When I try to launch, nothing happens

And here's what worked for me. 

Patience.

A ton of patience. I think I had to wait at least 10 minutes for Ae to scan and detrermine what was what. When it finally started up and everything appeared normal, I shut it down and started again. This time, it was much quicker, starting up in less than 30 seconds. 

Your mileage may vary.

Hi TheOriginalGC,

Sorry for your issue.

After Effects getting stuck on "Initializing MediaCore" usually means that there are third-party plug-ins stored in the MediaCore folder that are preventing After Effects to work properly. You could try going to the location C:\Program Files\Adobe\Common\Plug-ins\7.0\MediaCore and make sure there are no files or folders (except dummy.txt). If that doesn't help, please try the suggestions mentioned here: https://community.adobe.com/t5/after-effects-discussions/faq-how-to-fix-common-after-effects-crashes/td-p/10684130

Let us know how it goes.

Thanks,

Nishu

The usual steps apply: Check your graphics driver and update it, make sure all necessary folders are accessible, verify that local security settings and tools like VPNs, virus scanners or custom firewalls don't block critical ports.

Mylenium

UPDATE: I updated Media Encoder and now the Ae popup is on the screen. Now it's stuck on Initializing MediaCore.