Steam doesn't open on startup

[CivilWarBear]

Hey all, I can't seem to figure out the cause of this issue so I'm hoping you fine folks can give me a hand. I can't get steam to open when I start up windows/log into my user account. I've made sure it is set to open on start in both steam and windows settings but to no avail. This began after I moved the steam install folder (like the steam.exe itself) to a different drive. Steam launches without issue if I do it manually, but not on startup. One thing I noticed is that the steam icon in my task bar is not highlighted when I open it, instead it creates a new, second steam icon in my task bar. I'm guessing my decision to move the folder is the cause of the issue, but is there a way to make it work without having to put it back on the original drive in the program files folder again? or does windows need it to be there in order for it to launch it on startup? thanks in advance!

[Jaunitta 🌸]

Is Steam now on a USB drive? External drive ? It needs to load in first.
Best to keep Steam client on your windows drive and all games on the other driver in a library.
Then add that library in Steam settings> Storage and keep it connected..
I dont think windows will allow Steam to load at startup when you start windows .
USB is not internal and wont load USB until all other windows stuff has loaded.

[Christopher_C]

I am looking into the same issue. I have always had Steam client installed on D:\ and have games on regular HD and SSD. Moved to Win11 and soon after auto start stopped working. I can launch it on my desktop or start menu but no auto start of the client. I have played around with several settings including tuning it off / on in Steam Settings to no avail. I can see the entry in the startup but still does not launch. Minor inconvenience but it bugs me.

[CivilWarBear]

Originally posted by Jaunitta 🌸:

Is Steam now on a USB drive? External drive ? It needs to load in first.
Best to keep Steam client on your windows drive and all games on the other driver in a library.
Then add that library in Steam settings> Storage and keep it connected..
I dont think windows will allow Steam to load at startup when you start windows .
USB is not internal and wont load USB until all other windows stuff has loaded.

Hi there, sorry I didn't even see this until now. No it is on the exact same drive it was on before. just changed the folder location so it was not inside of program files. It still shows up in the windows "auto start on login" or whatever it's called, but for whatever reason it doesn't actually do it. As Christopher said it is little more than a minor inconvenience, but I can't for the life of me figure out why it does it. I was thinking maybe windows requires it to have the folder structured in a certain way within program files, but I'm not certain that would be the case. at any rate I can still play my games so its no big deal, just a bit annoying at times aha

[Phénomènes Mystiques]

You can fix the autostart issue (which can cause registry failures when the default autostart is actually used) but you can do a softer autostart and delay using MS Task Scheduler.

Simply set up the steam.exe to start up at system start/logon with a delay of about 5 seconds or more (this method also works great with the Logitech application - LGHUB).

[Christopher_C]

That is a very nice TIP! Thank you.

[Rat's Nut Sack]

Originally posted by WinterSolstice:

You can fix the autostart issue (which can cause registry failures when the default autostart is actually used) but you can do a softer autostart and delay using MS Task Scheduler. :chirp:

Simply set up the steam.exe to start up at system start/logon with a delay of about 5 seconds or more (this method also works great with the Logitech application - LGHUB). :csd2smile:

Thank you, I give you a reward too.