Windows can't find Steam.exe

[Dadguy]

My son is unable to log on to Steam. When he tries he gets an error message that reads: Windows cannot find c:\program files (x86)\steam\steam.exe.

He recently installed windows updates to include windows edge. After installing these updates is when his problem started. He has uninstalled steam and reinstalled with no joy. He has run Malwarebytes and removed all malware found. Chrome is his default browser. We have turned off Avast with no success in connecting to steam.

He is running windows 10 pro 64.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Jim

[Tristan]

1 Flush DNS
2 use a search app to find steam.exe
3 disable all malware and antivirus software windows defender works fine it wont hurt the steam client


4 some times Steam client start acting up just do a few restarts

good luck

[The Giving One]

If the Steam.exe is being quarantined by any security software or processes, that could explain why the .exe cannot be found in Windows.

It's better to make exceptions in security software and processes, rather than turning them off.

Also, if there are child processes that can negatively affect Steam or games, then in some cases turning off the parent won't do anything anyway.

Not sure about Avast, but I know for sure some bad antivirus programs such as McAfee have such child processes. Even seen cases where the parent was uninstalled from the PC, and the child processes were still left over.

Run msconfig from Windows and check the tabs there to see what actually runs on boot :

https://windowsreport.com/msconfig-windows-8/

It's a better way to see what is really running, than trusting these programs to do what you tell them to and when you tell them to do it.

[Dadguy]

Thanks aloosdavid and The Giving one. We flushed the DNS. The search app could not find Steam.exe. We reran malwarebytes and found no malware this time. We added steam.exe to the exceptions for Avast with no resolution. We uninstalled Avast, restarted the computer but still get the same error. Nothing unusual in the msconfig results. There is a Steam Cliennt Bootstrapper enabled.

So far we haven't made progress but son and I are bonding. If y'all have additional ideas we are open.

Thanks Jim

[The Giving One]

Sorry none of that seemed to help. I did a forum search for the generic issue, using basic terms, and got several hits that you might find helpful.

Have a look through these and see if anything others tried or suggested can also help you :

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/search/?gidforum=882959061466924237&include_deleted=1&q=%22can%27t+find+Steam.exe

[Dadguy]

The Giving One, I reviewed the links you provided and found one that suggested renaming steam.exe to steam1.exe and then execute steam1. It worked! Prior to this, executing steam.exe produced the same error as noted in my original post. The article said that if this worked then the problem was in the registry and directed me to delete the registry entry. Trying now to get in contact with my son to edit the registry and hopefully resolve this issue. I will update here to let y'all know if it works. Thanks for your help. Jim

[Dadguy]

The final resolution to this issue: After renaming steam.exe and finding we could execute steam with the renamed exe file we determined the problem had to be in the registry. We had a suggested registry entry to delete in this article (https://appuals.com/how-to-fix-the-windows-cannot-find-steam-exe-error/). The problem with this was the suggested registry entry did not exist in the registry. So what we did was find each registry entry that mentioned Steam.exe and deleted that entrty. It took a little while. Once completed we reinstalled steam and it now works as expected. Still no understanding why the problem was here in the first place but it's gone now. Good riddance.

Thanks for your help. Jim