Disabling steamwebhelper.exe possible but not recommended.

[Fiend of Pubsession]

As the title states disabling the webhelper is possible by modifying the security of both the current user and the system.

Find it under Steam\bin\cef\cef.win7x64 or "winxp" "win7" folders.

Doing this is not recommended as almost all functions require the webhelper in the steam overlay.

However if you have an old PC and need the CPU free or having 8 steam webhelper functions open bothers you do the following:

Find the steamwebhelper.exe in the folder listed above, right click, open properties go to the security tab, edit the system and "user" (User being your username) under full control to deny.

Exit steam and relaunch steam.

Steam will launch but you will not be able to do much, other then launch the last 5 played games from the system tray. (Or launch from the game folder)

Update: As of 4/16/2023 this method still works. Do not deny full control to the cef folder, only the steamwebhelper.exe file. If you disable the cef folder you will be in a never ending update loop.

[↑↑↓↓←→←→BASelect]

So basically this really cripples steam.

[Edifier]

Do you people really need those extra MB of RAM not being used?

Average amount of RAM is 8 GB or up to 16 GB RAM. Steam should not be of any issue at all.

[:::... FulVal85 [LMHT] ...:::]

that "winxp" folder is not supported, so remove it

[ReBoot]

You can always launch games from the shell. That way, you'll get full access to the whole library.

[cinedine]

You can also deactive Explorer and gimp your windows severly. Question is why anyone would want that.
The client is a browser and browsers have (thank god) long changed to multi-processing. That's the reason why you see multiple processes. For some reason people get up in arms about Steam doing it but not Chrome, Firefox, or whatever else they are using.

[Fiend of Pubsession]

Originally posted by cinedine:

You can also deactive Explorer and gimp your windows severly. Question is why anyone would want that.
The client is a browser and browsers have (thank god) long changed to multi-processing. That's the reason why you see multiple processes. For some reason people get up in arms about Steam doing it but not Chrome, Firefox, or whatever else they are using.

As to the difference with steam vs browsers, I can control the number of open "tabs" or processes and if one starts in a cpu eating loop I know the reason most of the time.

That being said I still recommend to end the process tree (Of the steam webhelper) rather then disable most of the functionality of steam.

However if someone is running on a 10+ year old computer, the method I mentioned will work to disable the webhelper, while allowing you to play currently installed games.

[Kitai]

Originally posted by Edifier:

Do you people really need those extra MB of RAM not being used?

Average amount of RAM is 8 GB or up to 16 GB RAM. Steam should not be of any issue at all.

i wouldnt say 4gigs is average anymore and i say 4gigs because windows 10 eats 3 to 4 gigs of 8gigs of ram already with nothing installed, 16 is the average one nowadays, 8gigs of ram will run you low settings to med settings in todays age as its still missing half of the gigs of ram on 8gigs.

am i disagreeing nah im 100% with you on that but you know since some people are if it aint broken dont fix they require the extra megs of ram

[sneakers o'toole]

Originally posted by Edifier:

Do you people really need those extra MB of RAM not being used?

Average amount of RAM is 8 GB or up to 16 GB RAM. Steam should not be of any issue at all.

i have 8 gb of ram and having 9 steam webhelper tasks eating 40% of that while im trying to play tf2 is a massive pain in the ass

[Zekiran]

Then use small mode, and buy more ram. 8gb is ... not a lot in this day and age.

Yes, this chrome based browser client is garbage, but it's all we have. It's not going away, but the problems can be wiped out by doing those two things.

[Zekiran]

Then this is not a Steam problem but instead a Windows 10 problem, innit.

Windows 7 has no trouble with Steam and its Chromium processes, I can assure you.

[Tharon]

Originally posted by cyberluddite:

Well there's the problem. Microsoft's 20H2 Update modified Windows 10's built-in Chromium feature by patching Google's Chromium exploits "for security and user privacy purposes". This made Windows 10 (as well as 8/8.1 and 7) moderately incompatible with Chrome, and subsequently might be the reason why Steam Client borks as badly when it does.

Windows 10 build in Chromium is not related to other Chromium installations. Steam use its own chromium installation and aren't affected in any way by patches to windows built-in version (Edge) of Chromium.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Originally posted by Fiend of Pubsession:

As the title states disabling the webhelper is possible by modifying the security of both the current user and the system.

Find it under Steam\bin\cef\cef.win7x64 or "winxp" "win7" folders.

Important correction: do not need to "modify the security of both the current user and the system". You just need to launch Steam using the -no-browser launch parameter.

(If you need more info I can describe how to do this.)

Originally posted by Fiend of Pubsession:

Doing this is not recommended as almost all functions require the webhelper in the steam overlay.

Steam will launch but you will not be able to do much, other then launch the last 5 played games from the system tray. (Or launch from the game folder)

Actually, Steam will do a lot more than that in -no-browser mode.

Use Small Mode to launch games.

Go into Big Picture Mode to launch or uninstall games. (The normal uninstall prompt requires a browser-rendered page, for whatever silly reason, but Big Picture Mode circumvents that problem.)

Friends list and chat are available using the old interface.

And you can even do other things like take screenshots while playing and then upload them after playing.

Pretty much the only things that *don't* work are the main Library view and any browsing of actual webpages.

[your dad]

i can literally play rust on my computer what is a game that takes a fair amount of ram and then i play tf2 what probably takes like 2 gb ram but steam webhelper takes up so much that it turns to ♥♥♥♥ it never used to be a problem then all of the sudden it was taking like 70 percent of my cpu and memory whilst tf2 was taking like 20 percent so obviously something happened because the steam webhelper all of the sudden cracked the ♥♥♥♥♥ and now i want to delete it or just stop it i honestly dont really care as long as i can use steam and play games without it taking like 3 quarters of my ram

[Deroni-o]

For me ... this is really helpfull im poor as ♥♥♥♥ and i have a pc only with 4GB ram

[Almirante Poltergeist]

Originally posted by Edifier:

Do you people really need those extra MB of RAM not being used?

Average amount of RAM is 8 GB or up to 16 GB RAM. Steam should not be of any issue at all.

Yeah, for me with my 4 RAM, it helps