Great,

Went to play at lunch , tried to click "play"

Asked if I trust to make changes , said yes

Goes back to launcher screen , WTF cant play anymore at all , wont launch , keeps going back to launcher screen

Even my desktop shortcut went to a generic logo , skrim logo disappeared

#@$@#$@#$@#$@##$@#$

Ok I just posted about this before I saw yours. Having the same issue.

Are you playing on Steam? If so, has the 1.3 update installed? I think the problem occurs when the update install is still in progress.

Re verify steam cache

Restart steam. I almost threw my keyboard through a window when this happened to me, so I started killing every program in a fit of rage (not really, the end added for drama)

Basically, I restarted steam and voila it worked.

God dammit some for me now I wanted to re-install but that [censored] won't work either without downloading 5.7GB...
This Steam [censored] is annyoing as hell! I try to install from DVD but no work with the method described here....damn I loose my fate and may just hoist the jolly roger which is a shame really since I am an early adopter and paid early (mid of October) left alone in the dark!
g:\steam\steam.exe -install X: DOES NOT WORK...

AFTER TEN TIMES RUNNING THE SAME COMMAND AFTER CLOSING STEAM EACH TIME IT FINALLY STARTED TO INSTALL

!!!!!SNAFU!!!!!

Remove any edits to either executable, remove any script wrappers and shader wrappers, remove mods, delete your ini configs, then re-verify your install. Many people are having the same silly issues because they forgot to do one or more of these things after the update.

Missing "tesv.exe". I fiddled with "do not automatically update this game..." and restarted Steam, it is downloading now.

When in doubt, completely shutdown Steam, delete both TESV.exe and the launcher exe, then go delete both ini files (My Documents\My Games\Skyrim). Restart Steam and immediately validate the game files for Skyrim.

If you had any mods or other launchers in there, you should remove them prior to validating the files through Steam.

I had my whole Steam deleted that includes .\My Games\Skyrim and the installer was giving me trouble 17min to download left now after inally get Skyrim to install from disc...I really HATE Steam...It just causes trouble does not protect against piracy and it is using my precious ressources for stuff I won''t use...And it bugs me with AD's...Annoying this^^

This happened to me now as well. It happened when patch 1.2 was released too, but then Steam simply started downloading the patch, then it worked. This time however, it doesn't download the patch so I can't play either. Doesn't Steam install patches if you have mods installed?

I had the same problem and just had heard about the problem occuring with 1.2.12.0 well I had it today and my mods were removed as were the INI files. I then deleted all files in my Steam/Skyrim folder and retried to no avail (it wanted to download instead installing from dvd) eventually I found the option to delete all local files in Steam client and used it then tried g:\path-to-steam\steam.exe -install X: (where X is your DVD driveletter) about ten times until it finally fired up the installation...

My .exe file is gone from the Skyrim folder. This is interesting, to say the least...

Tried to start game in steam offline mode , wont work.

Restarted computer , wont work.

Tried to relaunch steam , wont work.

Game has been working fine up until now. This is ridiculous.

I'm sorry but I didn't understand much from that man.
Anyway, I really hope they fix this without us having to fix our files every time... I mean, they can't expect us to remove all our mods for each patch.

Ok, I got the game to run again after the launcher loop.
No archaic trick, really. Verify integrity of game cache, launch the game from the Steam client (not a desktop shortcut), and a new .exe was downloaded. Obviously, the .ini tweaks were gone, but the game started, at least.

In short:
Gave up on the loop and tried a reinstall
I had to delete my whole Steam/Skyrim folder
I deleted all files in "My Games\Skyrim"
Still couldn't re-install using the DVD and this command: "C:\Program Files\Steam\Steam.exe" -install E:"
Started Steam and found the option to delete all local files and did so
Retried C:\Program Files\Steam\Steam.exe" -install E: about ten times
Finally it started to install
Just finished the downloads/updates and trying to play now...

Alright man, thx.

So how do I freakin fix my game so i can play again for WHAT I PAID FOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@#$@#$@#@#$#$@

Thanks to everyone who posted here. Was about to scream, when I followed some guidance here. The update is now installing. Steam didn't install it when it loaded up. If you are having this problem, this seems to be the fix. I moved the update auto to don't update auto and back again and it started working.

Had the same problem.

Went into skyrim folder in steam (C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\skyrim) and set the "run as administrator" tickbox on both SkyrimLauncher.exe and TESV.exe.

Works fine now

Hope that helps.

Why is everyone trying to command line a DVD install? Just open your Steam account, leave it open, open your "My Computer", click your DVD drive, double-click "Setup". Watch the loading screen as it says "Installing from Disk" and within 15 min. (depending on your internet connection's speed for Steam downloading the patch) play the game.

This is how I originally installed the game (which actually included having to enter my product key before it installed from the disk, but if you're reinstalling it should skip that step.) I have to admit though that I (as well as many others who learned our lesson from FONV) haven't been online to Steam since I originally installed it so have none of hip-shot patches. Perhaps they have changed things drastically but I don't see how they could have changed this.

Give it a try, you have nothing to lose. (Also give Steam enough time to download the patch, they are not very obvious in their download process.)

FYI Everybody

Had to go into Steam , right click properties , navigate to Verify Local Files , let it do that. And was going again.

I did verify that TESV.exe got deleted from the install directory during initial patching to 1.3

IT WAS GONE MAN!!! (imagine voice from " The Thing") missing the boiler

After verifying files , this replaced the missing file. This is way screwed up.

Anyways back at hacking and slashing away.

GL everyone , you gonna need it.

Umm....never mind....Thanks

I am guessing everyone with this issue has installed Steam, and hence Skyrim, to the default Program Files directory and is running either Win 7 or Vista? Bad idea because the UAC (User Account Controls) are by default switched on for that folder, which can result in game files being marked as hidden or read-only, resulting in "argh my exe file has disappeared" (no it's just a hidden file) or "I can't update it" (it's been marked as read-only).

If you reinstall somewhere else, anywhere else, as long as it's not your Program Files directory which is heavily "protected", these problems will probably not happen. The best plan is to not let anything install to your Program Files directory, ever.