Steam Launching to System Tray

[SleepingRobot]

I just resolved a mildly annoying "issue" with Steam, and thought I would share for the potential benefit of others.

The Problem:
When launching Steam (whether by clicking the executable directly in the installation folder, or a Start Menu / Desktop / Task Bar shortcut icon), it opens directly to the System / Notification Tray. Essentially, Steam was behaving as if it was being launched with its " - silent" switch, even though the switch was not being used.

The Resolution:
It turns out that this behavior was due to a combination of two settings.
1) I had apparently set my favorite window to 'Friends' some time ago and forgot all about it (Settings -> Interface -> Friends)

2) I was using Steam in family mode, with 'Friends' disabled by default until you unlock Steam by entering your PIN

When Launching Steam it would attempt to open the Friends window, but was blocked by family mode so nothing would happen.



So while the issue was entirely created by me and ultimately expected behavior, it was still pretty puzzling and I spent a good deal of time trying to work out the root cause of why my icons stopped working. Maybe someone else will find this helpful.


I think it might be a good idea for Steam to notify you when configuring family mode settings if your favorite window is going to be blocked by default, as you'll need to know to launch the client through the system tray and that you can't use your shortcut icons anymore. I suppose it should also notify you when changing your favorite window if family mode is enabled and configured to block that feature by default.

[Mr.Jazzy]

My steam is launching but it doesn't appear neither in taskbar or system tray. But it is working, downloading updates, etc, I just can't open it. I have to kill steam client bootstrapper in task manager and launch it again. Any ideas how to fix this?

btw im running win 10, default screen is game library, family mode is on