Steam won't start normally

[kova]

My Steam won't start if i click the Steam icon on the desktop or in my taskbar.
It will only start if i right-click the Steam icon in my taskbar and click library (or settings, etc..), or start a game directly by clicking on the game icon.

Anyone got a fix for this?

[Ogami]

Are you on Windows 11? There was a recent update (22H2) that apparently messed up starting Steam or downloading files for a lot of users.
If you are on Win 11 and installed that update i recommend rolling back to the pre update version till this is fixed.

[kova]

I'm on Windows 10 Pro.
I always wait a few years before i switch to the latest OS version

Had this bug a few times already but the only solution i found is to reinstall Windows, but the bug will come back sooner or later.

Sadly, i never found out what causes this problem in the first place..

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Launch task manager, check if any Steam process running, close them, then run Steam see if anything happens.

If same thing, restart PC, run Steam if same thing, then restart Pc again, run as administrator, if it runs then something messing with Steam at that point.

Ensure no 3rd party apps such as antivirus, custom firewall, or etc messing with Steam permissions or it files.

Last option is doing repair runn command prompt as admin, type "sfc /scannow" without quotes to see if there any windows error.

[kova]

Originally posted by Dr.Shadowds 🐉:

Launch task manager, check if any Steam process running, close them, then run Steam see if anything happens.

If same thing, restart PC, run Steam if same thing, then restart Pc again, run as administrator, if it runs then something messing with Steam at that point.

Ensure no 3rd party apps such as antivirus, custom firewall, or etc messing with Steam permissions or it files.

Last option is doing repair runn command prompt as admin, type "sfc /scannow" without quotes to see if there any windows error.

Thank you for your answer.
I will try it out later, as soon as i get home and let you know if it worked :)

[Elucidator]

It does indeed sound like as if Steam is already running, but normally double clicking the icon while it is running opens up the Steam main window.
So.. something is wrong.

I am wondering if the shortcut on your desktop is still connectect to the proper location of the actual exe file in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam
if not, you may need to fix that by editting the properties of the shortcut file on your desktop.

It doesn't sound like there is a mistake in the registry considering this, otherwise it wouldn't be able to list Library and such options on the icon in the taskbar.


When you get home, I recommend running checkdisk. (chkdsk), it can fix file system issues.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHKDSK

[kova]

Originally posted by Elucidator:

It does indeed sound like as if Steam is already running, but normally double clicking the icon while it is running opens up the Steam main window.
So.. something is wrong.

I am wondering if the shortcut on your desktop is still connectect to the proper location of the actual exe file in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam
if not, you may need to fix that by editting the properties of the shortcut file on your desktop.

It doesn't sound like there is a mistake in the registry considering this, otherwise it wouldn't be able to list Library and such options on the icon in the taskbar.


When you get home, I recommend running checkdisk. (chkdsk), it can fix file system issues.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHKDSK

That's it!
The shortcut in my taskbar seems to be an old version, or it was connected to the wrong location.
I deleted the shortcut, and created a new one in my taskbar, now it works perfect!


Thank you very much for your help

[first_acc ♥x͓̽L¥ñx♥]

i hope all have a great day!