Steam will only run as background process and will not open

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Moo Mar 9, 2018 @ 8:23am

Steam will only run as background process and will not open

Last night my steam decided that it would not open any more. It will run as a background process, but will not actually open for me to see. I have tried ALT + TAB, it's not there. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling Steam twice, restarting my computer, closing Steam via task manager, and making sure my firewall is not blocking it. I read to try deleting Clientregistry.blob, but I do not have that file anywhere in my Steam folder. There have been no updates for my Windows 10. The only thing that had changed before it stopped working was that I enabled family sharing and after that it stopped working. I turned off family sharing through the browser, but it still won't open.

I'm honestly at a loss and about to give up hope of ever playing a Steam game again at this point.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks in advance.

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Showing 1-15 of 16 comments

[wan-clan.org] Gordy Freeman Mar 9, 2018 @ 8:26am

Terminate Steam.exe

Wait five minutes.

Reload Steam for Windows.

Moo Mar 9, 2018 @ 8:30am

Originally posted by Gordy Freeman 🇦🇺:
Terminate Steam.exe

Wait five minutes.

Reload Steam for Windows.

I have tried closing the Steam process via task manager several times to no avail. When I reopen Steam it says that's it connecting to my account, closes out, runs in the background again, but never actually opens.

Last edited by Moo; Mar 9, 2018 @ 8:31am

[wan-clan.org] Gordy Freeman Mar 9, 2018 @ 8:32am

Uninstall your AntiVirus and 3rd party firewall if you have any, then try the process (waiting 5 minutes) again.

Moo Mar 9, 2018 @ 8:41am

Originally posted by Gordy Freeman 🇦🇺:
Uninstall your AntiVirus and 3rd party firewall if you have any, then try the process (waiting 5 minutes) again.

Still nothing. I did figure out that there is an update for my computer, I suppose I will try that.

Moo Mar 9, 2018 @ 9:22am

Originally posted by Moo:
Originally posted by Gordy Freeman 🇦🇺:
Uninstall your AntiVirus and 3rd party firewall if you have any, then try the process (waiting 5 minutes) again.

Still nothing. I did figure out that there is an update for my computer, I suppose I will try that.

My pc is now up to date, Steam still doesn't work.

Moo Mar 9, 2018 @ 3:07pm

Originally posted by Gordy Freeman 🇦🇺:
Uninstall your AntiVirus and 3rd party firewall if you have any, then try the process (waiting 5 minutes) again.

I fixed Steam. Wanna know how? I disabled family share, and it opened. Family share is apparently cursed.

poundlandd Feb 22, 2019 @ 4:46pm

Thank you and wtf why does this happen. Spent about 5 hours trying to fix this. An actual saviour!

Trobby Apr 9, 2019 @ 6:49am

Originally posted by Moo:
Originally posted by Gordy Freeman 🇦🇺:
Uninstall your AntiVirus and 3rd party firewall if you have any, then try the process (waiting 5 minutes) again.

I fixed Steam. Wanna know how? I disabled family share, and it opened. Family share is apparently cursed.

My friend is having this issue, how do you disable family share without steam opening????

zZzooey.exe Apr 9, 2019 @ 6:59am

Originally posted by trollbreeder:
Originally posted by Moo:

I fixed Steam. Wanna know how? I disabled family share, and it opened. Family share is apparently cursed.
My friend is having this issue, how do you disable family share without steam opening????

on browser?

absoluteSpacehead Apr 9, 2019 @ 7:01am

well that did ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, didnt ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ work

#10

Trobby Apr 9, 2019 @ 7:03am

Originally posted by ん:
Originally posted by trollbreeder:
My friend is having this issue, how do you disable family share without steam opening????
on browser?

yes (the friend having the issue is above)

#11

absoluteSpacehead Apr 9, 2019 @ 7:32am

lmao i just had to restart my pc. i didnt want to because i had fl studio in the background and i cant open saved stuff

Last edited by absoluteSpacehead; Apr 9, 2019 @ 7:33am

#12

Ginger2882 May 27, 2019 @ 7:40am

Disabling family view also worked for me almost instantly thanks for the suggestion.

#13

Passion May 21, 2022 @ 10:30pm

WTF seid einem halben Jahr suche ich nach genau DIESER ''''ANTWORT"" ! Ich hatte das Problem mit Fallout76 aber auch NUR mit diesem einen Spiel.
Dummerweise hab ich immer nach "Fallout76" only run as background Process etc. gesucht.
Doch google spuckte nur noch mehr Leute aus, die das gleiche Problem, mit Fallout76 im steam bzw. Bethesda client haben.
Doch niemanden ist auf diese "simple" Lösung gekommen...

VIIIIIIIIEEEEELEN DANK