Steam Won’t Open On My Computer – How To Fix?

Steam is one of the most popular gaming stores in Windows, with a wide collection of games from both massive studios and small-scale developers. Apart from an occasional hiccup, the Steam app store is one of the cleanest and well-performing software.

However, not even the Steam application is perfect. There have been multiple reports among gamers that Steam won’t open on their Windows 10 devices.  Here we shall take a look at some potential solutions as to how you can solve if you see Steam store not loading in Windows 10.

Also read: Can I Reset Steam Password? A Quick Guide!

Why Won’t Steam Open On My Computer?

Steam is one of the most popular gaming platforms for Windows. This means, that many users simultaneously tune into Steam to view the library, and play games as well. This puts a tremendous load on the Steam servers, and these servers can crash leading to this error.

However, more often than not when you see Steam not opening on your computer, the fault is more likely than not with your computer. Many things can cause your Steam client not to launch on your computer. These can include outdated graphics drivers, missing or outdated application cache, problems with your internet connection among others.

Here, let’s take a look at some of the most common causes of this error, and how you can solve this error easily on your device.

How To Fix If Steam Won’t Open On My Computer?

Many users have reported multiple reasons why the Steam client failed to launch on their device. Here are some of the solutions that you can try to launch the Steam client on your computer without any errors.

Solution 1: Hard Restart Steam App As Administrator

If you are facing any error with the Steam app, the quickest solution that you can attempt to solve this includes restarting the application from the task manager. This is done to relieve the application from any outdated cache and other temporary files.

1. Open the task manager. You can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + Esc.
2. Under the Processes tab, arrange the running processes according to the name in any order of your preference.
3. Next, close all the processes associated with the Steam client. To do so, select End task from the right-click context menu.

4. Next, locate the Steam desktop shortcut, and select Run as administrator from the right-click context menu.
5. If you wish to always run Steam as an administrator, you can follow these steps:
   • Right-click on the Steam desktop shortcut.
   • Select Properties from the context menu.
   • Under the Compatibility tab, check the box next to Run this Program as an Administrator.
   • Click the Apply followed by OK button to save the changes.

6. Restart your computer.

Now attempt to launch the Steam client, and check if it loads normally. Your error should now be resolved.

Solution 2: Clear Steam Cache

Most applications are troubled with the outdated cache. Cache refers to the data that is stored by websites and applications locally and is used to load them faster the next time you attempt to load them. Missing or corrupted cache is one of the many reasons why many apps malfunction.

Before attempting to clear Steam cache, you need to check if there are any pending downloads, as you might have to download them again from scratch. Follow these steps to check incomplete downloads and clean Steam cache:

1. Open File Explorer. You can use the keyboard shortcut Win + E.
2. Go to the following folder:
   C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps
3. Locate and right-click on the downloading folder to reveal the context menu.
4. Click on Properties.
5. Check the folder size. If the folder shows the size as empty, you can clear the cache without any worries as there are no pending downloads. However, if there are files in this folder, you can attempt to take a backup of this folder and hope that the downloads resume when you launch Steam.

Caution: there is no sure way of saying for sure that the downloads would resume. You may have to download the games from the beginning.

6. Open a Run dialog by pressing Win + R.
7. Type the following command and press Enter to clear the Steam application cache:
   steam://flushconfig

8. Click on OK in any confirmation prompt.

Also read: How To Fix “An Issue With Your Computer Is Blocking The VAC System” Error?

Solution 3: Update Graphics Drivers

The drivers refer to the configuration files that help in the communication between your hardware devices, and your installed operating system. When the device drivers go corrupt or missing, there is a possibility of your hardware malfunctioning or possibly not working at all.

It is possible that Steam won’t open because of outdated graphics drivers. For checking and updating your device drivers, you need to follow these steps:

1. Open the Run dialog box by using Win + R.
2. Here, type devmgmt.msc and press Enter.

3. This shall open the Device Manager console.
4. Here, you need to locate the devices that may be associated with your error e.g. the display adapters drivers, Graphics card drivers, etc. Any outdated drivers will be indicated by a yellow exclamation mark beside the device.

5. Right-click on these devices, and select Update Driver from the context menu.
   The Windows assistant will search for and prompt you to install the latest version of the device drivers.
6. Reboot your system.

If your computer is unable to find the appropriate drivers, the process needs to be completed manually. You will be able to find the latest device drivers on the website of your graphics card manufacturer. If you own NVIDIA cards, you can visit the NVIDIA downloads page, while for AMD cards, you can visit the AMD support page where you will find all the required drivers.

Also read: An Error That Occurred While Updating Steam – How To Fix?

Solution 4: Rename ClientRegistry.blob

Steam stores the binary data for the client in the ClientRegistry.blob files. If you see the Steam store not loading on your computer, you can try renaming the binary file to rebuild the cache data. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Close all the running instances of the Steam app on your computer as shown in solution 1.
2. Open File Explorer. You can use the keyboard shortcut Win + E.
3. Browse to the Steam folder. Usually, it is C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam.
4. Here, locate and click on the ClientRegistry.blob file.
5. Press F2 to rename the file.
6. Set the file name to ClientRegistry.blob and close the explorer window.

7. Restart Steam to allow the file to be recreated. You should not see ‘Steam game won’t launch’ error anymore.
8. However, if still Steam won’t open on your device, browse back to the Steam directory that you found in step 3.
9. Locate and run the steamerrorreporter.exe application.
10. Re-launch Steam.

Solution 5: Check If Steam Has Been Added To Firewall List

Your internet traffic passes through the built in firewall, which checks the internet activity and prevents harmful files from being downloaded onto your device, and hence acts as a shield for your computer.

If you see that a Steam game won’t launch on your computer, there is a possibility that your Steam client is not allowed through the Firewall. To check if this is the case for your device as well, follow the steps provided in solution 3 of our article uTorrent not responding.

The Steam application needs to be allowed through the Firewall, in order to connect through the internet freely. If it was previously not added to the firewall list, that may have been causing the ‘Steam won’t open after login’ error.

Solution 6: Reset Network Configuration

To eliminate the possibility that an internet connection error is causing Steam to not launch the application, you need to reset the network configuration. You can reset any disrupted or corrupted network settings by following these steps:

1. Open an elevated command prompt. To do this, open a Run dialog by pressing Win + R, type cmd and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to launch the command prompt with administrative privileges.
2. Type the following commands and press Enter after each command to reset the network configuration data:
   ipconfig /flushdns
   netsh winsock reset

3. Reboot your device for implementing the changes for your device.

Solution 7: Reinstall Steam

If none of the solutions above helped you solve the error, you need to reinstall the Steam client application on your device. This process usually takes a lot of time, so make sure that you do this when your PC will not be interrupted. Simply follow these steps:

1. Uninstall the Steam application from your control panel. Else, you can also use third party batch uninstallers to remove residual files as well.
2. Download the installer for Steam from their official website, and install a fresh copy of the software.
3. However, if you have many games downloaded from the Steam store, you can install Steam without deleting the installed files. For that follow these steps:
   • Browse to the Steam directory, and locate the following files
     Steam.exe (Application)
     SteamApps (Folder)
   • Delete all the files except these files mentioned in the step above.
   • Restart Steam as an administrator.

Steam should download the missing files again and will open normally when the download completes.

Wrapping Up

So there you have it. Now you know how to troubleshoot if Steam won’t open in Windows 10. Comment below if you found this useful, and to discuss further the same.