Windows says it can't find the Steam exe but it is definitely there

[Emily Lucy]

No matter how I try to launch the Steam client, it keeps saying "Windows can't find Steam.exe" or words to that effect. Even if I double click on it in its folder. I have tried uninstalling and re-installing but the same thing happens. I have run all the diagnostics I can think of. PLEASE HELP

[spongbob.notch]

sales@tvhub님이 먼저 게시:

Thank you Jerry a remame of steam.exe allowed the Steam to install.
To be clear I suddenly could not run steam on the computer any more after a full un-install and re-install multiple time in many locations I could not get paste the initial install. The Steam loader files were in the directory but running steam.exe would just crash out.
That change to the name worked so windows was stopping the file from running. So I dived into the registry and found the following entry that had not been removed by the un-install.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\steam.exe]
"Debugger"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\AVAST Software\\Avast Cleanup\\autoreactivator.exe"

Now part of the debug process i had uninstalled AVAST Cleanup and also the antivirus program but steam.exe still would not run, but the renamed steam1.exe did.

So after a fresh install on a virtual machine and checking the same registry location it appears that whole [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\steam.exe] Key and every thing inside it can be deleted as it is not needed.

The hint being "Image File Execution Options"

Now steam.exe runs and if it updates the Steam.exe file it will continue to run

Yay!!

Thanks guy , i tried to fix that 3 days , and only now i found that my antivirus blocked steam.exe !
Thanks a lot!

[bretty2012]

thank you so much Guess i will be using steam1 from now on haha. Is there any way to get it to work as steam again? i am very new to pc so i'm not sure how to work the registery stuff

[KMABoss]

Lumino님이 먼저 게시:

OK, this might be a necro-post, but I like topics like this to have actual solutions in them for the next guy to come along.

I just had this problem. I resolved it by uninstalling Steam and then re-installing it somewhere else. It was initially in Program File 86x, but I then installed it in My Documents -> Steam and it worked perfectly.

Hope this helps!

Thanks - This actually worked!

[KMABoss]

BEWARE!

OMG! Now Steam wants me to reinstall my games - WTF!!!

I'm going to try to reinstall Steam in it's original location again

[Muppet among Puppets]

KMABoss님이 먼저 게시:

BEWARE!

OMG! Now Steam wants me to reinstall my games - WTF!!!

I'm going to try to reinstall Steam in it's original location again

Make sure steam is in an own folder for itself...... or it erases everything around it as well at uninstall

[KMABoss]

Muppet among Puppets님이 먼저 게시:

KMABoss님이 먼저 게시:

BEWARE!

OMG! Now Steam wants me to reinstall my games - WTF!!!

I'm going to try to reinstall Steam in it's original location again

Make sure steam is in an own folder for itself...... or it erases everything around it as well at uninstall

Yeah, I've had experience with the 'Re-install' with losing everything, so I copied the saves, personal maps I've made, etc, and put them in a folder on my desktop.

Stuffing up is a good way of learning lol.

[76561198838298750]

Major Phucup님이 먼저 게시:

No matter how I try to launch the Steam client, it keeps saying "Windows can't find Steam.exe" or words to that effect. Even if I double click on it in its folder. I have tried uninstalling and re-installing but the same thing happens. I have run all the diagnostics I can think of. PLEASE HELP

Just go to the folder where you've downloaded Steam and change the name of 'Steam' Application to 'Steam.exe' This should fix the issue

[CaptainAshtro]

Lord Mobious님이 먼저 게시:

Major Phucup님이 먼저 게시:

No matter how I try to launch the Steam client, it keeps saying "Windows can't find Steam.exe" or words to that effect. Even if I double click on it in its folder. I have tried uninstalling and re-installing but the same thing happens. I have run all the diagnostics I can think of. PLEASE HELP

Just go to the folder where you've downloaded Steam and change the name of 'Steam' Application to 'Steam.exe' This should fix the issue

Lord Mobius thank you!

Had this issue pop up today. Renaming worked straight away. Must have been a weird Steam update overnight or something.

[Muppet among Puppets]

You should anyway enable show file extensions in windows.

[KMABoss]

Removing/deleting the below in regedit works:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\steam.exe

Thanks to the original poster.

[Zero]

I tried to rename it and put .exe and it worked try it

[hcthompson2]

The "rename the file" trick worked. Thanks so much

[MacDaddy]

I made an exception in Avast, thinking it was flagging as a virus, but that didn't work.
I re-installed Steam in a different folder, and now it works. Weird.
PS, don't be a know-it-all D&%$-face.