Just bought Anno 1800 as I found it on discount, and I've enjoyed previous Anno games.

The game downloaded without a hitch, the problem either comes during install or startup. After the launch window mentions the "Installing DirectX End-User Runtimes (1/1)", the hour glass circle just keeps looping, for hours. Sam issue if I press play afterwards, first the "Installing DirectX End-User Runtimes (1/1)" is shown for a couple of seconds, and then the loop just continues.

I've done the following:

• followed all the PC troubleshooting steps,
• my hardware fulfills all the requirements
• I've installed the latest GPU drivers
• I've re-downloaded the game and installed on another drive.
• I've closed all unnecessary applications
• I've tried to start the launcher as Administrator
• I've tried Offline mode
• I've tried to disable Automatic game updates
• I've NOT tried to change to DX11 in the engine.ini, as the folder is not created.
• Apparently the chat function is not available, so I've not been able to share my DxDiag and MSinfo.

Any tips? I have Win 11 installed, but that does not seem to be a problem for others.