Check your "Galaxy" folder in your main Sins folder, the one that is in Program Files.  If you have any custom maps in the Galaxy folder you need to remove them and relocate them to the "GalaxyForge" folder in your Application Data Sins folder.  (See the thread at http://TinyURL.com/Sins5 post #2 for a discussion about the Application Data folder if needed.)

Ever since the last patch, the thing called "Sins Launcher" doesn't launch the game anymore. Both the thing saying "Sins Launcher" and the thing saying "Sins of a Solar Empire" are shortcuts to the broken Sins Launcher. It seems to not be a common error as it's never been addressed and is rarely brought up.(probably because most people haven't ever clicked on the vanilla icon since they got entrenchment)

You can just go to the actual game folder and start the actual game from the Sins of a Solar Empire exe there and/or make a new shortcut directly to it. The game isn't broken, just the link.

I don't know about the OP though.

I've got the same problem.

If i try to run the sins.exe, the process appears in the task manager, but the game doesn't start... even not if waiting half an hour.

I figured out that the problem concerns the following file: 

C:\Users\"USERNAME"\AppData\Local\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Setting\user.setting

Error message: Could not detect if Archive File is Binary or Text

any ideas? please

Edit: OS is windows 7, i used vista before and it worked without any problems... after the win 7 update the problem occured

I have suddenly lost all my achievments.  I am running Vista Ultimate edition-32 bit.  I get an error message similar to the one above:

Could not detect if Archive File is Binary or Text. 

 Can anyone help?  They were there yesterday, now suddenly gone.  I have both original Vanilla Sins and recently d/l Trinity on the same box via Steam.