Steam bricks W11 when set to run at startup

[rearechelon]

I've been trying to diagnose this issue for months now and finally, FINALLY found a forum post where someone having the same issue has traced it to Steam.

I usually Sleep my computer so normally this isn't an issue, but ever since March/April of this year (2024), whenever I boot up from the computer being off, Windows would start fine but then nothing would execute. None of my apps set to run at startup would be loaded, if I could even open the Start menu, nothing would run, I couldn't shut down, or restart, or even Ctrl+Alt+Del. I've reinstalled Windows so many times, installing and uninstalling and reinstalling updates, thinking it was a problem with Windows Update (because it first started happening after a restart from an update, but I now know it was because of the *restart* itself—not the update) but it turns out it was Steam this whole time. After finding that first forum post, I've since found several others with people having the same issue. It seems that simply preventing Steam from running at startup solves the problem, but I have also found posts from people having the issue even when starting Steam manually after Windows has fully booted. So I'm posting here to both try to alert the community at large and hopefully Valve themselves to this issue (as I don't know how to submit a bug report about this), as well as try to suss out why this might be happening.

My drivers and Windows are all up to date, as well as my Steam client. I am not on the beta track for Steam. Any help or even speculation is welcome. Thanks!

[Azza ☠]

Do you really need to sleep/hibernate your PC?

Your shutdown currently isn't working as a "shut down" if you also have "Fast Boot" enabled on your Windows. It's restoring a pre-loaded image each time, which can be "faster" (if you aren't on a fast SSD - Solid State Drive). If you have background apps under Windows, including Steam, they get added into that fast restore image too. Any issues also getting "saved" with them as such to restore next time.

Under your Windows Search/Run box, type "edit power plan" (without the quotes) and select it from the list. On the top menu bar, go back to "Power Options" and ensure "High performance" plan is selected (if not a laptop).

On the left menu select "Choose what the power buttons do"
- When I press the power button = "Shut Down"
- When I press the sleep button = "Sleep"

Click the "Change settings that are currently unavailable".
- Untick "turn on fast startup"

Save changes and reboot.

Now your PC will actually shutdown and reboot cleanly and correctly. You shouldn't notice any booting performance change if you are on SSD, but otherwise if it's slower, you can go back to "turn on fast startup" again and re-enable that. It will recreate a new image next time.

Before doing so:

Right-click Start > Terminal (Admin) and type "sfc /scannow" (without the quote) to run a Windows Resource Protection check. That will scan your critical windows files and attempt to repair any corrupted/missing files.

(Optional) if you don't want sleep/hibernate mode at all affect your PC, type "Powercfg -h off" (without the quotes). That will get rid of your hibernate file completely. You can use "Powercfg -h on" to recreate it and get back sleep mode options.

It's key to make sure Windows files aren't corrupted and then exit out of apps such as Steam to avoid saving their states too, before shutting down / sleeping to recreate a good hibernate file, specially if using fast boot.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Never put any game clients in OS Startup.. Win10/11 don't run them properly that way as they should be launched via Run As Admin. Just wait until you click your user login and the Desktop fully loads and starts the various services and such. Look at Task Manager. Then just right click your desktop shortcut > Run As admin. Why is this so difficult?

If you have 2 GPUs, go to OS Graphics Settings and add Steam and others to this list and select High Performance GPU so they dont use or look at the onboard iGPU

[Azza ☠]

Bad 💀 Motha lähetti viestin:

Never put any game clients in OS Startup.. Win10/11 don't run them properly that way as they should be launched via Run As Admin. Just wait until you click your user login and the Desktop fully loads and starts the various services and such. Look at Task Manager. Then just right click your desktop shortcut > Run As admin. Why is this so difficult?

If you have 2 GPUs, go to OS Graphics Settings and add Steam and others to this list and select High Performance GPU so they dont use or look at the onboard iGPU

It runs them normally till there's an update. Then the saved state of the app is the previous version in the hibernate file for the OS to restore from "fast boot" and/or "sleep mode", while the app is wanting the latest version. This then can corrupt it between the two.

I hate Hibernate and sleep mode for this reason. It doesn't clean restart or shutdown and any issues are kept. I personally do without it, but if you do want to still use it, then be aware of keeping yourself a clean hibernate image. Shutdown won't actually "shut down" as such, a restart can be cleaner.

However, here's a trick:

Hold down the "Shift" key while shutting down to perform a clean shutdown, if still using Hibernate / Fast Boot. Make sure your power button is actually also set to "shut down" rather than anything else, so you can still force shutdown / reboot.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Turn off fast Startup and hibernate its the first thing to do in WinOS, period.

CMD > Run As Admin
POWERCFG -H OFF
Press ENTER
RESTART WinOS

[Azza ☠]

Bad 💀 Motha lähetti viestin:

Turn off fast Startup and hibernate its the first thing to do in WinOS, period.

CMD > Run As Admin
POWERCFG -H OFF
Press ENTER
RESTART WinOS

I agree with this and do so myself, but just understand it will disable your sleep mode. So depends if you want it or not. If you don't, it will also free up a ton of space on your hard drive and even prolong SSD (Solid State Drive) lifespans.

It will get rid of the "Hiberfil.sys" located on your main drive (default - C:\Hiberfil.sys), which can be equal to the size or greater than your RAM. So 32GB if you have 32GB RAM, etc.

If you want it back at any time use:
POWERCFG -H ON

[Bad 💀 Motha]

There are also other parameters to the POWERCFG -H such as setting the size of the temp file and such.

If you really have a need for Sleep Mode which I find pretty useless and pointless but if you want then go and just disable Fas Startup in WinOS and leave Hibernation alone.