AME not launching

I have recently installed both After Effects and Media Encoder on a Windows 10 64-bit laptop. After the first use, Media Encoder starts launching but never manages to. I don't get any errors or other notifications, it just stops.

I have already searched online for a solution and they all seem to refer to a single file (X19zbGNfZmVhdHVyZXNfXw==.slc) which does not seem to exist. I have checked the hidden files and folders and I have also check that the Firewall is not stopping it. It is generating .slc files, just not this specific one.

I have uninstalled and re-installed the software a few times, going as far as using an uninstaller to make sure there are no leftover files, I have run it as Administrator and tried launching it while pressing shift to reset settings and nothing seems to work. I cannot get past the splash screen.

At this point I have no other ideas other than a full system format which I would like to avoid. Any ideas please?