Ending support for -no-browser and -noreactlogin

[Programmer Joe]

This topic is about command line options in the Steam client. A few advanced users add command line options to change how their Steam client works. If you haven't done so, you can safely ignore this whole subject. For people who do use command line options, and specifically -noreactlogin or -no-browser, we would like to learn what you're using them for. If something isn't working for you without these flags, please reply to this thread and let us know.

As of a recent client beta update we are ending support for the -noreactlogin and -no-browser command line options in the Steam Client. We expect these changes to be released to all Steam users sometime in January 2023. This concludes the journey of replacing an old framework that we began with Steam Chat, continued with the redesign of the Steam Library, and will continue with new features.

Removing these options

The -noreactlogin option was added during the new login UI beta as a way to flip back and forth during testing. This reverts to the old UI and has the effect of disabling login confirmations in the mobile app and QR code login.

Most users who use this option do so because there was a brief window where it was incompatible with -login, and that was not yet supported with the new UI. For those users, support for -login was restored in September.

Less than 1% of Steam users run -noreactlogin, but do not use -login. If you have some other reason for using -noreactlogin, we would love to hear from you. Please reply below and let us know why you're using this option.

An even smaller number of users run Steam with the -no-browser option. We added this option in 2015 when we were working through compatibility issues with SSE2 and SSE3. It disables the "steamwebhelper" process entirely, and with it most of the Steam UI. The store, community, and library tabs in the client stop working. Friends list and chat are disabled. By the end of the current beta period we expect essentially all of the Steam client to require browser support.

If you are a person who typically runs with -no-browser, please post below and let us know why you're using this option. We are not going to support this mode going forward, but we do want to fix any bugs that are causing you to run in this mode.

[76561199250022259]

just turn off game overlay

[mm.324]

I HATE being forced to login to my email and get a code just to sign in to steam. Normally I only check my emails every month or two. Before you implemented THAT hassle I'd check in on steam numerous times a day to check on new releases, updates, and to browse the store but now it's just when I want to play a steam game. You're treating the PC client the same as the mobile app.
The result is I've deleted over 400 games off of my wish list and no longer bother to go to the store page.

[Programmer Joe]

Originally posted by mm.324:

I HATE being forced to login to my email and get a code just to sign in to steam. Normally I only check my emails every month or two. Before you implemented THAT hassle I'd check in on steam numerous times a day to check on new releases, updates, and to browse the store but now it's just when I want to play a steam game. You're treating the PC client the same as the mobile app.
The result is I've deleted over 400 games off of my wish list and no longer bother to go to the store page.

Sorry you're having this trouble. Once you sign in to a machine you shouldn't be asked for your Steam Guard token again for several months.

Is this with -noreactlogin, or just whenever you run the client? Is this the account you're having the trouble with?

[blunt pointy object]

As a general comment, I think -no-browser usage would decrease if the version of CEF being used wasn't over 17 centuries2 years old, as a matter of security.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

People have been running into this the past few months...

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/0/3377158861985887943/

Relevant?

[Stitch]

The Steam browser unnecessarily eats huge chunks of CPU when not being used. ♥♥♥♥ off.

[Wibstr]

Steam opens a bunch of browser windows (browser instances?) that eat up resources, which is totally unnecessary when I just want to play a game. Will there be some other way to prevent this waste of resources?

[Wibstr]

(Also, if you're making everything run on a browser, why in the gods' names can't I adjust the font size?)

[mindvoice]

On my laptop -no-browser is the essential option to save a lot of memory. All the web-helper processes eat about 5-10% of my total RAM. So if I I'd like to browse steam, I'd run full mode. But if I just want to play games, I restart steam with -no-browser.
I'd be happy to have any possibility to run steam in minimal configuration required just to run games, but I understand that I'm not even close to the target steam users with my laptop.

[dubigrasu]

This is a major blow, a big stab in the back that you do here. I love Valve because they ADD useful features, not for removing them, as little as they are used by the majority.
The important thing is to have those options in case you need them.

I use rather extensively the -no-browser in conjunction with minigamelist to have steam using as little resources as possible. Sadly, the steamwebhelper for example is the biggest resources hog possible, and using something like:
steam -no-browser steam://open/minigameslist
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2899247569
was a godsend, and now you are taking this AWAY ?

Is not that I don't use the regular interface, I usually do, but when I really need to squeeze the system for resources, I used the above options, it did wonders, and it was so nice to know it exists.
And now is removed, good job Valve.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

I use -no-browser because it makes the Steam client run faster and lighter and allows me to avoid loading in a UI that is unwieldy to use and basically useless to me.

The browser-based UI that's been with the Steam client since late October 2019 runs less smoothly than and is less useful than the previous UI. Here is a list of my problems with it.

Design issues include:

* Complete and utter lack of the spreadsheet-style List View, including (1) its much higher information density (both vertically (number of lines displayed one game per line) and horizontally (amount of metadata displayed per line)), (2) the ability to have one's Steam Library entirely in plaintext, including various pieces of useful game metadata, and excluding any and all pictures that would cause loading lag. (List View is how I used to use the Steam client, and it is also how I currently use GOG Galaxy.)

* This new UI is even less keyboard-navigable than the previous UI. Can't even launch a game with pressing Enter, for example, and navigating up/down with keyboard just causes the client to wait to load a Detail-View-like page even if all I need is to just launch the game (which is 99.99% of the time for me).

* What's New, which is only rarely ever useful to me, is glued to the top of the Home page, and is also rather bulky (particularly when I have the Steam client window not maximized, as is typically the case for me). There's no built-in way to disable it (or ideally, toggle it, and such that it can be off by default).

* No way to use the main Library UI without all those pictures (aside from Small Mode, which is far less fully-featured).

* There's no plaintext indicating the names of the games, so the game names have to be read from the pictures...which in turn means that one needs to wait for the pictures to load in order to even know what games one is looking at. (Compare GOG Galaxy whose Grid View has a "Title" option that displays the game names in plaintext.)

* No way to have Steam go back to using the landscape-style box art. This is a factor because not all games have portrait-style box art, and landscape-style box art is displayed extra small. (And when one needs to see the box art in order to know what game something is...yeah.)

Further performance issues include:

* choppy scrolling, stopping to load the many images
* the Steam client taking longer to launch, and using more system resources

(I haven't even mentioned how uninstalling a game is bugged out because the uninstall confirmation is dependent on a browser-renderd page for some silly reason. But I'll grant that if I were using the modern Steam UI this wouldn't be an issue.)

As a result, I prefer just using -no-browser. This way...

* The Steam client launches faster and uses fewer system resources.
* I'm using Small Mode to launch my games anyway, since that's the only plaintext list, and so I don't need the very bloated Library UI whose bloat is mostly features I don't use.

Fundamentally all I need is a launcher to do the DRM checks to allow me to access my Steam games. Secondarily, some things like screenshots via the overlay are nice. But I don't really need anything more. I don't use the Steam client to browse the Steam store or community; I prefer my own external browser, because it allows me to (1) more easily identify phishing pages and (2) keep and use browsing history. The Steam client itself fundmentally doesn't need to be a browser; it doesn't need to have all these fancy bells and whistles. It just needs to be a launcher, so that I can get to the games I bought and want to play, and get to my games with minimal disruption, annoyance, or distraction.

Sidenotes:

The annoyance of using the Steam client has caused me to use Steam a lot less than before; I used to keep it running in the background pretty often but nowadays I generally don't.

Also, by the way, -no-browser doesn't actually disable Friends list and chat; it just loads the old version of those. It's now buggy, but it still works well enough.

[Mary the Witch]

As others have already pointed out, I run with `-no-browser` to save on resources, mainly ram. Disabling steamwebhelper is intentional. I'm unsure what could even be fixed here, since it isn't a bug. If anything, an option to open the minilibrary with most steam functionalities turned off (i.e. steamwebhelper) would likely achieve the same result in a less hacky way.

[riari]

whyyyyyyyy

[CodeDelicious]

I cannot afford a high end PC and -no-browser took away the demon that was the 6 or so instances of steamwebhelper which took a lot of my computers resources. You guys have got to be joking by taking this away?????? This is such a slap in the face. At least give us another way to suppress the web helpers!!!!!!

[mm.324]

Originally posted by Programmer Joe:

Originally posted by mm.324:

I HATE being forced to login to my email and get a code just to sign in to steam. Normally I only check my emails every month or two. Before you implemented THAT hassle I'd check in on steam numerous times a day to check on new releases, updates, and to browse the store but now it's just when I want to play a steam game. You're treating the PC client the same as the mobile app.
The result is I've deleted over 400 games off of my wish list and no longer bother to go to the store page.

Sorry you're having this trouble. Once you sign in to a machine you shouldn't be asked for your Steam Guard token again for several months.

Is this with -noreactlogin, or just whenever you run the client? Is this the account you're having the trouble with?

This was after the Oct. 11th client "update". Within a couple of days after that "update" I heard about -noreactlogin and started using it without any issue. Even though it enabled me to be able to bypass having to get a code from my email I knew steam would eventually force it down people's throats, which is exactly what this thread is about. If people don't want two-tier verification then you shouldn't coerce them into it.

PS. To be clear, before using -noreactlogin I was asked for a code every time I started the client. Yes it was this account, it's the only one I have.