Check these in order
Most of the causes below leave a sign you can see in under a minute, so the order is the cheapest check first, not the most likely one.
1. It is already running
w0a allows one copy. If one is already running — including hidden in the notification area, which is where it starts when it is set to start with Windows — a second double-click does not open a new window. It tells the running copy to come to the front, restores it if it was minimised, and closes itself. So what looks like "nothing happened" is often the window appearing behind something else, or on another monitor.
If nothing appears at all, open Task Manager and look for w0a.exe on the Details tab. A copy that is listed but will not come forward is stuck. End it there and start w0a again. The next start sees that the last run did not close cleanly and runs its recovery before anything else.
2. The administrator prompt was declined or missed
w0a asks for administrator rights every time it starts; Windows will not run it otherwise. If the prompt was answered No, or it opened behind another window and timed out, nothing starts and nothing is written anywhere. On an account that is not an administrator, the prompt asks for an administrator's password instead of a Yes.
Why it needs the rights at all: Why it asks for administrator rights.
3. Windows or your security tool stopped the file
On a first launch, Windows may show a blue "Windows protected your PC" screen. That is SmartScreen, and it has its own page: Windows blocked the download.
If the file is gone from disk, or the double-click says it cannot find it, a security tool removed it: My antivirus removed the file.
4. The download is incomplete
An interrupted download leaves a file that looks fine and will not run. Compare its SHA-256 with the one printed on the download page:
Get-FileHash .\w0a-*.exe -Algorithm SHA256If it does not match, download it again. The full check is on Checking the download really came from us.
5. This Windows cannot run it
w0a needs 64-bit Windows 10 version 1607 or newer, or Windows 11. On a Windows device with an ARM processor it shows a message in Turkish and English and closes. On a Windows 10 older than 1607, or a 32-bit Windows, Windows usually stops the file with its own error before w0a can say anything. Nothing else needs installing: the file carries its own .NET runtime.
6. The agreement was closed
The first start shows the licence agreement. Closing it without accepting closes w0a, because there is no earlier agreement to run under. The next start asks again.
When it starts and then fails
w0a writes down why. There are three places to look, and they answer different questions.
A message box. If startup itself throws, a box titled w0a says "Startup error:" followed by the details. Copy the text with Ctrl+C while the box is focused before closing it. If w0a fails later with a "Critical error:" box, it asks whether to send a crash report; nothing is sent unless you answer Yes.
The error log. Every failure is a line here, newest at the bottom:
%LocalAppData%\w0a\errors.logPaste that path into the Explorer address bar. If Send error diagnostics is on in Settings > Privacy (it is by default, and only with a licence key entered), new lines are uploaded every six hours with your account name, profile paths and key patterns removed. With it off, the file leaves your PC only when you send it. Details: Where the log file is.
The startup trace. Every launch overwrites one small file with each startup step and its time since the process began:
%LocalAppData%\w0a\startup-trace.logThe last line is how far startup got. If it ends at "window shown" and the window is black or empty, the first frame never painted. w0a nudges it up to three times, four seconds apart, and each nudge adds a "first frame missing" line. That trace is the fastest way for us to see which step stalled.
Safe mode
If w0a crashes twice in a row, the next start runs in safe mode. Ending it from Task Manager counts as a crash here, because w0a cannot tell the two apart. A banner says so. Sensors and automatic actions stay off for that launch, and a GPU profile saved for startup is put back to stock and switched off. If your PC shut down unexpectedly several times in 24 hours, w0a applies nothing that launch either.
The banner offers Revert All Tweaks or All Good, Continue Normally. Revert if the crashes started right after you applied something. Closing w0a normally resets the crash count, so the start after that is a normal one unless Windows keeps shutting down unexpectedly.
Still nothing
Write to us with three things: the last lines of errors.log, the whole of startup-trace.log, and your Windows version (press Win+R, type winver). Together they identify almost every startup failure without another round of questions.
Related
What a game booster or optimizer can change in Windows, what it cannot, and how to check one before you trust it: Do game boosters and optimizers actually work?
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