Brave browser will not launch on Windows 10

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Description of the issue:
How can this issue be reproduced?

  1. Everything was working as per usual, I left the computer for a couple hours, didn’t change anything - didn’t turn the computer off, no Windows updates. Suddenly I cannot launch Brave Browser.

  2. I tried running as admin, not admin, I tried every troubleshooting step I could find online. Doesn’t appear to be the “Family Settings” bug that’s going on with Microsoft as I was able to install Chrome and it worked fine. Also, I don’t use the Family Settings feature.

  3. I completely uninstalled everything Brave and reinstalled, still won’t launch. I don’t get any error messages and it doesn’t start and then crash. There’s no activity at all. It doesn’t appear in task manager even for a second. I have tried completely disabling my antivirus. It’s behaving as though the .exe is being blocked but I can’t find anything that might be blocking it.

  4. Am using the “BraveBrowserSetup-BRV010” to reinstall. The installer seems to be working but no dice when I try to launch.

Expected result:

Brave should launch.

Brave Version( check About Brave):

Can’t check version if it doesn’t run. ** See Update Below **
Brave 1.80.113 (Official Build) (64-bit)] (https://brave.com/latest/)

Additional Information:

** Update **

By removing the “run as administrator” check from the Shortcut Properties, I am able to get it to run now. YouTube Ads are still being blocked and everything seems to be working properly. Thank goodness I was able to reinstate all my settings because I backed up the “User Data” folder. Whew!

However, I am now running the browser w/o Administrator status. What could have happened that caused this issue? I would like to be able to get everything back to the way it was before. I don’t consider this issue fully solved.

Now that I can see the version number - I’m running:

Brave 1.80.113 (Official Build) (64-bit)] (https://brave.com/latest/)

** Further Update **

If I go to the shortcut, right click and choose “run as administrator” it launches fine.

If I go to the shortcut’s properties, check the “run as administrator” box - then it will not run and replicates the original issue. ???

So, the problem seems to only be present when the shortcut’s “run as administrator” box is checked.

2

You did well.

Sometimes, I have wished that Brave Browser (“BB”) had a setting, where the user enters the path to the location where the user maintains that backed up User Data folder; and, if upon startup of Brave Browser, BB does not find that backup . . . then BB will not run, but displays a pop-up message:

“Hey! You must maintain a backup of the User Data folder, in order for Brave Browser to run. Also, please create a new Windows OS System Restore Point, every day - especially ‘just before I walked away from my computer for a while.’”