Switching back to desktop for no reason while playing a Steam game?

[Browser_ice]

Hi, about 5% of the times, while playing a game via Steam I suddenly get switched back to the Desktop for no reasons. There are no messages,no popup, nothing.

Anyone know if this a problem with Steam?

I also noticed that I was able to enable the Steam overlay on some games before but now this option is not switchable to Overlay On. Clicking the option does nothing. I am not sure if it is the case for all installed/active games or not.

[Browser_ice]

Is this the right place to ask this question because tons of new threads keep appearing causing mine to be pushed down further without any answers?

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

This is hard to explain since it varies from the reasons.

- Permissions issues, or conflict.
- 3rd party apps conflict.
- Per game issue.
- Video driver issue.
- Faulty client.

The only thing I can think of trying out is:
- Running as administrator to see if that the issue.

- Redownload client files, to do that head to where Steam installed, delete everything except for Steamapp folder, and steam.exe, then run steam.exe and see if it fixes it.

- Checking GPU driver, ensuring the latest version, or the version you're using not the problem, as well files not staying behind when supposed to be clear, or corrupted files, which may need to use DDU display device uninstaller to clear the video driver then can install clean drivers.

- If it per game issue then likely just said game having problems.

- If have 3rd party apps the hook into things, or add their own overlay might be the problem. Or other 3rd party apps trying to take focus away from your game for whatever reason.

That all what comes to mind.

[RPG Gamer Man]

If OP has a 13th or 14th generation intel chip, it can cause hardware problems, but since we do not know what type of pc they have since they do not post their op system information, we can only guess if this is the issue.

[Browser_ice]

I had the same hardware for 2-3 years now. This switching back to desktop started 6-10 months ago.

I haven't seen any explanations as to why I can no longer enable Steam Overlay on games I used to be able to do it.

[RPG Gamer Man]

Originally posted by Browser_ice:

I had the same hardware for 2-3 years now. This switching back to desktop started 6-10 months ago.

I haven't seen any explanations as to why I can no longer enable Steam Overlay on games I used to be able to do it.

Hmm that is odd. Did you update your windows recently? It could be that could be the cause. Sadly, since it was 6-10 months ago, you may not remember. There were a couple windows updates that could cause this in the pass. Unfortanetly, since i doubt you remember, check posts around that time to find on windows forums to see if anyone else had that issue. They may of posted a fix for it.