So, Skyrim's out 11/11/11

[Kevin]

Patch 1.1 or 1.2 broke my Skyrim launch awhile back, but all I had to do was Verify Cache (which downloaded one or two files) and I was back up and running. I have the Steam version of Skyrim (bought and pre-loaded before launch), running on Windows 7 64-Bit, and I've not had any other troubles than that... except for more frequent crashes after 1.2 (never had any before 1.2), and it takes about 30 seconds longer for the splash screen to go away and the game to actually start (also introduced in 1.2).

Don't know what your specific problem is, but I don't think you can blame Windows 7 64-bit.

So you are another data point that shows that it's Win 7 64-bit because you had the same issue.

Yes, sometimes a verify cache will fix it (because it properly updates the .glob file).
Sometimes turning off cloud sync will fix it (because then it doesn't look at the .glob on launch) and turning sync back on later, or restarting steam will correct it.
You can also sometimes fix it with a reinstall of Skyrim (which essentially does the same thing).

But again these failure to launch problems, that if you do a search of the Steam forums have been happening in every patch version pretty much only seem to happen on Win-7 64-bit, pretty much can all be fixed by the forcing Steam to update the .glob. Removing/renaming that file is guaranteed to force steam to update it.

Like you I only had it happen the one time, (see my post earlier in this thread for details) but I know lots of folks that have had it happen to them once or multiple times and since I get asked the help questions I found that solution and figured I would share it here.

I'm 99% positive your launch was not broken by 1.1 or 1.2 it was broken by this same issue. OK the patch may have indirectly broken it because it seems to be an issue for people that had some sort of broken connection to the Steam servers during some sort of update (be that a cloud sync, patch, or install) which is why one of the other methods might fix the issue. I still haven't fully sussed what the glob file stores but it seems to be be related to remote data passing and seems to only affect folks running Win 7 64-bit OS.