First, the error; second, the question.

I do not see a screenshot. This forum does not directly support images. Instead, some choices for posting screenshots are:

• type the error
• post it to a third party site (e.g., imgbb, postimages) and post the link here
• post the screenshot to the GitHub issue tracker

In case your screenshot is the the same as the text error opening file for writing, here are a few questions:

• Is BleachBit closed before you start the installation? If you want to be extra sure, reboot Windows.
• Does your account have administrator privileges on your local machine? If it is your personal computer and you did not change it, then it probably does have admin privileges. If you are not sure, that's fine.
• Have you tried installing for all users instead of for the current user? Some users are indifferent, but if you prefer the current user option, we can continue troubleshooting that.

To rephrase the questions into some options you can try now:

1. Close BleachBit before upgrading it. Reboot Windows to double check
2. Uninstall the old BleachBit 4.6.2 before upgrading
3. Run the installer with administrative privileges: right click on the Windows installer and choose "run as administrator"
4. Consider installing for all users

Regarding resetting size and position of desktop icons, uncheck the Shellbags option under Windows Explorer. In case you forget, notice that when you enable it, it shows this warning: "This will reset the position of desktop icons"

Okay, we are getting closer.

Either the application is stopping before it can show anything, or it's running in the background. To check the latter, open Windows Task Manager. Switch to the Details tab. Then, look for bleachbit.exe. Is it running? If so, it's hidden. If not, then it's crashing.

If crashing, please try this:

1. Open Command Prompt. One way is to hit the WINDOWS key on the keyboard, then type Command Prompt, and then click on the search result with the black rectangle.
2. Copy this text to the clipboard (including the quotation marks): "c:\program files (x86)\bleachbit\bleachbit.exe" --debug --gui --no-uac
3. Right click on the Command Prompt window to paste.
4. Press the Enter key.

Did the GUI open? Or, is there an error message in the Command Prompt window? If there is an error message, please copy and paste it here.

(In the future, I will make this easier, so you do not need the Command Prompt.)

In Windows Task Manager, kill the process.

Then open Command Prompt. (It does not have to be as administrator.)

Repeat the same command but please change bleachbit.exe to bleachbit_console.exe . Does this give more information?

For both Failed to get language options and "Access denied: Could not write configuration to C:\Users\XXXX\AppData\Roaming\BleachBit\bleachbit.ini", please try renaming or deleting the bleachbit.ini file (which contains configuration).

Let me know whether that helps.

It's unusual that there is nothing shown after the line "already an admin." When I follow the same procedure with the same BleachBit version, I have many more lines after "already an admin."

Do you use remote desktop, multiple monitors, high DPI, high text scaling, or other special software/configuration regarding the display?

Which antivirus/security software do you use? (examples: Windows Security /Defender, Norton 360, Bitdefender, Avast, McAfee)

When BleachBit is running but invisible, hold the ALT key while pressing TAB several times. Is there a window with the BleachBit icon (yellow broom over grey storage device)? When I do the same procedure on my side, I see both windows: the command prompt and the graphical window with the icon.

Have you installed many extra fonts?

Again when BleachBit is running but invisible, please check the details tab again in Windows Task Manager. Look for bleachbit.exe or bleachbit_console.exe. What are the status, CPU, and memory? On mine, the CPU is high for a moment while it is starting, but then CPU drops to zero. (It would be abnormal for the CPU to stay high.) The status is always running, and memory is 34,824 K.

Here's another thing to try. In Command Prompt before running bleachbit, type set PANGOCAIRO_BACKEND=fc and hit ENTER. This changes how BleachBit displays the graphical interface. The effect lasts only within the current Command Prompt session.

Hul,

Could you please check in the Events section of BitDefender to check whether it is blocking BleachBit, or could you temporarily pause BitDefender to check whether this allows BleachBit to start? Many years ago, there was an issue that BitDefender falsely detected malware in an SQLite DLL that ships with BleachBit, and this caused a startup issue.

Before pausing security software, I need to remind users for security to be sure to download bleachbit from the official site www.bleachbit.org . (The sites ending in .net and .org are not official sites.) Also, you should see a digital signature with my name to confirm the software was not altered.

In case it is not BitDefender, to be honest, this is a strange issue without a clear solution, but if you want, we can continue troubleshooting. So that it does not get lost in my email inbox, would you open a ticket on GitHub? You can either summarize what's written here, or you can just post a link to this conversation. As a next step, I might send you a special build with extra logging to pinpoint the root cause. Once I understand it better, I can build a fix solution.