Game not starting :( "Steam must be running"

[[ENG]boycalledhorse]

Apon trying to load the game from the desktop, It tells me that "Steam must be running to play this game (Steam initialisation failed)". Steam definitely is running but it still doesn't want to load. Any ideas?

[Meeko]

I FIXED IT! All you have to do is completely exit out of steam, not jut the game, but exit all of steam. and then launch it back up and you can play! :)

[balubear]

Why shall I launch the Steam back if I want to play FSX and other games off-line without Steam launched?:)

[WhittleYoon]

引用自 Rybo：

I got around this error by running the steam client as administrator. Not an ideal solution, but seems to work.

This is a real late time to post (I think) but thanks! Running Steam in administrator mode actually worked!

[Tom]

I found another solution, this is for users that already required User Account Control (UAC for short - the blue and yellow shield icon) to load the game, and you could play fsx until suddenly UAC required a password. To fix this, you simply need to switch your user to administrator. Clicking "run as administrator" won't work if it already requires administrator password.

If you are confused on how to switch your user account over to an administrator user (In Windows 8 and above, not sure how to below), you must go into PC settings on another user that is already an Administrator, click accounts, other accounts, select your user, click edit, and finally set your user to administrator.
Hope this helps.

[malienvictor2004]

That is not a solution to the issue here. We don't want to run both the steam client and FSX in admin or having to be logged into windows as an admin. Dovetail will not fix this cause of mod compatibility which requires FSX Steam to access folders where the mods originally are installed in. Go to page 5 of this thread that explains it. Dovetail should have just left it up to the modders to update the mods for the Steam Version.

[malienvictor2004]

Just found a way to run this without needing to change the manifests in the .exe file or using other means without needing admin access.

Open regedit and go to this registry,
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers

Right click and add new string value. Rename it with the file path name,(which ever drive and folder location fsx is installed in) Example, D:\Steam Games\steamapps\common\FSX\fsx.exe
Then right click and modify the registry with RUNASINVOKER in the value data section.

Start FSX like you usually would and when the UAC prompt pops up for steam, just hit the escape key or click no and FSX will run in standard user mode. That's it.

Found this when I was looking around in forums for a non-steam mmorpg game that requests admin. If only this was discovered ages ago.

[Tom]

引用自 malienvictor2004：

That is not a solution to the issue here. We don't want to run both the steam client and FSX in admin or having to be logged into windows as an admin. Dovetail will not fix this cause of mod compatibility which requires FSX Steam to access folders where the mods originally are installed in. Go to page 5 of this thread that explains it. Dovetail should have just left it up to the modders to update the mods for the Steam Version.

I think you misuunderstood me here, I had the same problem but it required a different solution to solve it. I thought it would be helpful for those in the same position as I was :)

[Professor]

引用自 malienvictor2004：

Just found a way to run this without needing to change the manifests in the .exe file or using other means without needing admin access.

Worked great, Thank you most wise and generous :)

[Gigglesworth]

Running Steam as administrator is a horrible solution, as it bypasses the security controls on a system and makes you more vulnerable to viruses and hacking. This is how you get infected.

The real solution here is for the developer to get their act together and make a handful of changes to the software: change the hardcoded string in the .exe file and change the default folder location.

Asking users to run in administrative mode is very irresponsible, even back when this software was released. Security folks have been asking developers to avoid this practice for a couple decades.

[Rogen]

引用自 Gigglesworth：

Asking users to run in administrative mode is very irresponsible, even back when this software was released. Security folks have been asking developers to avoid this practice for a couple decades.

Let's take a look at those points.

First a couple of decades ago would put the year @ 1998 being the year of Windows 98, (Windows 95 in actuality as Win 98 didn't come out till near the end of June 1998) which basically had no security at all and you could login by just clicking the cancel button, it also didn't use NTFS so no real file system security and it's boot was MS-DOS based leaving none of the above in any way constructive to any sort of security.

Yes, these days running applications with admin rights are not in general a recommended policy, however there are many neccesary reasons for doing so and infact many Windows components and applications require admin rights to run.

In any case the issue is more that where differing accounts are used they cannot see each other's security context (a concept introduced by Microsoft), and the simplest and easist workaround is to add your personal user account to the Local Administrator's group, where (with UAC active) the account will run with standard user rights until an elevation request is made, at which point you can choose to elevate and run the app or not. There are also other options within this thread such as configuring the compatability layer Microsoft has available to workaround such issues, or alterantively there are simple free tools to edit the xml manifest that are as easy to use as cutting and pasting text in notepad.

Now when FSX was originaly released back in 2006 (that would be 12 years ago...) it did not require admin rights to run true enough, however when Dovetail managed to get a license from Microsoft to distribute on Steam they faced the issue of people who already had FSX installed and therefore needed to come up with a workaround.

The below statement comes from within this very thread, and as Martin says I hope it explains it for you.

引用自 malienvictor2004：

Originally posted by DTG_Martin:

FSX: Steam Edition does require you to give it Windows Admin access in order to run while the boxed version of FSX does not.

The reason for this is the boxed version of FSX only needs to look in one place for add-on content. Namely your FSX installation directory. Meanwhile FSX: Steam Edition needs to look in two place; the FSX: Steam Edition installation directory and the FSX boxed installation directory. This is because some people run both versions of the game and some third party content has not yet been updated by the developers, who made it, to install in the new directory.

Windows does not let the game access the second directory unless you run it as an admin. If the game wasn't allowed to do this it could not load third party add-on content that you might have installed from other developers. Basically it is to allow compatibility with these add-ons.

We have looked at other ways of addressing this issues however it is a restrictions of the Windows operating system.

We hope that explains it,

- Martin

[malienvictor2004]

Well, I figured out how to run without needing admin by adding a string here in the registry HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers and rename the string to (example)D:\Steam Games\steamapps\common\FSX\fsx.exe and open the string and type this RUNASINVOKER in the value data. With that in place no need for admin.

Start FSX like you usually would and when the UAC prompt pops up for steam, just hit the escape key or click no and FSX will run in standard user mode. That's it.

[Tauriqrocks]

thank you all so much been struggling for either over or almost a year with this issue. working fine now and solution was that simple...thanks so so much :] <33333

[Dee]

引用自 la merde：

Got the same problem. This is a big major issue. I don't have administrative privileges myself (security concerns). But the game forces me to run with high rights. But Steam is not running with the Administrator account.

So this is why the error comes. How to fix it? Stop asking Windows for higher rights for this game. You really must fix that issue!

PLEASE change the manifest information (contained in the fsx.exe) from
<requestedExecutionLevel level="requireAdministrator" uiAccess="false"></requestedExecutionLevel>

to

<requestedExecutionLevel level="asInvoker" uiAccess="false"></requestedExecutionLevel>

You might need to change the initial installation process on Steam when running the game the first time. The folder C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\FSX-SE need to be created and proper security rights must be set (write access to users). Then everything should be fine - even with normal rights.

Edit:
You also could download my .exe-file[drive.google.com] (you will need WinRAR 5 or another program which is compatible to the updated RAR5 format). This will replace the first step.
--> This is for the new version of the game (12th January 2015).

THERE IS NO fsx.exe ANYWHERE IN THE STEAM FOLDER

[Rogen]

Shouting won't help you know...

fsx.exe lives in \Steam\steamapps\common\FSX\

[padrejoe]

This is ridiculous...can't play the game b/c of the "steam must be running..." can you tell me the quick fix of running steam as administrator? I am thinking of asking for refund and finding game another way