Launcher failure

As I'm sure by now you're probably about as sick of this as I am, but I miss this game and just can't seem to figure out WTF is wrong here.

First SP problems, those got fixed then MP problems and from there it got worse.

I download Winmerg in an attempt to figure out what was wrong with my FLMM and CF folders etc. and some how something got moved and the game wouldn't launch after that.

I uninstalled FL so many times now I'm tied of counting, I read post after post on here with people with similar problems and none of their solutions worked for me.

I cleaned the Registry, deleted folders, I even went as far as a clean Windows system (8.1) with nothing on it but Freelancer and of course AV software, and yes it has permissions through that and my Firewall.
All FL, FLMM, and CF EXE files plus set to Admin, All permissions, Read - Write, Compatibility everything I read here. Now nothing launches not SP or MP.

It seems to update, but then it says "Freelancer is launching" the screen goes black and then kicks back to the desktop with, "Freelancer has stopped working". It does this for both SP & MP.

Is there a step by stupid step for Dummies that someone who went through this can give me to explain WTF I'm missing here, years in the making and waiting, it finally arrives and I can't get it to work.

I can't tell you how many times I've installed FL CF 1.9 with out problems, and I always do exactly what it says in the instructions. What I'm I missing with 2.0 that just doesn't want to work even when I read and reread step by painful step of what's in the install folder.

Thank you in advance.

Quote from NucNuc

Not glad to hear, that you are still grounded M8

I attach a ... guide, that - now - works for me everytime I do the de-/re-installation shuffle
Helped some others with such problem also, at least one with win 8.1.
(for win 7 just the compatibility part has to be skipped)
[xattach=5089][/xattach][xattach=5090][/xattach]

There is somewhere an earlier version of it already (too lazy to search right noe ). But I added a change,
that might be of special interest in your case in pt. 2, from where to run "Freelancer.exe" for the first time.

Hope it helps M8

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I tried everything you said just as carefully as stated and two things seem out of wak:

One - After installing Crossifire when it's done and FLMM automatically opens the Crossfire Mod already has a green check mark by it, and if I hover over it the "Activate" button turns to "Deactivate" and this is before I Restarted the computer, after the Restart it's still the same (Basically no need for me to activate it through FLMM, cause it did it during the install???).

Two - When I go to launch the EXE from the location listed:
- open drive C:\
-- open folder "programs(x86)"
--- open folder "Microsoft games"
---- open folder "Freelancer"
----- open folder "EXE"

It asks me for the Freelancer Disk "Please insert the correct CD-ROM, select OK and restart application".

What's wrong with this picture, I don't want to give up on FL CF, but my patience is running short on this crap.

Don't mean to cry so much but I F'ing want to play and this Sh't is really pissing me off.

My next move is to find a pirated version of Windows 7 and I'll have to just play in a VM, cause I'm not dropping anther 300+ on a Windows system just to play FL.

Quote from Riebens

I had the same problem.

Set the shaders to "Vanilla FL" and it works for me .

Kind Regards

OK - I did set it to Vanilla FL and fixed the oversize characters with the file in the FLMM Font folder, strange because the very first time I installed 2.0 SweetFX was the setting that worked.

As it is now SP works perfect thanks to everyone's help and patience, but now I'm back to square zero with MP again.
When I originally launched it I got to the server listings before a network "Allow this program" popped up, I clicked yes Trust this application and BAM it crashes to the desktop with this error in the log:

[i]:Starting Update...

[i]:Prepare Freelancer Start...

[w]: Could not copy file from C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Games/Freelancer/EXE/Content-0C458F.dll to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Freelancer\EXE2/Content-0C458F.dll

[x]:Error Copy [E000002FF]

I'm guessing somebody here knows what this is telling me, I'm every so close now and have great confidence in my fellow Freelancers to help me get this working.

UPDATE:
This method works on Windows 8.1 & Windows 10 Technical Preview

1: Use NucNuc's Installation guide pt 1.txt to completely remove Freelancer.

After using this method search for the registry location mentioned by Forlon: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE | SOFTWARE | Wow6432Node | Freelancer Mod Manager - and delete "mods\<Name of the mod you have activated>"

2: Use NucNuc's Installation guide pt 2.txt to install Freelancer.

If your having problems with over sized text like I did, activate the Font Fix - I did both:

This one mentioned by Wanderer - "fonts-fix.cmd" in your Freelancer directory, or by manually installing the font from "Crossfire_2.ttf" file located in "<FLMM folder>\mods\Freelancer 2 - Crossfire\DATA\FONTS\Files\"

This one mentioned by SilverFox - There's a fonts-fix.cmd in your \Freelancer folder now to fix this.

Then set Shaders to "Vinilla FL" as mentioned by Riebens.

After I launched and got the error mentioned above, I just rebooted and presto everything works great!

Thanks all for your much valued assistance - See You In Space!