Tip: You can disable Steam Overlay for Non-Steam games via Big Picture Mode.

[TarpeyD12]

Edit (2023): It seems that an update to Big Picture has made this information obsolete.



For those of us who wish to use the shortcut to open the Steam Overlay as a keybind in the actual game, or keep hitting the Overlay shortcut accidentally, the option does not exist in the Non-Steam Game options menu. While it is possible to globally disable it, turning it on and off per game would be better.

Luckily the setting exists in Big Picture mode.

1. Open Big Picture mode.
2. Navigate to your Non-Steam game.
3. Click "Manage Settings".
4. Click "Controller Options".
5. Uncheck the "Enable Overlay on Non-Steam Game" option.
6. Press "OK".
7. Exit Big Picture Mode.
8. Launch Non-Steam game.
9. Enjoy.

Pictures for what I'm talking about:
https://imgur.com/a/gwa9bZq
That imgur link is where I finally found a solution to this annoyance, so credit to the imgur user who uploaded it.

Pros:
* Steam's In-Game Overlay is disabled for the single game as desired.
* Steam will now ignore the In-Game Overlay key-combination and thus let the game use it.

Cons:
* In Big Picture Mode the In-Game overlay will also not appear.

Here are some links to people wanting to find this setting and complaining they cant find it, i did not post in these threads because they are old and locked, so I made a new post.
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/558751364325149930/
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/490121928358669097/

[hexaae]

Oh. Seems logic hiding this option under Big Picture mode only and under Controller (?) options. Great work as always Valve!

[Rooter]

thanks, such a glaring oversight. at least there is a way to do it... considering this has been asked for since 2015 you would think they could add a checkbox to the normal mode.

[- Pancake]

This still applies, sadly.

Thank you!

[Olympian]

Thanks, never would have guessed!

[roughnecks]

Thanks, much appreciated!

[roughnecks]

Anyway, google sent me here even if I was searching for a way to disable Steam Input on non Steam games, not the overlay - and it works pretty much in the same way, just a different option.

I use it because I've added other gaming clients like EPIC Games Launcher and Ubisoft Connect as non Steam games and I have Big Picture overlay always "on" under Steam - Settings - In-Game, but I don't want it when I start those other launchers.. Disabling Steam Input achieves that, I have the standard Steam overlay back, so I can check my stuff and still take screenshots.

Hoping someone else may benefit from these info.. Cheers!

[Nico]

Holy smokes, thanks for this, I use Minecraft as non steam game to be able to remote play it and I couldn't turn off the fps counter, made me go crazy!

[Anky]

someone give this guy a medal and pin this thread

[videogames1000]

finally, now i can launcher gamea that bug with steam overlay in steamdecks gaming mode

[Velochiractor]

Any idea how to achieve this with the new UI ?

[ule]

Originally posted by Velochiractor:

Any idea how to achieve this with the new UI ?

Wondering that too, this is the second time it's been made impossible due to valve reworking things and "updating" ui only to remove features in the process. I made a thread on it here in hopes of someone having an answer.
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/3791506981625536187/

[hexaae]

HARD-CODED

After further investigations, I've found is hardcoded (no plain text unfortunately 🫤) in the file

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\<user-number>\config\shortcuts.vdf"

It contains all infos about manually added non-Steam games, like:

• icon
  
• ShortcutPath
  
• LaunchOptions
  
• IsHidden
  
• AllowDesktopConfig
  
• AllowOverlay

For example to hide overlay for non-Steam games (what I was looking for in particular) is "AllowOverlay$00$00". The second $00 (hexadecimal 0) = 0 off, =1 on.
You need a hex-editor.

In the same location localconfig.vdf is for Steam games and is in plain text instead (!!)

[[LV]RaY thE pReDatoR]

I have an interesting situation. I disabled overlay for non-steam game in big picture while it was still possible but now the tickbox is gone and I am stuck with disabled overlay forever then? :D. I just found out steam overlay wasn't the problem and other overlay was crashing the game.

[tintingaroo]

You could do what post #12 describes or could currently launch Steam with the -oldbigpicture command.

(right-click Steam shortcut > Properties. In Target field, go to end of line, press space then type the command e.g.

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steam.exe" -oldbigpicture

)