Restart Steam Client

Steam might be running some of its processes in the background, which prevents you from opening it. To launch the program without bugs, we need to prepare a clean start for it. Therefore, end the active processes and open Steam using these steps:

• Open Task Manager either by clicking Ctrl+Alt+Delete> Task Manager, or by right-clicking Windows icon in the taskbar and selecting Task Manager from there.
• Go to Processestab, and search for Steam-related processes. Click each of them and select End Task. Repeat until you end all of them are ended.

Try clicking on Steam’s shortcut to run it again.

Run Steam as administrator

Steam won’t open? You might need to run it as Administrator. Users report that this often fix the issue for them. All that you need to do is to right-click the Steam icon and choose Run as Administrator. If the program still won’t launch, try the next methods we listed.

Update Windows

You may have seen “update and restart” option in the previous method, so if that’s the case, choose this option. Otherwise, you might need to check for Windows updates manually. To do so, follow the given steps.

• Click on Windows icon, then select the Gear icon which represents Settings.
• Go to Update & Security. Here, click Check for Updates.
• Updates will start installing automatically; you must restart your computer afterwards. Simply click on Windows icon >Power button > Restart.

Update Date & Time Settings

Suprisingly, wrong Date & Time settings can cause a lot of problems on your computer, including Steam won’t open Windows 10. It is so because the gaming client collects some date and time data as you play. Therefore, the right Date and Time settings is a must. To ensure that time settings are ok, follow the given steps.

• Launch Run prompt (press Windows key + R on your keyboard at once), and type Control Panel in it. Press OK or hit Enter.
• In Settings, go to Clock & Region.

• Click on Date & Time, then go to Internet Time tab. Here, choose Change settings…
• Put a tick onSynchronize with an Internet time server (if it’s not already checked), then click Update Now and OK.

Update drivers to fix Steam won’t open on Windows

This is often the “it” solution for “why I can’t open Steam” problem. It is time-consuming task, so be prepared to spend some time here.

• Once again, open Run prompt. Type devmgmt.msc and hit OK.
• Here, check for drivers with yellow icon next to them; it indicates that these need to be updated. If not, you’ll have to update them manually. Double click the device to see drivers, right click one and select Update driver.

• Then choose Search automatically for updated driver software.
• If any updates are found, install them.
• You’ll need to repeat this step with all drivers.

Restart your PC and check if Steam opens now.

Repair Steam

First of all, create a backup for Steam files. Launch any folder on your computer and then click This PC on the left panel.

• Open Windows C: and then use search bar in the top right corner. Type steamapps and wait for the results.
• Once a identically named folder appears on the screen, right-click it and select Open Folder Location.

Once in the original folder location, right-click steamapps folder and choose Copy. Paste this folder to your desired location (such as D disk or Documents folder).

Note. This data backup will come in handy if you won’t be able to access your game data after repairing or reinstalling Steam.

• Now, run SteamInstaller.exe. You can find this file on your computer using Windows search, or download it from Steam’s official website. If presented, agree with file repair option.
• Once the repair is complete, check if the problem persists.