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Please...for the love of the gaming gods...does anyone know how to fix this error message? I have uninstalled and installed Skyrim twice: from the cd AND steam. Steam updates fine but when I try to open Skyrim it says: error message failed to start game (missing executable).

Contacting Steam is waste of time (tried that before) so I'm hoping someone on here has seen this before. I'm wondering if I have to reinstall windows.

It's just saying that the Skyrim.exe isn't where the launcher thinks it should be.

Open up Windows Explorer and browse to C:\Program Files{x86)\Steam\Steam Apps\common\Skyrim and look for the .exe (Application) there. You should be able to double click it to launch manually.

Thank you! I'll give it a shot and see what happens. I hope this doesn't mean I have to open it up manually every time. What a pain.

In Steam you should be able to right click on the fame in your library and choose settings. From there you can set the path to the executable.

It still isn't working. I wonder if I jacked up the registry by dragging the saved games into the skyrim folder before opening a new save. The game wont even load manually.

Does it give the same error when you Double Click on SkyrimLauncher,exe or TESV.exe?

Yes. My husband seems to think that what is preventing steam from launching the game is the fact that I carried the saved gamed without opening skyrim and doing a save first. We are both stumped. A new install of windows is next on the list. Unbelieavable.

Whoa. New install of Windows? That's a bit extreme.

What do you mean by you "carried the saved game without opening Skyrim and doing a save first"?

Supposedly a new game is supposed to be started before the saved files are placed in the games folder...so that Steam can verify the connection or whatever.

EDIT: The exec says that the "application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling application may fix problem". So yeah, this is a Visual C++ error. I was getting the same error message sometimes when I would play the game. There are a couple ways to fix it...good thing I have tomorrow free.

I agree with Scozzar. Definitely no need to re-install Windows because a game doesn't work. If Windows works, it works, and the game not working... it's a different matter. If you have it on a HDD, a simple defrag may help.

What language are you running? Have you tried another language?

Well, the thing is that we want to switch back to Windows 7 (long story). Thank you for the suggestions and I will SURELY try them. I've kind of given up for the moment until my anger with the whole thing subsides.