How to Easily Restart the Steam App [Windows, Mac & Linux]

How to Restart Steam From the Steam Client

First off, the easiest and most convenient way to close the Steam app entirely is directly from the client. And without enabling Steam's offline mode, you'll appear invincible to your friends! So here's how to close off and restart the Steam app from within the client:

1. Open up the Steam client on your PC
2. Click on the "Steam" logo located in the upper top left corner
3. Select the "Exit" option located at the bottom of the Steam dropdown menu
4. Open Steam up again

Some players only want to try restarting Steam to look as if they're in offline mode, but if you open Steam again, keep in mind it will jump you back into online mode again! If you're having an issue opening the Steam client to close it off completely from within the app, you might have to attempt restarting Steam from the background.

How to Restart Steam on Windows with Task Manager

Another way you can close off and restart Steam directly from the background is with Task Manager. You can completely close off any apps from it, so here you won't even have to open the Steam app to shut it down! Here's how to restart Steam through the Windows Task Manager:

1. Open the Task Manager window by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc on your keyboard
2. Select the "Processes" tab if you haven't already
3. Find the "Steam (32 bit)" process within the Task Manager window
4. Right-click the process, and select "End Task"
5. Reopen Steam on your PC again

Now you can even play Steam games offline if they aren't multiplayer games of course! There are many Steam processes running in the background, but if you end and close the correct one from above, all the rest related to Steam should quickly disappear as well.

How to Restart Steam on Mac with Force Quit

If you're a Mac gamer, then besides closing Steam from the client itself, there's also a way to shut it completely from the background. Mac gives its users an option called "Force Quit" which allows people to close off any running apps and games instantly. So here's how you can force quit and restart Steam on a Mac device:

1. Click the Apple logo on the top left of your screen and select "Force Quit"
2. You can also open the Force Quit window by pressing Command+Option+Esc
3. Find Steam in the list of apps, select it, and click on the Force Quit button
   
4. Relaunch Steam for a full restart

This Mac feature is mostly used if the Steam window is glitching out and you can't do anything on it. This should give it a clean wipe so you can start it up again and enjoy the best Steam games again!

How to Restart and Refresh Steam on Linux

Restarting Steam on a Linux device can be done in multiple ways. One such being with the System Monitor app, which functions a lot like the Windows Task Manager and Mac's Force Quit options. All you have to do is open System Monitor, find the Steam process, right-click it, and select "Kill"! Then simply relaunch Steam anew to restart it completely.

An even better way to restart Steam on Linux though is to refresh its files completely. This can easily be done using a command, so here's how to refresh and restart Steam through a Linux Terminal:

1. Close off Steam from within the client
2. Open the Linux terminal
3. Type in the command "steam --reset" and press Enter
4. Restart your device and open Steam again

If the command went smoothly, you should see this text appear in the prompt: "Installing bootstrap /home/"PC-Name"/.steam/steam/bootstrap.tar.xz". This means you've refreshed Steam completely! But if you don't get that message, then try checking if you've typed the command wrong.

Can You Close Steam Instead of Minimize By Pressing "X"?

Unfortunately, there's no way to close off the Steam app by simply pressing the "X" button at the top right corner. This will only minimize the client, where you can close it off using the methods above. Even though some of the best Steam alternatives offer this option, Steam doesn't have it for the time being!

Even if you press Alt+F4 on your keyboard while having Steam opened, it still won't close off completely and only gets minimized in the background. So keep that in mind when you try to close off and restart the Steam app.

How to Refresh Steam Files on Windows and Mac

Much like Linux previously, there's also a way to refresh all the Steam files on a Windows PC as well! This isn't mostly used for restarting Steam and to look like you're in offline mode, but rather to fasten up the app a bit. Below you can see how to refresh Steam files on Windows:

1. Close off Steam from within the client
2. Press the Windows Key+R on your keyboard to open the Run dialog menu
3. Type "steam://flushconfig" in the Run window and press Enter
4. Restart your PC and open the Steam app again

On a Mac device, the command is actually the same, but only the location where you type it in changes. Here you'll want to open the Safari browser, paste in the "steam://flushconfig" command above, and hit Enter.

If you were having an issue with Steam not opening up, then restarting it using the methods above might just help you. You can also use these methods to close off Steam and fasten up your PC if you aren't planning on playing any Steam games!