How to fix performance issues caused by rundll32.exe/gameux bug

[Karlotta]

There is currently a bug affecting some windows installations, which affects game performance. The issue was possibly caused by a recent windows update, as it seems to now affect the "vanilla" Freelancer game too.

How do I notice if I am affected?

There are 2 ways in which the bug manifests itself:

- In the Launcher you have to press "Launch Game" twice before the game will start, and the second time you have to tell the prompt to shut down the already game instance

- There is a rundll32.exe task (visible by opening the task manager with control+alt+delete), which uses up a lot of CPU. This may cause the game frame rate to stutter.

In order to solve the problem until there is a mod-side solution, there are two possibilites

1. Shut down the rundll32.exe task after the game has started. To make sure you're really shutting down the correct rundll32.exe instance (there may be other non harmful ones running, used by other applications):

Open your Task Manager (press control+alt+delete and select Task Manager), and go to the "Processes" tab. Set Freelancer to start in Windowed mode in the launcher (you can switch to fullscreen and back pressing Alt+Return). Click on "Launch Game" in the launcher. After the game started in windowed mode (you may have to lick "Launch Game" twice and tell it to shoot down the running instance of Freelancer), look in the processes if there is a rundll32.exe task that was started the moment you clicked "Launch Game", that uses an unusually high amount of CPU. Close this process down and game performance should be back to normal.

2. A more permanent fix that doesn't have to be done every time you start the game: You rename C:\Windows\SysWOW64\gameux.dll to C:\Windows\SysWOW64\gameux so the system doesn't find it, because this is the program that is causing the bug. If this somehow has negatively affects other games (none were identified by anyone so far) you can undo the change by simply renaming it back to gameux.dll.

To rename it you will have to give yourself the rights permissions. That is done by right-clicking on gameux.dll and going into Properties > Security > Advanced > Owner > Edit and give the file to the Administrator account. After you have done that, edit the file permissions (right click the file, then go to permissions > edit) so the Administrator has full permissions. You should now be able to rename it with administrator permissions.

Video that shows how to give the right permissions for renaming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULd8Y8pAlak

Other mentions of this bug:
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/f...597996108/

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