Friends & Chat window automatically opens on steam start

[Chief]

ISSUE
Friends and chat window opens when the steam client is started even though it was closed when steam was shut down

OS
Windows 11, 22H2, 22621.1848

STEPS
Select OFFLINE, sign out of friends and chat
Select the X in the upper right of window and close FRIENDS LIST
Select X in upper right of STEAM Client window and shut down steam

Open steam client

RESULTS
the friends window opens up. shows I am "SIGNED OUT OF FRIENDS & CHAT"

EXPECTED
The Friends list window should not open automatically. It never used to.

[-◉>◉-]

OS Linux - Ditto

[bedi]

There used to be a setting for not opening the friends list. But that option seems to be gone or am I missing something?
I don't want to use the steam chat feature therefore I don't need an offline chat window opening in the center of the screen when I start steam.

[OwO]

Here to report the same issue. Friend list window opens up on start, despite being set to not automatically log in. I don't need a window popping up telling me I'm not logged in to friends. I know. That is intentional. Don't show me this window, please.

[aciel.samael]

Also having same issue.

[Green Tea]

But no, they wanted to spend workhours pumping out what's arguably the worst downgrade in UI's I've seen since I've owned a PC instead of fixing actual issues
such a shlub company, trash

[RiO]

Originally posted by bedi:

There used to be a setting for not opening the friends list. But that option seems to be gone or am I missing something?
I don't want to use the steam chat feature therefore I don't need an offline chat window opening in the center of the screen when I start steam.

There used to be a setting to not automatically sign in to Friends & Chat on start.
That setting is still there and still works.

But rather than keeping Friends & Chat closed at startup if the user has not elected to sign in to it automatically, like that setting used to do; the new desktop UI just pops it up center screen regardless - to pester them to sign in to it each time they launch Steam.

[Kadah]

Almost every major-ish UI update has brought back this behavior. I'm beginning to wonder if its intentional to force users to re-interact with the chat feature to force them to remember its there and to use it.

If the pattern holds, an option or bug fix for this will quietly push out in a few weeks.

[-=9315+35/<r4/VX=-]

Probably it REALLY is intentional because Community-mechanics are the only thing that steam can sell as justification for installing an maximum overloaded, buggy client.

Sadly, the -nochatui -nofriendsui option seems to not work anymore. Can someone confirm?

[5,0 ‰ aka Mantaplatte]

Same
+
Library opens at startup

[frank.lang]

I tried to add -nofriendsui -nochatui -silent to the shortcut that launches the steam client, but it didn't quite work as expected, since -silent seems prevent any window from opening. To my surprise, after reverting back to the original command line, the friends and chat window is no longer opening automatically. So it seems to be a good enough workaround for now.

[-=9315+35/<r4/VX=-]

Originally posted by frank.lang:

I tried to add -nofriendsui -nochatui -silent to the shortcut that launches the steam client, but it didn't quite work as expected, since -silent seems prevent any window from opening. To my surprise, after reverting back to the original command line, the friends and chat window is no longer opening automatically. So it seems to be a good enough workaround for now.

Great! I dunno if there was just a small update (something was extracted, when I started with the commands inkluding the -silent now), or if it helped. But: YAY!! Thank you! :)

[Dr. Danger]

I think it happened to me too, at least once or even multiple times, Windows 10 64bit, so here goes +1 on this glitch/bug.

[-◉>◉-]

Originally posted by frank.lang:

I tried to add -nofriendsui -nochatui -silent to the shortcut that launches the steam client, but it didn't quite work as expected, since -silent seems prevent any window from opening. To my surprise, after reverting back to the original command line, the friends and chat window is no longer opening automatically. So it seems to be a good enough workaround for now.

This worked for me. Added all 3 and started up then quit and restarted without the options and no more window. Thanks for the heads up.

[bedi]

I noticed that even with tricks like -vgui there are some random bugs when I click on some elements

[DeaNyed]

"Steam Client" Start Window "Friends & Chat" not anymore available! Start Steam with the "Friends & Chat" window is no longer selectable in the list!

"Steam Client" Start Window "Friends & Chat" not anymore available! 

Community Created Artwork for Steam Artwork

By: DeaNyed

Start Steam with the "Friends & Chat" window is no longer selectable in the list! ADD this PLEASE!