I'll soon need a new launcher to launch all these launchers... :)

Yes this is the new advertisement page for games that are big coins... so hand over your money for even more launchers and its advertisements.

Now i even know that i still do lack the Ultimate version... every time the game is starting up.

Actually CD Projekt owns GOG and CDPR. I think people should start already looking at CDPR and GOG as 2 different companies and stop using the actions of one of them to blame the other one like in this thread. And I agree It does feel like overreacrion. It is a launcher but its still optional and I know that the cross platform saves are very hepful for the console players so it has its uses beyond the rewards...

Why would they do that? What reason would they have? Looking at the past years GOTY games there is not a single one using Denuvo. Denuvo is usally used for bad games/with questionable sales or if you your name is Capcom(or Rockstar) and CDPR even after the terrible launch of CP is still making very very good games.Larian btw is also using a launcher - do you think they are moving to DRM because of that? I think the worst we may expect is mutiplayer games that require some form of DRM but I higly doubt their single player games will have a random shift to DRM

Does it close or does it just become invisible? Can a program on Windows launch a program that keeps running after it quits?

This is disturbing, but not very surprising. It perfectly fits the obvious trend that everyone except the die-hard GOG fanboys have been seeing for years now.

Yes, it's possible for an app to create separate processes, to use system or API calls, piggyback on or running a service, and spawn threads to keep running even after the main process window has been closed moved to the background or shut down.

Add You can verify this by checking with Task Manager, Process Explorer, Process Hacker, Comodo Killswitch, or similar tools.

WTF CDPR. It's not GOG who created the launcher.
CDPR is not GOG (even with both owned by CDP). And yes, CDPR move further away from DRM gaming with every day passing by.

I hope you kept your old offline installers.
Alternatively, do a manual rollback in Galaxy.

svchost.exe enters the chat....

Always making an entrance, no? ;-)

Interesting. Thank you.

I really can't, unfortunately. I've discovered some mould in the edge behind the cupboard next to my desk so everything is displaced at the moment. I'm in the process of replacing one sheet of wallpaper.

In simpler terms, if you pin Task Manager to always be visible over other open apps, you can watch the processes and check if the launcher is still running, even after its window has been closed. Alternatively, you can also use any of the other tools to do the same. This addresses your initial question. I can't check it myself as I'm not using Galaxy, and the REDLauncher doesn't seem to start without it.

I've been wondering the same thing for a good while now, even more so with this recent account separation thing.
Might just be regular compliance, but GOG isn't really known for its proactiveness, so it seems more likely that it is an active decision from CDP IMO. Since they used to leverage CDPR releases as springboards for GOG, one has to wonder why they now decide to give up this advantage and treat it equally as "just another store".

I still did not get the Cyberpunk Expansion and i am not anymore sure i will be getting it... to much junk has been done... beyond repair. Maybe at some point i kick Cyberpunk out of my collection. Witcher 3 is different, because i still got an older Witcher 3 Installer without the launcher and because this game is complete... i am fine with.

It's not GOG's fault as such, if the Offline Installer version also has that REDLauncher.
The fault lies in using Galaxy in the first place, an additional unnecessary extra. Though understandable I guess, for achievements and Cloud Saves and some multiplayer usage.

No doubt many games here at GOG have their own launcher too. It is pretty common at Steam for instance.