The previous thread was a mess of multiple issues and it was getting very confusing. This new thread is ONLY for troubleshooting for the crash that occurs once you attempt to begin a campaign. (see video below to make sure this is the right thread for you)
After much back and forth between myself and Ryan from Forgotten Empires (AoEDE developers) we concluded that this particular crash is caused by the antivirus/firewall program. The reason that AoEDE didn’t add itself to your firewalls exception list is because Microsoft Store folders and files are “protected” with an additional layer of security that requires a fair amount of tweaking to get past. Your firewall software was not granted permission to access the AoEDE files to add them to the exception list.
Luckily I have a solution. I’ll try to go into as much detail as I can. Please let me know if I’ve missed any steps.
First off, make sure you are logged in as the system admin.
Open up your hard drive directory and find the folder called “WindowsApps”.
Try to open the folder (you cant - there’s that extra layer of security, care of microsoft)
You should get an error saying you don’t have permission to view/modify/open that folder
Right click the folder
Click on Properties
Click on the Security tab
Click the Advanced button
The “advanced security settings for WindowsApps” window will pop up.
The “owner” should say “system” - we need to change this.
Click on Change
Select User or Group pops up
Click on the Advanced button
Click on the Find Now button
Scroll down to find your username
Click OK
Click Ok again
You should now be back on the “Advanced Security Settings For WindowsApps” window
Click Apply
Then under the Permission Entries list, find your username.
If it’s there, edit the permissions to give yourself full control
If it’s not there, Click the Add button, Click Select A Principal, Advanced, Find Now, find your username, OK, OK, then give yourself full control. OK. Save/Apply.
You should now be able to open the WindowsApps folder.
Next will be a folder called “Microsoft.MSDallas_1.0.5095.2_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe” (or similar). Open that. Lastly, find the AoEDE.exe file. As with the WindowsApps folder, it is protected (care of microsoft). You’ll need to follow the same process as before to be able to have full control of the file.
Once done, you should be able to open your firewall program, navigate to the AoEDE.exe file and add it to your exception list - Like it should have been when the game was installed (thanks again Microsoft).
This is what I did and it worked for me. It’s worked for all my friends and for some of you online. I don’t know that this will work for everyone. But it’s half past midnight here and I couldn’t go to bed without trying to help some of you guys out.
Jake
