Steam is running but won't open!

[MaltRisky]

Hi everyone!

 

I am having trouble with my Steam App on Windows 10. When I click to Open Steam it shows the verifying install little window and then nothing else. It shows up in Task Manager but nowhere else. I have contacted Steam and tried every troubleshooting guide they suggested & that I can find (except two, which was reinstalling windows, the other was restore point). I will try to list everything I have tried below. I realise that a complete reinstall may be the only option but as this is also my work PC and I livestream for other people for event I would greatly prefer to leave my Win machine as is. Before this issue I am unsure exactly how long it has been since I last opened Steam on my PC but at the start of the year it did work but when opened would show me a blank window in the steam program and would only function when in "big screen" mode or whatever it's called. I am unaware of making any hardware changes before the steam issue, but i have upgrade my GPU since the issue, I did hope this might fix it, it didn't! So to what I have tried.

 

1. Tried End Task in Task Manager and trying again
2. Tried doing that with a rebooting
3. Tried removing and reinstalling
4. Updated Windows
5. Updated All Drivers
6. Checked that my Antivirus (AVG Free) isn't interfering. I even padded Steam to the whitelist. 
7. Checked Windows Defender and Firewall and nothing. 
8. Tried removing and deleting every mention of it in Program Files, App Data, & Registry
9. Tried moving the install to another SSD
10. Followed a troubleshooting guide where I force Windows to open Steam like it is a Beta program, this just put Steam into a loop of downloading and verifying, reverting and downloading again.
11. Tried deleting only the "appcache" folder and trying again.

There may be other things I've tried and cant remember. I am at the point of realising I may not play any Steam games on this PC until I reinstall but if anyone has any pearls of wisdom I'd be happy to hear them. I have no idea if I can find a way if any other programs are interfering! 

 

PC Specs FYI:

 

Core i9-10920X

ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. PRIME X299-A Rev

32GB RAM

M.2 1TB OS SSD

RTX 3060 12GB

Windows 10 instance roughly 2.5 yrs old

 

If anyone has any experience of this and has any tips please let me know, thank you so much in advance!

[WackySpace]

Are you using Steam app from Microsoft store or the one directly from Steams website? Just reinstall it, it could be the program got corrupted, you can only try it out to rule out what else to try.

[MaltRisky]

4 minutes ago, WackySpace said:

Are you using Steam app from Microsoft store or the one directly from Steams website? Just reinstall it, it could be the program got corrupted, you can only try it out to rule out what else to try.

Hi Wacky, 

 

Thanks for your response. I cannot count how many times I have reinstalled it to no success unfortunately. I have been doing the one directly from the Steam website not the store. I will try the store one.

[WackySpace]

10 minutes ago, MaltRisky said:

Hi Wacky, 

 

Thanks for your response. I cannot count how many times I have reinstalled it to no success unfortunately. I have been doing the one directly from the Steam website not the store. I will try the store one.

If you have a spare hard drive or SSD, try installing a clean windows and install steam and see if it works, and if it does you might want to do a Reset Windows but keep your files or backup your stuff and do a clean install.

[MaltRisky]

17 minutes ago, WackySpace said:

Are you using Steam app from Microsoft store or the one directly from Steams website? Just reinstall it, it could be the program got corrupted, you can only try it out to rule out what else to try.

Update:

 

I cant Find the Steam App on the Microsoft Store. 

[MaltRisky]

1 minute ago, WackySpace said:

If you have a spare hard drive or SSD, try installing a clean windows and install steam and see if it works, and if it does you might want to do a Reset Windows but keep your files or backup your stuff and do a clean install.

I'm sure i can find a spare SSD kicking around and will try that. It will eliminate it from being a hardware issue I guess! Thanks

[WackySpace]

1 minute ago, MaltRisky said:

Update:

 

I cant Find the Steam App on the Microsoft Store. 

I think its only for windows 11, I have another suggestion. Try booting into safe mode with networking.

[MaltRisky]

Just now, WackySpace said:

I think its only for windows 11, I have another suggestion. Try booting into safe mode with networking.

ooh! Good idea. I'll try Safe Mode with networking. 

[keskparane]

Id also suggest try creating a new windows user and seeing if steam will run for that user. If it does at least you know there are files hidden in the profile causing the problem.

 

Have you deleted the "C:\Users\[your username]\AppData\Local\Steam" folder?

[MaltRisky]

Sorry for not replying sooner. I will try and new user and get back to you. I have not had chance to run a new windows install on another SSD yet but that will be my attempt after trying a new user. 

 

Thank you. 

[Mark Kaine]

On 10/26/2023 at 9:47 AM, MaltRisky said:

Tried removing and deleting every mention of it in Program Files, App Data, & Registry

whatever initially happened... this wasn't a good idea imo... unless you used revo Uninstaller, then nvmd.

 

But either way i think a fresh windows install is your best bet at this point. 

 

make sure no hard-drives that you're currently using are present as well.

 

 

[WackySpace]

On 10/26/2023 at 10:21 AM, MaltRisky said:

Update:

 

I cant Find the Steam App on the Microsoft Store. 

It's only on windows 11 i think.