I’m getting initialization error 4 whenever I’m starting sketchUp. Through main menu, through file doesn’t matter. Layout works fine. I’ve tried several versions. The problem persist on my desktop. My laptop works fine. I’ve did a clean install of windows, updated the gpu driver, installed with gpu without gpu. no solution. stuck at error 4.
a quick search on google tells me it could be anti-virus related
Disabled the antivirus, still the same.
The other cause can be the firewall blocking it, perhaps because of the wrong way you installed Sketchup.
So, make sure you installed Sketchup in a right way:
_
You can also try to allow Sketchup app to communicate through windows firewall in Windows Security center.
Nope. Did that with administrator privileges too.
Other ideas:
Make sure you have latest graphic driver installed from Nvidia site.
Go to Windows Settings, System>Display>Graphics> Default graphic settings
Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling : On
__
Go to Windows Settings, System>Display>Graphics
Custom option for apps
make sure SketchUp is listed with High Performance (If not, Brose in SketchUp.exe)
__
On Nvidia Control panel:
You can try Offline Installer:
Reboot your computer before you install it.
Dont forget to right click on the SketchUpFull-2025-0-660-288.exe and chose Run as administrator !!!
Did those changes. Doesn’t work.
Did you do it by right-click “Run as Administrator”? Not the same as being an administrator…
Yes. Right click> run as administrator.
Are you using F-secure?
That’s a common cause of this error in various software
Nah. Just default windows defender.
Looking around- various performance improving apps like CCleaner or Advanced Systemcare 11 can cause this kind of thing to
Basically something external is interferring with the software when it tries to boot.
I’d run “msconfig” from the windows search, go to services and stop anything running that isn’t a microsoft service.
Restart the machine and try again.
I think I’ve found the solve. I stopped the windows smartscreen option. But I’m not sure. Sketchup is running fine. I’m trying several options and will give specific result.
I turned this off and restarted the pc. seems like an update from windows malicious software removal tool caused the problem. Now it’s fixed.
2 Likes
Worked for a few times and got the error again 
i found that if you run SU as administrator, the web cache folders have a funky permission setting which caused me headaches because i normally run it as my own user (who is also an admin) but was troubleshooting some LO problems and ran SU as admin… the web cache (and presumably some other files) got updated or new folder added etc which was then blocking my startup. i deleted the web cache folders and re-ran as myself and it seems to have solved it.