How to Quickly Fix Steam Not Opening on Your Device [8 Ways]

Restart all Steam Apps from Task Manager and Command Prompt

Apps like Steam have services running in the background even though you haven't opened them, causing the app not to launch. So the first thing you should consider doing is to close off and restart Steam completely from the background. The Steam tasks can easily be terminated through the Task Manager, so here's how to close and restart Steam from the Task Manager:

1. Open the Task Manager by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc on your keyboard
2. Select the "Processes" tab if it isn't already selected in the Task Manager
3. Locate the "Steam" or "Steam (32 bit)" process
4. Right-click the process and select "End task"

Ending this process in the Task Manager should close all the remaining Steam processes altogether. But sometimes it won't close them, so you can try restarting the Steam process from the Command Prompt:

1. Type "cmd" in the Search Bar below and open the Command Prompt app
2. Type in the command 'taskkill /f /IM "steam.exe"', and press Enter

Ending the Steam processes can also fix some Steam games not launching on your PC, so you can try to open the Steam client and see if everything worked well. But if it didn't, there are plenty of solutions left to try!

Open Steam as an Administrator

The Steam app often needs bigger permissions from your PC to run some of its core programs, and if it doesn't have them, then there's a chance it won't open at all. If this is the issue, what you can try to do is run Steam as an administrator:

1. Right-click the Steam shortcut on your Desktop and select Properties
2. Select the "Compatibility" section from the top of the Properties window
3. Click on the "Run this program as an administrator" checkbox and select Apply
4. Try to open the Steam app from the shortcut

Each time you open the Steam client right now from the Desktop shortcut, it'll run as an administrator! You can also open the Steam client as an administrator by simply right-clicking the Steam app and selecting "Run as an administrator". 

Restart your PC and Router

If a PC and router haven't been shut down for as long as how old your Steam account is, they can collect useless cache data that will only slow down your device and Internet connection. In some situations, this can affect the Steam client too so you can try to restart your PC and router.

To restart your router, unplug its power cord for around 5 minutes, and then stick it back in the power socket. As for your PC, just click on the power icon within the Windows menu, select Restart, and once it fires up again, try to launch Steam and see if the issue was fixed.

Allow Steam through the Windows Firewall

Shockingly, some of Windows' security measures like Firewall often don't know if Steam is safe, and so they think that the client is a threat to your device. If this is the case, allowing Steam through the Windows Defender Firewall should fix Steam not launching. So here's how to allow Steam on the Windows Firewall:

1. In the Search bar below, type in "Control Panel" and open the Control Panel app
2. Select the "System and Security" section in the Control Panel window
3. Click on "Allow an app through Windows Firewall" underneath the "Windows Defender Firewall" section
4. Find Steam in the list of apps, make sure to check the Private and Public checkboxes, and click on OK

If your operating system is at play messing up the app, then this should definitely fix Steam up. But if Steam won't open again, then the problem may lie much deeper in your device!

Update your Windows Operating System

As time passes, you'll have to update Steam which will require newer and updated PCs for the app to run. So if you have an older device, you might want to consider updating your operating system. Here's how you can update your Windows operating system:

1. Open up the Settings by pressing the Windows Key+I on your PC
2. On the left side, select "Windows Update" - or "Update & Security" and then "Windows Update" depending on your Windows version
3. Click on "Check for updates", and if there are any updates available, proceed with them

Updating your Windows should only be done if you have a very old unsupported version by Steam. If you have a very old PC that doesn't even support operating system updates, then you should definitely consider buying a new one that can start running Steam again!

Update your Graphics Cards Drivers

Much like the Windows operating system, when it comes to graphics card drivers, there are many ways you can update them. If you know your graphics card inside and out, you can update its drivers from the official websites of the manufacturers. Here are the sites with the available driver updates for your graphics card:

• AMD Graphics Card Drivers Update
• NVIDIA Graphics Card Drivers Update
• Intel Graphics Card Drivers Update

If you can't completely navigate through these graphics card driver update websites, then don't worry! Another way Windows has introduced to update graphics card drivers is to automatically check for the available drivers online:

1. Type in "Device Manager" in the Search bar below and open the Device Manager app
2. Double-click the "Display adapters" section
3. Right-click your graphics card and select "Update driver"
4. Select the "Search automatically for drivers online" option and if there are any available, proceed with them

Whether Steam won't open again, then your PC and drivers may not be at fault here. The actual problem of the Steam client not launching can sometimes be caused by Steam itself!

Check the Steam Servers

In some rare situations, the Steam servers can be down so Steam won't open if you try to launch it. What you can try doing here is checking if Steam servers are up here.

If the Steam servers are down, then all you can do is wait until they come back online and then try to open Steam again. But if they aren't down, then there's one last solution you can try to fix this issue and successfully open the Steam client again.

Reinstall Steam Completely

Finally, the last thing you can try to do if Steam won't open after the previous solutions is to reinstall Steam. This is a last-ditch effort since it can only happen when Steam has some corrupted files, which makes it impossible to open and run Steam. So here's how to reinstall Steam completely:

1. Type "Control Panel" in the Search bar below and open the first app
2. Make sure the "View by" option is set to "Category", and click on "Uninstall a program"
3. Locate Steam among all the apps, select it, and click on "Uninstall" at the top
4. Go to the official Steam website
5. Click on "Install Steam" and proceed with the process of reinstalling Steam

After this reinstallation, you can try to launch Steam and log in anew to fix the issue. For most Steam users like yourself, these solutions will definitely help you to open Steam again and continue playing Steam's best games!