What to do when Steam won’t open – Steam not opening fix

Sometimes after a long day or on a weekend, you get the urge to launch up Steam and play your favorite video games. But, in many cases, the Steam application doesn’t open and it can get quite frustrating. There are a variety of reasons why the Steam app cannot open, but fortunately there are also a lot of fixes for this. So, let’s take a look at all the possible fixes when Steam does not open.

Related: How long does Steam maintenance take? Steam maintenance schedule

Steam not opening possible fixes

Restart your computer

In many cases, a simple restart of your computer will fix the issue of Steam not opening. It is possible that initially, the computer faced problems when booting up, which led to the Steam app not launching too.

Restart Steam

Restarting the Steam app itself will solve the issue sometimes too. For this, go to Task Manager, find Steam under Processes and end it.

Run Steam as Administrator

You also might not have permission to run the Steam app which is why it isn’t opening. Try running it as an Administrator to see if it is fixed.

Clear Steam Appcache

The cache data stored for Steam helps in making the commonly done tasks and processes run faster without downloading files again and again. It might be that some of the chance files got corrupted which stopped Steam from opening. Go to the Steam app location on your computer and find the ‘appcache’ folder. Delete it and see if it solves the problem.

Disable Antivirus Software

Sometimes the antivirus software you have installed might detect Steam as a malicious application and prevents you from opening it. Disable it for a short time and try to launch Steam to see if that’s the case. If it is doing that, make sure Steam is put on the antivirus’ whitelist so that it doesn’t happen again.

Check if you have the latest Windows Update

There’s a chance the version of Steam you’re running might not be compatible with the Windows version you’re currently running. In this case, check and see if you are running the latest version of Windows. If not, then download and install it and try to run Steam to see if the problem persists.

Check if you have the latest Drivers Update

Not having the latest driver software installed might also cause Steam to not open. Check to see if you have the latest driver updates installed and if not, install them.

Reinstall Steam

If any of the above methods do not work, the last option would be to reinstall Steam. F,first uninstall the application from Programs and download the latest version from the Steam website.