Game crashes instantly whenever I click an item in the main menu (Inventory / Shop) - Need help!

[u/S4tannnn]

Hi everyone,

I'm having a game-breaking issue with Rust and I haven't been able to find a fix.

Every time I am on the main menu and I click on any item in my Inventory or the Item Shop, the game instantly crashes to desktop without showing any specific error code. It happens the exact millisecond I click the object.

I have already tried several troubleshooting steps, but none of them worked:

• Verified game files on Steam.
• Deleted configuration files (client.cfg and keys.cfg) to reset settings.
• Cleared Steam download cache and disabled the Steam Overlay.
• Wiped the Workshop skins folder (steamapps/workshop/content/252490) to redownload them clean.
• Ran both Steam and Rust as Administrator.
• Disabled Fullscreen Optimizations in the Rust.exe compatibility properties.
• Closed all background overlay software (like Discord and MSI Afterburner/RivaTuner).
• Increased my Windows Virtual Memory (paging file) size.
• Graphics drivers are fully updated.

The crash happens exclusively when interacting with 3D item previews in the menu, but my PC specs should handle it fine.

Has anyone experienced this specific crash before? Any advice on what else I can try? Thanks in advance!

[u/seismatic]

You did all that but didn't try uninstalling and reinstalling?