion to the top folder should be safe. They basically did this to simplify it for the more casual users, but...sometimes you may not be too familiar with how an application works and may want to only allow certain files to bypass the scanning. Wanted to detail how to do it in case someone wanted to be more specific and couldn't figure out how to make it work. Takes a few extra steps to narrow it to the specific file(s) this way, but the option is there in case you want to do so.

[Damun]

I found out that it was the Windows 10, windows defender real time protection. I disabled it and fixed this problem right away.