Simplest Steam Overlay Fix (Run as non-admin)

You can just click Play, and have the Steam overlay work! No hassle, one copy and paste command!

How To Do It

One magic command pasted in your launch options will fix it instantly.

C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /min /C set __COMPAT_LAYER=RUNASINVOKER && start "" "%command%"

When done, it'll look like this.



Ta-da. The Steam overlay will now work, and the game won't stupidly request admin rights. You don't need to change any paths in that code, unless you have Windows installed on a drive other than C: (and if you do, you'd know).

How It Works

This launches the Windows command prompt, cmd.exe, with a special compatibility option (not available in the Compatibility Options dialog!) that tells Windows that it can only run programs as the user that opened the prompt (that is, you) with non-elevated credentials.

The %command% part is a useful variable that works in the launch options of every Steam game, and just contains the command used to launch the game.

[vads1]

weren i start it it say windows cannot find c:program . make sure you typed the name correcty and then try again

[torekk]

If anyone else is struggling, this is what worked for me. Replace D: with wherever your game is installed on.

C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /min /C set __COMPAT_LAYER=RUNASINVOKER && start "D:\SteamLibrary/steamapps/common/Stalker Call of Pripyat/" %command%

[quirkchungus homunculi]

Thank you, this worked perfectly.

[Chromium]

Yep, just replace %command% with X:\Path\To\Your\Game.exe . If there are spaces in the game path that might cause problems; if so, try enclosing the game path in quotes.

[quirkchungus homunculi]

It tells me that it can't find the folder "stalker", is there a way to point it at my COP installation?