Jan 2025 - WoW running in task manager but not displaying on screen - had this issue since new PC Windows 11 and have tried every single link, every single page to try and get this resolved- some people with the exact same issues that have had multiple resolutions but none at all have worked for me
Trying to play Classic Era Anniversary Realm, but have tested with PTR and Retail - no form of WoW will display on screen but all show in task manager.
This is a work PC so limited to dabbling with anything BIOS and backend - would imagine this to be completely unnecessary for a fresh PC and game install i hope!..
PC is very much more than capable of handling the game
Lenovo
Processor 13th Gen Intel(R) Core™ i7-13700, 2100 Mhz, 16 Core(s), 24 Logical Processor(s)
16GB
Adapter Description Intel(R) UHD Graphics 770
Current game version as of 16th Jan 2025 1.15.5.58555
PC -
- All drivers up to date
- Connections are stable
- Sophos anti-virus not providing any warnings or errors that the game is being blocked. Settings have been changed to approve/allow anything battlenet, blizzard, wow related.
I do not have permission to completely remove/uninstall Sophos but my admin has done the best they can to approve every aspect. - Windows Firewall tested both on and off with every combination, has no affect whether on or off
- No errors in the Windows Event Viewer
- DirectX Diag tool info shows no errors
- This is a fresh install of battlenet and WoW
- Multiple FULL uninstalls and clear reinstall of both Battlenet and WoW multiple times (even going into %appdata% %localappdata% etc files - all of them to remove everything blizzard/battlenet/wow on each occasion)
- Run every launch/.exe file as administrator (I am administrator)
- Run the program in compatability mode (again with every combination of run as admin/disable run as admin applied)
- There are no error logs, wtf files etc for me to delete in the program file - this install is fresh and the game has not yet been opened to sync any interface settings.
Battlenet
- Additional comments to try and get the game to open -windowed
- Additional comments to try and get the game to use -d3d11
- Additional comments in relation to driver extensions etc (can’t remeber them, but when i made an initial type wow error message popped up with a list of command lines and i also tried them all)
- Scan and repair, multiple times
- Reset in-game settings multiple times
- Run for updates multiple times
- Have tried to launch the game individually from the .exe file
PC Settings
- Dabbled in display settings - graphics and confirmed WoW is linking to the integrated GPU
- GPU preference is High performance
Task Manager
- Ran as a high priority
Notable things:
When I initially downloaded the battlenet launcher setup.exe I had to right click and run as administrator for it to begin however noticed this was because it was installing via the user shared drive
When I made a fresh attempt and copied the file directly on to the C: drive and ran as normal I was not prompted by any admin right restrictions.
Regardless, I have still tried every combination to launch battlenet and/or the WoW classic .exe directly as admin/run as admin unchecked. As well as compatability mode combinations.
When I try to run the wowclassic.exe file it comes up with with the box for me to select my region every single time even though I have already set this up via the battlenet launcher.
When i open the game through the world of warcraft launcher.exe it will open up via battlenet and not query my region.
But for some reason the wowclassic.exe file will not remember these settings (maybe because I haven’t fully gone in to and come out of the game for them to be ‘saved’?)
Sophos - I’m still not 100% this isn’t to blame but without being able to get into the back end of this to see myself then I suppose i’ll never know.
** IT Admin confirmed everything Battlenet, Blizzard, WoW related has been excepted and Sophos is not prompting any alerts blocking any apps/programs for displaying…
He is very confident it’s not Sophos anti virus - and i’ve already tried all this with and without windows firewall.
Unless if I created a new admin user on the PC would this be fresh without the link to Sophos? (at least for me to test it…?)
**Tested this, made a new admin user and still the same issue
Recently tried varying app permission routes none of which have made any difference.
(This one for example: https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows11/comments/1d6nrhq/is_there_a_less_painful_way_to_identify_and_turn/ )
The game appears to alternate between running specifically as a ‘background process’ or under the Battlenet umbrella below Apps
The game is ‘running’ but no icon on taskbar, no sound and no display
Been at this for weeks now but still trying!..
