[R-F]

This is the message I put into Steam support:
"Steam seems to be having some major issues with the validation of the Witcher 2 1.3 patch.

I install the game, run it for the first time and it patches through a third party client. Once that's finished, the game refuses to launch and just crashes BEFORE start up (I guess upon trying to start the launcher application). As any sane person would, I try to validate my files using Steam and it turns out I'm missing 53 files which is worth about 9GB! I let that download and install and try to run it again. Exactly the same issue. So, I validate again. 53 files. 9GB. Wow, I think, what a weird coincidence this is and download those files again.

Now, read that paragraph over and over and over and you'll have the issues your validation service has caused with the Witcher 2's 1.3 patch. I bought this game from retail and have yet to have a chance to play it due to Steam developer's service's incompetence in resolving something which appears to be a pretty simple issue.

I have three choices at this point:
1. Wait for Steam to resolve an issue which will probably turn out to be something stupidly pathetic like an incorrect CheckSum and will be done in Valve Time. It's been a week already.
2. Buy the game somewhere else.
3. Pirate the game, update THAT to 1.3 and play happily because it's not got an incompetent DRM messing shit up.

You can understand which one I'm currently leaning heavily towards.

Can I just ask that you try to give me some sort of possible resolution for this issue and kick the matter up to your development team? This is just a ridiculous issue that's plaguing the vast majority of your customers who own Witcher 2.

Thanks in advance,
[Redacted]"

Just putting this here in the hope it will be solved.

And, yes, it's not my computer because I've quite happily done number 3 on that list and it works fine.

[Panbreed]

Had the exact same problem, but I managed to fix it by exiting steam, then I went into my steam folder, ran the steam.exe file as admin. I then went into the witcher 2 folder and the bin folder within it, then I ran the file witcher2.exe as admin.

After that it worked fine for me. Hope this helps.

[Aaden]

So, you're
A. admitting to have pirated the game
B. threatening Steam (who don't give a damn, btw, since you(r friend) bought the game there already) with more piracy
and C. demanding help, clad in some nice phrases to make it look like a request.

Did I get that right?

Boy, if this ain't the beginning of a great friendship.

One question though, if you(r friend) bought it retail, why insisting on running it through Steam? Even if you're from Russia and thus able to register the retail version with Steam - why bother, if it's giving you that sort of trouble?

[Vinthir]

Due to the specifics of the last 1.3 patch (which does not replace the whole 9 gigs packed file in the game installation folder but rather just adds and removes some stuff, this way you don't have to download a 9gig patch) when you re-verify the game it simply reverts to 1.2 because that's the last version that fully replaced the preceding one's files. So re-verification won't help you here.

About the inability to run the game though; For some people right-clicking the Steam app and running it as admin (even if they are already on Admin account) is indeed enough to fix issues with launching the Steam version.

Others may discover that their antiviri stealthily quarantined, sandboxed or deleted some of our files.

For yet others it turns out to be a Registry issue. I'll write the rest as spoiler because I don't want suggestions to tinker with Registry to just lie in the open.

Open Start, there Run, type regedit and click OK. In the Registry check:
1. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\CD Projekt Red\The Witcher 2 - does it exist? (It should on 32-bit XP. Might on 32-bit Vista and 7.)
2. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\CD Projekt Red\The Witcher 2 - does it exist? (It should on 64 bit systems and might on 32-bit Vista and XP)
3. If HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\CD Projekt Red\The Witcher 2 or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\CD Projekt Red\The Witcher 2 exists then on the right is the value for InstallFolder the same as the path to your The Witcher 2 folder? If not adjust it.
And if you lack the correct Registry entries I suggest you contact our Tech Support at the address I'm giving below.

These are just three suggestions, the issue might lie elsewhere.

In general with problems with launching the game I suggest writing to help2start (at) thewitcher.com . You may mention you read this post. It's helpful to attach your dxdiag in .txt format and to describe when exactly the game fails to launch (Nothing after clicking Launch game in the Launcher? Crash at splash screens? etc.)

Ah yes, and it's not possible to register the retail version of the game on Steam in such a way that eg. achievements would work. Sorry.