Description of the issue:
After multiple troubleshooting attempts, Brave Browser will not open. I’ve reinstalled to latest version 138.1.80.113, have even had Windows Support look into this issue and they were unable to resolve the issue. I’m running Windows 11 with recent updates.
When I click the Brave Icon (also with Run as Administrator), literally nothing happens. No window appears, nothing in my Task Manager, no results.
I found that unchecking 'Run as Administrator in the ‘Properties’ panel got it working again, this after deleting my data file (another suggestion) and reinstalling multiple times. Fortunately, I had fairly recent bookmarks and password data in Firefox to rebuild Brave.
Under Properties, Run this program as an administrator is selected but it wont let me deselect the setting. What data file did you delete? Thanks for your input
Can anyone help? @Support
Can you try the fix outlined here? https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/38609#issuecomment-2195847971
Thanks!
I will look into it now and let you know what I come up with thanks for sharing
I didn’t have any luck with this fix. I may abandon Brave since it’s not working and there doesn’t seem to be any dev support.
What happened when you tried the fix? Did you perform the steps exactly?
Oh man, that’s super frustrating! I’m having the exact same issue with Brave Browser when I try to open the Alexandria Veterinary Hospital, site on my Windows 11 PC. I’m also on the latest Brave version (138.1.80.113), and even after all the Windows updates, clicking the Brave icon does nothing no window, no process in Task Manager, nada. Since you’ve already tried reinstalling and running as administrator, here are a few things I’ve come across that might help.
First, it could be a corrupted user profile. You can try creating a new profile by right-clicking the Brave shortcut, going to Properties, and adding --user-data-dir=“C:\BraveTemp” to the Target field (make a folder called BraveTemp on your C: drive first). This starts Brave with a fresh profile, which might get it working, though you’d need to set up your bookmarks again for sites.
Another thing to check is if Windows Defender or another antivirus is blocking Brave. Sometimes, security software flags it by mistake. Go to Windows Security > Virus & Threat Protection > Manage Settings, and try turning off Real-Time Protection temporarily, then click the Brave icon again. I also saw on the Brave Community forums that some folks fixed this by renaming the brave.exe file (found in C:\Program Files\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\Application) to something like brave1.exe, which is weird but worked for them. You could also try disabling hardware acceleration by adding --disable-gpu to the shortcut’s Target field in Properties, as that’s helped with launch issues before. If none of this works, check the Windows Event Viewer (right-click Start > Event Viewer > Windows Logs > Application) for any Brave-related error codes that might give a clue. Has anyone else tried these steps for getting to sites.