Resident Evil 4 Remake Won’t Launch Fix

RE4 Remake won’t launch – This guide will show some methods you can try if Resident Evil 4 Remake 2023 won’t launch on your PC.

How to fix Resident Evil 4 Remake Won’t Launch issue

An anticipated AAA title of 2023, RE4 Remake, is finally available. Just like the previous installment, Resident Evil 4 Remake is a third-person survival horror game by Capcom. It is a remastered version or remake of Resident Evil 4: Chainsaw that came out in 2005. The graphics of the game has been completely overhauled.

But as we all know, AAA games these days don’t come without bugs and glitches. Re4 Remake, just like RE3 Remake, is no different. A lot of PC players have been complaining lately that they couldn’t get the game to launch via Steam. For some, it might be because of their low-end hardware. But that is definitely not the case with everyone. That is why we decided to put all the fixes recommended by the community in one place so that players don’t have to check multiple sources for them.

Before we start, let me remind you that RE4 Remake comes with Denuvo, and Denuvo is notoriously known to cause issues in games.

Download Nvidia Game Ready Driver v531.41 if you have an Nvidia GPU

Nvidia has already released video drivers optimized for Resident Evil 4 Remake. The version is 531.41. So if you have not updated your graphics drivers, yet, then this is the perfect time to do so.

If you are an Nvidia user, then you can directly update your driver from the Geforce Experience application. You can also download the driver directly from the link below.

Nvidia Driver for Resident Evil 4 Remake

Download AMD Adrenalin Edition 23.3.2 if you have an AMD GPU

AMD has also released video drivers optimized for Re4 Remake. The version is 23.3.2. So if you are an AMD user, then you can directly update your driver via AMD Auto Detect.

You can also download the driver directly from the link below.

Disable Steam Overlay

Steam Overlay has been known to cause problems for RE games in the past. If I am not wrong, RE8 had the same issue with Steam Overlay. So, it is best to turn it off temporarily.

  1. Go to your Steam Library.
  2. Right-click on Resident Evil 4 Chainsaw.
  3. Select Properties.
  4. Under the General tab, uncheck the box next to Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game.
    Turn off Steam Overlay for Resident Evil 4 Remake
  5. Restart Steam.

If you have GFE Overlay enabled, turn that off as well.

  1. Just launch GFE.
  2. Go to Settings.
  3. Turn off “IN-GAME OVERLAY”.

Disable your Anti-virus software temporarily

Either try disabling your Anti-Virus software temporarily and then run the game, or add exceptions for RE 4 Remake in your Anti-virus configuration.

If you are using Windows Defender instead of a third-party AV software, then here is how to add Resident Evil 4 Remake on the exceptions list of Windows Defender:

  • Go to Windows 10 settings
  • Click on Update & Security
  • Select Windows Security from the left sidebar
  • Click on ‘Virus & threat protection’
  • Under ‘Virus & threat protection settings’ click on Manage settings
  • Under Exclusions, click on Add or remove exclusions
  • Click on Add or remove exclusions
  • Click on Add an exclusion and select File
  • Select the executable file of Resident Evil Village, which is re4.exe
  • Restart your PC

You might need WMVideo Decoder to launch the game

I clearly remember that when RE Village got released, a lot of people were getting an error message related to WMVideo Decoder whenever they were trying to launch the game.

Now, I am not sure if that is the case with RE4 Remake as well, or not. You can give it a try.

What is WMVideo Decoder, you ask? Well, it is nothing but a video codec that could be easily obtained from the Windows Media Feature Pack. Go to the product page, select the latest edition (May 2019), and install it. Restart your PC while you are at it.

Re-Install Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable

Make sure you have Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable installed. If you don’t, you can install it from here.

Suppose none of the methods mentioned above is working for you. Then you can always try the obvious methods like verifying the game files or re-installing the game in a different location.

Resident Evil 4 Remake Running without issues on PC

I am still keeping an eye on the RE Reddit and various forums. And as soon as I notice something new, I will update the list of fixes.


If you think this guide has helped you, then let us know in the comment section below. Also, if you have any additions to this topic, you can comment below. And for more Resident Evil 4 Remake guides, keep an eye on Frondtech. Good luck!


That’s all, folks!

Last Updated on March 24, 2023

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