Reboot
Rebooting the machine is a good first step.
Reading Logs
Service Controller
Launcher runs as a windows service. When there are issue starting launcher, the service controller will usually log something. These message can be retrieved using an administrator powershell:
Get-EventLog -Newest 5 -LogName System -Source "Service Control Manager" -Message "*launcherkolidek2svc*"Launcher Logs
Launcher itself logs through the windows event logs. These logs can be retrieved using an administrator powershell:
Get-EventLog -LogName Application -Source "launcher" -Newest 10 | select -ExpandProperty messageDebug Mode
Running Launcher in Debug Mode
Edit cd "c:\Program Files\Kolide\Launcher-kolide-k2\conf\launcher.flags" to include a line saying debug . Then restart the service.
Starting Launcher in the foreground
Launcher can be run from an administrator powershell. This will produce logs in that window directly.
Stop-Service LauncherKolideK2Svc
cd "c:\Program Files\Kolide\Launcher-kolide-k2"
.\bin\launcher.exe svc-fg -config .\conf\launcher.flags