Remove the Paradox Launcher from Cities Skylines
Please note: this will not work on Mac.
This is tested on Windows 7, Windows 10, and Ubuntu 18.04, but it is possible that it also works on Windows Vista, 8, and all Ubuntu based Linux Distro’s.
The methods:
- Method 1, for Windows operating systems.
- Method 2, for Linux operating systems.
Method 1
Step 1: Uninstall the Paradox Launcher
Go to control panel, and uninstall the Paradox Launcher, if the launcher is not there, you can skip this step.
Step 2: Create a .bat file
Go to the Cities:Skylines folder, to find the folder, right click on Cities:Skylines in your Steam library, then manage, and then browse local files.
Turn on file extensions, to do this click on the view tab on Windows 10 and tools on Windows 7.
Create a text file, and rename it to “Cities.bat”, make sure it ends with “.bat”
This is how the file should look.
Step 3: Edit the .bat file
Right click on Cities.bat and click on edit, in notepad, paste the following:
start Cities.exe %command%
And save the file.
Note: launch options (example -noWorkshop) need to be placed between “start cities.exe and the “%command%” in the cities.bat file and not in the launch options in Steam.
Step 4: Integrate the .bat file with Steam.
Right click on Cities:Skylines in your Steam library, and then on Properties. Click on “Set launch Options” And copy the following into your launch options:
Cities.bat %command%
You should now be able to play Cities:Skylines without the Paradox Launcher.
If you see the command prompt before Cities:Skylines opens, this is normal, this is the .bat file.
Note: If the launcher try’s to install itself, remove it and try step 4 again.
Note: Steam Overlay will not work, screenshots still work; they will however be stored in: “%localappdata%\Colossal Order\Cities_Skylines\Screenshots”. Use F12 to take a screenshot.
Step 5 (optional, but recommended): Delete the launcher completely:
In the Cities:Skylines folder (where you have created the .bat file) you can find “launcher-installer-windows.msi” Delete this, and create a text-file and rename it to: “launcher-installer-windows.msi”. Make sure it ends with “.msi”. After that, right click on “launcher-installer-windows.msi” then “Properties” and then click on “Read-Only” And then apply.
This will make sure the launcher can’t redownload itself during a update.
Method 2
Step 1:
Download NotParadoxLauncher for Linux from Github.
Step 2:
Enter the following command in the terminal to download the library’s that NotParadoxLauncher needs:
sudo apt install libqt5pas1
Step 3:
Make sure that “bootstrapper-v2” and “launcher” are both marked as executable in properties -> permissions.
Step 4:
Start “launcher” This will find the path of Cities:Skylines.
Step 5:
Start the game from Steam and the launcher will start Cities:Skylines.
Note: This may not work in the future, if Paradox decides to screw us over further.
Note: For Mac users, you can use Bootcamp to make a dualboot with Windows 10.