Select Go Offline and select Restart Steam in Offline Mode.

Open Steam and select Steam from the top menu.

If Steam works, it’s the security software interfering. Stop Your Antivirus or Firewall for a RetestĮven if you haven’t made changes, your firewall or antivirus program may have updated itself behind the scenes and be interfering with Steam. If there are no running processes and Steam still will not start, what changes have you made since you last used your computer? Have you added new antivirus? A new firewall? Any other security software? If something has changed or you have added new software that could interfere with Steam, roll it back or uninstall it and retest. If you see them running, right-click and select End Task.

Check for the Steam Client Bootstrapper and Steam Client Service.

Right-click an empty space on your Windows Task Bar and select Task Manager, you can also use Ctrl + Shift + Esc.

There may be a Steam process running already that won’t let a new instance of Steam run properly. If that doesn’t work or you don’t want to reboot just yet, check running processes. It should be one of the first things you try on any computer for any program issue. The first fix to try if Steam won’t open is to reboot your computer. Try them in order and we will have you up and gaming in no time! Reboot Your Computer I use Windows so these are all based on Windows 10 but many can be used on other OS with a little modification.

I have collected most of the fixes I know of for this problem in one place. So rather than hunting the internet or Redditt to find out what to do if Steam won’t open, just read this. Both can be annoying as it is a few precious gaming minutes wasted trying to get it to work. One common issue is when nothing happens when you hit the Steam icon or when the Bootstrapper starts and then closes without loading the program. Steam is undoubtedly more reliable and more stable than ever before but things still go wrong. It is the only games launcher I actually like having on my system and one that actually works and doesn’t hog resources, spy (too much) on me and does something useful other than enforce DRM.

I have been using Steam for over almost fifteen years, ever since it first began selling games through its neat platform.

Steam for mac file not opening