Can't reinstall steam - stuck at create shortcut

[Suzan McBacky]

I'm trying to reinstall steam since the steam service quit working, but the installer gets stuck at "Create shortcut: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Steam\Steam.lnk"

I've tried disabling antivirus but that didn't work.

Please help!

[Jacra]

Same problem, running it as admin did not work either.

[Forcen]

Try the things in this list: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3352-RYON-4107
Start with rebooting and running the installer again.

[Trevorzan]

It happened the same to me (installation went well, until creating the shortcut step).

Before killing the process and start again, I opened the task manager and saw that the disk utilization was at 100% caused by a steam process. The night before For Honor was downloading a 30 GB update, so I thought that before showing the GUI, the steam client simply restarted the download of this update for the game, causing the disk utilization to go to the roof. So I left it unattended and after some time, the installation had completed.

I now realize that maybe it was not downloading the For Honor patch update, but definitely it was downloading something.

[Reginleif]

If anyone comes across this post with the same problem, a quick and easy way is to delete the desktop shortcut it has already made. This solved the problem for me without having to crash steam or restart

[dyna_elf]

Good tip about deleting the existing shortcut - I was stuck there, but even mid-process I deleted the existing desktop shortcut and within 30 seconds the stuck install resolved.

[johna]

@Reginelf, wonderful tip. Thank you.

[vorshlumpf]

Just like the OP, I'm stuck at the create (start menu) shortcut step. Not the desktop shortcut, like others mentioned fixing. Deleting the start menu shortcut that was already there didn't help. Rebooting and trying again didn't help. Any other ideas?

[Forcen]

Originally posted by vorshlumpf:

Just like the OP, I'm stuck at the create (start menu) shortcut step. Not the desktop shortcut, like others mentioned fixing. Deleting the start menu shortcut that was already there didn't help. Rebooting and trying again didn't help. Any other ideas?

Yes, check the link i posted in post #2 and follow the steps in order.

Advanced instructions for reinstalling steam: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=8787-WYIL-1543

[Ganjalf]

I just had this problem, too. I tried deleting the desktop shortcut, but nothing happened.
I then deleted the Steam shortcut in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Steam and the setup immediately finished the installation process.
So, I recommand trying to delete both before taking more elaborate steps to solving this problem.

[TrekCaptainUSA]

Whenever I start Steam, it goes through the standard startup process of checking for updates and logging me in, but after that nothing happens. I'm not getting steam on the system tray and the client doesn't even appear. There are also no processes running on Task Manager. Also, uninstalling and reinstalling doesn't help either. Does anyone know any solution to this? The trouble started whenever Cortana interrupted me playing Elite Dangerous and I got a black screen forcing me to restart the computer, thus causing problems with my graphics card drivers, forcing me to reinstall them.

[AlfaTrion36]

Originally posted by Reginleif:

If anyone comes across this post with the same problem, a quick and easy way is to delete the desktop shortcut it has already made. This solved the problem for me without having to crash steam or restart

This just worked for me. I deleted the short cut and waited about a minute longer and it finished installing.

Weird bug!

EDIT:
Worth noting that I have like 8-900 games in my library so maybe it was taking time re-registering them all as I was installing steam on a fresh copy of Windows into a harddrive that had my previous Steam installation and all the games on.

[ThotsBContagious]

Originally posted by Ganjalf:

I just had this problem, too. I tried deleting the desktop shortcut, but nothing happened.
I then deleted the Steam shortcut in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Steam and the setup immediately finished the installation process.
So, I recommand trying to delete both before taking more elaborate steps to solving this problem.

Thanks, this helped.

[Chocolade]

hi

[Little_Dragon]

Just wanted to add my own thanks to the pile, @Reginleif.

I hadn't been able to launch, update, or even reinstall Steam for over a year, but your little suggestion finally got it working

[Iceira]

Run as admin on "steam.exe" installer does that work