Steam won't close; Stays in background

[Nievesatl]

I began playing Civ 5 the other day and it suddenly crashed. All of steam then crashed with it. I attempted to again open steam but it wasn't launching. After a quick Google search, I rebooted the machine and attempted to open steam again, the problem persists.

I run on Windows 8 and have used Steam fine for months without a problem. This is my first.

After some Googling and scouring my machine, I have found out that in Task Manager, under the details tab, both the Civ 5 launcher and the Steam.exe launcher are running in the background. When attempting to end their tasks, it stated "Access Denied"
What I've Tried:

• Rebooting the machine, making sure both the Civ launcher and Steam are not under the Startup Apps.
  
• Ending the Civ launcher and Steam launcher with all persmissions allowed as an administrator
  
• Moving all possible contents within the Steam folder under Program Files into a different folder, and running the Steam.exe again hoping that it will re-download any corrupted files allowing Steam to start.

None of these methods have worked.
If you have any ideas, Please help!

[Kiya]

Try shutting down your PC completely and leaving it switched off for several minutes before switching it back on. Sometimes a reboot doesn't switch the computer off long enough to completely clear all the active processes - a longer shut down should take care of it.

[La puta de Amy]

Originally posted by Kiya:

Try shutting down your PC completely and leaving it switched off for several minutes before switching it back on. Sometimes a reboot doesn't switch the computer off long enough to completely clear all the active processes - a longer shut down should take care of it.

Mby that works

[Nievesatl]

Originally posted by Kiya:

Try shutting down your PC completely and leaving it switched off for several minutes before switching it back on. Sometimes a reboot doesn't switch the computer off long enough to completely clear all the active processes - a longer shut down should take care of it.

Just tried this.
The Problem persists...

[Nievesatl]

Originally posted by Fred:

Originally posted by Nievesatl:

Just tried this.
The Problem persists...

Are you telling us that the processes stay up even if you restart your computer?

Yes, both the Steam.exe and the Civ launcher stay as background applications.

[Nievesatl]

Originally posted by Broetchen:

Kill any Steam-related processes in the taskmanager (steam.exe, gameoverlayui.exe, the game itself) and then start Steam again. A reboot is not necessary. If the problem persists, remove anything in your Steam directory except SteamApps and Steam.exe and then run Steam.exe. Steam will be reinstalled then, but your games and savegames still exist.

I attempted to close both the Steam.exe and the Launcher on my task manager, but an error message comes up saying "Access Denied"
I checked my privacy properties and I have full control on both applications.
And I attempted to delete all of my files under the steam folder except Steam.exe and steamapps folder, but it stated many other files could not be deleted because the application was already running.

[Nievesatl]

Originally posted by Broetchen:

Originally posted by Nievesatl:

I attempted to close both the Steam.exe and the Launcher on my task manager, but an error message comes up saying "Access Denied"
I checked my privacy properties and I have full control on both applications.
And I attempted to delete all of my files under the steam folder except Steam.exe and steamapps folder, but it stated many other files could not be deleted because the application was already running.

You can't remove running applications, because Windows is retarded, but if you run Windows in Safemode you should be able to remove the files, start your OS as usual again and then start Steam.

That did it! Thank you for the help!

[itsduncecap]

Originally posted by Nievesatl:

Originally posted by Broetchen:

You can't remove running applications, because Windows is retarded, but if you run Windows in Safemode you should be able to remove the files, start your OS as usual again and then start Steam.

That did it! Thank you for the help!

So the issue I’m having is that Steam is staying in task manager but not appearing on my screen , should I try this and see if this works ?

I’ve reinstalled Steam twice , no fix, I’ve cleared a hard drive that had steam on it , no fix, and I tried reinstalling steam and that didn’t fix it. Every other program like epic games and battle net work fine but it’s just Steam that stays in task manager but never shows on my screen itself

Also when I click “end task” on Steam on task manager , Steam doesn’t close. After I click end task I have to wait like 5-10 mins before Steam actually closes on task manager.

Then once it’s closed I try to reopen Steam and once again it shows up in task manager but not on my screen.

[itsduncecap]

Lmk please

[Yuki]

This thread was quite old before the recent posts, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.