Funcom released version 1.9.0 of their Conan Exiles Dedicated Server Launcher alongside the Enhanced (UE5) update on May 5 2026. Search interest in it has spiked sharply over the launch week, mostly from people self-hosting at home, and a chunk of that traffic ends up on hosting providers' sites because the question "do I need this on a managed server" comes up a lot. The short answer: no, you don't. The longer answer is below.
What the launcher actually is
Funcom's Dedicated Server Launcher is a Windows desktop tool, written and maintained by their Tools Programmer Mickaël, that wraps the bits of running a Conan dedicated server that are awkward if you're doing it from the command line on your own machine. The official 1.9.0 release thread on the Funcom forums describes it as "a tool to let you more easily set up and run a dedicated Conan Exiles server".
What it manages, per Funcom's own documentation:
- SteamCMD updates against the dedicated server depot (Steam app ID
443030) without you having to write the command line yourself - Steam Workshop mod downloads, updates, and
modlist.txtwriting - A simplified UI for editing the config files (server name, passwords, regions, max players, ports)
- Network setup helpers including router-port instructions and accessibility checks
- Auto-restart scheduling with player-detection, so it picks moments when nobody's online
- Discord webhook integration for join/leave notifications
- Backups of the game database and config files
- RCON support for in-game messaging from outside the game
- A web status page for checking the server remotely
- Multi-server support on a single machine via separate ports and folders
- CPU affinity and priority settings for performance tuning
The launcher is Windows-only (Windows 10 and 11 are the supported platforms) and takes around 2 GB of disk space. It supports the live public (Enhanced) branch and the conan-exiles-legacy (UE4) branch, with the active branch picked through the launcher UI.
It's also worth being clear about what the launcher is not. It's not the dedicated server itself. The dedicated server is a separate Steam tool (the 443030 app) and the launcher just orchestrates around it. As Funcom puts it, "the Dedicated Server Launcher is just a helping hand. You can close the launcher as soon as your server is running."
Who it's actually built for
Funcom's launcher is aimed at people self-hosting at home on a spare Windows box. The concrete use case is:
- You've got a desktop running 24/7 (or a small home server)
- You want to run a Conan dedicated server on it for your friends
- You don't want to learn SteamCMD, write batch files, or hand-edit
Engine.iniandServerSettings.inifrom a text editor - You want auto-restarts and Discord notifications without rolling your own scripts
For that audience the launcher is genuinely useful. It collapses what would be an evening of fiddling with command-line tools into a Windows GUI you can configure once and forget about.
Why you don't need it on managed hosting
Every job the launcher does, a managed Conan host already does on your behalf through the panel. On LOW.MS that's TCAdmin at control.low.ms, and the mapping looks like this:
| Launcher feature | What handles it on LOW.MS |
|---|---|
| SteamCMD updates | Steam Update in the panel sidebar |
| Mod list management | Mod Manager with built-in Workshop search |
| Config file editing | Configuration Files with a structured editor |
| Auto-restart scheduling | Scheduled Tasks in the panel |
| Backups | Cloud Backup and Cloud Restore, automatic |
| RCON | Web Console in the browser, or RCON on the standard port |
| Server status / monitoring | Current Activity & Stats in the panel |
| Multi-server | One service per game, billed separately |
| CPU affinity & priority | Handled by the underlying scheduler on our side |
If you're already paying for managed hosting, installing the launcher on top of that is doing the same job twice. Worse, it can confuse things if both the launcher and the panel are trying to manage the same server folder.
The one case where the launcher is interesting on a managed host is branch switching. The launcher exposes a UI for picking between the public (Enhanced) and conan-exiles-legacy (UE4) Steam branches. On LOW.MS we handle branch switching via support tickets, so if you want to move your service from Enhanced back to Legacy or vice versa, open a ticket from the panel and we'll flip the branch for you. The Legacy KB walks through the trade-offs.
If you're self-hosting from scratch and reading this
The launcher really is the right tool for that job. Download it from Funcom's release thread linked above, install it on your Windows host, point it at your install directory, and walk through the config wizard. It's the path of least resistance for a non-technical self-host.
The flip side is that everything the launcher saves you from also stays your responsibility: keeping the host on, port forwarding, your home IP being publicly visible, your upload bandwidth doubling as the server's upload bandwidth, and the inevitable 3am Windows Update rebooting your box mid-Purge. The honest comparison of self-hosting vs managed is in our Conan dedicated server hosting guide if you're weighing the trade-offs.
TL;DR
If you're self-hosting at home: get the launcher. It's the lightest path to a working server.
If you're hosting on LOW.MS: skip it. The panel already does everything the launcher does, and adding a second tool that wants to manage the same install is more friction than it saves. The one exception is asking us to swap your service between the Enhanced and Legacy branches, which we handle via tickets rather than the launcher's branch selector.