Calibre Fails to Initialize on Windows 11 After Installation – Assistance Needed

[ganglion]

Hi everyone,

I’m encountering an issue where Calibre fails to launch on my Windows 11 system. Here’s the breakdown:

Problem Description:

• After downloading and installing the latest version of Calibre (v7.26), the application does not open when double-clicking the shortcut or executable.
  
• A brief Calibre process appears in Task Manager but disappears immediately without any error message.
  
• Other programs work normally, ruling out system-wide compatibility issues.

Troubleshooting Steps Taken (Unsuccessful):

• Reinstallation: Uninstalled and reinstalled Calibre multiple times.
• Startup Conflicts: Disabled non-Microsoft startup items via msconfig to rule out background app interference.
• Profile Reset: Deleted Calibre-related folders in AppData\Roaming\calibre to reset configurations.
• Admin Rights: Tried launching Calibre as Administrator (right-click > "Run as administrator").
• Antivirus Scan: Temporarily disabled antivirus/firewall software to check for conflicts.

Additional Notes:

• No error logs are generated during the failed launch.
• Windows 11 is fully updated.

Request: Has anyone else faced this issue? I’d appreciate guidance. Thank you in advance for your help!

[kovidgoyal]

https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq...ing-on-windows

[JSWolf]

@ganglion Try safe mode to see is calibre works. If it does, it's something that runs when you start your system that's causing the problem.

[Jaws]

Ganglion, I suggest double-checking to make sure that your graphics drivers and interface systems are fully up to date. Although I haven't seen this with Calibre, I have seen it with other programs, and about half the time the problem was that the program wanted/required a more-recent graphics driver (for the hardware) or interface (like DirectX) than was installed on the machine. Those gave similar "won't start up" behavior, and were fixed each time by manually updating the system-level graphics stuff.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Jaws

Ganglion, I suggest double-checking to make sure that your graphics drivers and interface systems are fully up to date. Although I haven't seen this with Calibre, I have seen it with other programs, and about half the time the problem was that the program wanted/required a more-recent graphics driver (for the hardware) or interface (like DirectX) than was installed on the machine. Those gave similar "won't start up" behavior, and were fixed each time by manually updating the system-level graphics stuff.

With calibre, I have read of some cases where going back to an older graphics driver worked where going to the latest version did not.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

With calibre, I have read of some cases where going back to an older graphics driver worked where going to the latest version did not.

I've had that with Nvidia and Intel GPUs and Steam games. Used a Vulkan test suite to check.

Generally only a new graphics card absolutely needs the "newest" driver.