Stuck "- Running"?

[p1ague]

IDK how useful this post is, I suspect that most people are quicker to pick up on these things than me, and the few that aren't--they probably will never find this anyway. But just in case it helps someone.. I had an issue that even after I had closed DDLC it still showed up as running, and I couldn't start it up again later. I wound up completely closing Steam in order to play again, like a dope!

Turns out the very simple explanation was this: if you have ever accidentally hit the "help" button on any of the menus, and had it launch a browser tab with the help file in it, then as far as steam is concerned you haven't quit the game until you've closed that browser entirely, not just the tab it launched.

[DortSnort]

Originally posted by p1ague:

IDK how useful this post is, I suspect that most people are quicker to pick up on these things than me, and the few that aren't--they probably will never find this anyway. But just in case it helps someone.. I had an issue that even after I had closed DDLC it still showed up as running, and I couldn't start it up again later. I wound up completely closing Steam in order to play again, like a dope!

Turns out the very simple explanation was this: if you have ever accidentally hit the "help" button on any of the menus, and had it launch a browser tab with the help file in it, then as far as steam is concerned you haven't quit the game until you've closed that browser entirely, not just the tab it launched.

actually, it's not steam reading it as that. It's your PC reading it. You can just go to task manager and end the game's process and this was an option since a long time ago. Your thread is completely useless and you're definetly new to technology if you really think you're that smart fixing a common issue...

[p1ague]

You completely misunderstood what I said, I guess you're especially sad to be half as smart as someone you consider a moron.

The game's process was closed. The executable for your web browser is not part of this game. There is no reason to suspect that the fact that a web browser is running is the reason your game will not launch, unless you happen to remember that one instance of the web browser was called by the game executable.

In my case, though, I'm using a browser which opens each tab in a separate process, and I had already closed the tab for this game's help file. So looking at running processes using Process Explorer was no help -- the thread called by this game's executable was gone. The OS has no reason to tie them together, it is certainly Steam watching when this game called the browser, assuming that the browser (ALL processes under the browser's thread, not just the one launched by this game) must be part of this game, and forbidding you to start it again until there is no web browser running.

You really ought to check to make sure you know what you're talking about before you start talking down to people above you.

[p1ague]

PS - I guess I was wrong about people who aren't smart being able to find this post, so perhaps it will prove useful to someone eventually after all.