Fix: Steam thinks its running in compatibility mode

[ZeroHour]

Hi

Just thought I would post a solution to a problem I had with Steam on Windows 7 RC x64 (but I believe it can happen in vista as well)

Everything was working in steam for weeks until I went to close it down last night, when I exited steam windows poped up with a message stating it was going to apply compatility settings to steam as it detected a problem (no cancel or way to stop it doing this)

When I relaunched steam it poped up with a message telling me:

Running Steam in Windows compatibility mode is not recommended. Please remove any Windows compatibility settings for all users under file properties for Steam.exe and restart Steam. Press 'Cancel' to premanently ignore this warning and continue.

 

Reinstalling steam made no difference as well as trying to set compatibility settings under the shortcut. I eventually had a go of the application compatibility tool microsoft gives out to see that the settings saved on the machines local database and that triggering when I ran steam. I had a hunt through the registry and found the area where the keys are kept and deleted the key and my problems were gone.

 

To fix the issue:

1. Hit start->run->regedit
   
2. Go to key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers
   
3. Look for a entry with your path to steam.exe
   
4. Delete that entry
   
5. If you dont find it there try HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers
   

Hope this helps if you get the issue.

 

Please feel free to register and say hello here and if you have any other problems in general please try a new post, you never know.

 

Also I now have a Flattr account: http://api.flattr.com/button/flattr-badge-large.png

Edited August 18, 2011 by ZeroHour

[Revolexis]

Hi ZeroHour,

 

I created an account on here just to say a big THANK YOU for taking the effort to post that, I've been trying to figure out how to fix that issue since yesterday and even did a full reformat to try and get rid of it.

 

THANKS!

[ZeroHour]

Np, and welcome to edugeek

The problem drove me mad on windows 7 until I hunted the key down.

 

Even if your not in educational IT I hope you find us useful and if you have any pc issues feel free to post them and I am sure others will help asap.

[nashbridges]

Turns out Steam found me a new forum! Not only did your post fix this problem, it found me this forum.

 

10 years in education tech and I've never come across this site. I'm glad I'm here.

[ZeroHour]

Turns out Steam found me a new forum! Not only did your post fix this problem, it found me this forum.

 

10 years in education tech and I've never come across this site. I'm glad I'm here.

 

Np, glad the fix worked and glad you have found us now (tell others ). Enjoy

[joshlete]

I too have created an account just to thank you. Steam at first, wouldn't let me download mods, then i'd get the error. Now, I have no problems. Thanks a bunch.

[Dos_Box]

Turns out Steam found me a new forum! Not only did your post fix this problem, it found me this forum.

 

10 years in education tech and I've never come across this site. I'm glad I'm here.

 

Thats because we don't spam or advertise. We are the education IT industries dirty little secret

[ZeroHour]

I too have created an account just to thank you. Steam at first, wouldn't let me download mods, then i'd get the error. Now, I have no problems. Thanks a bunch.

 

Np, thanks for taking the time to post

Edited November 20, 2009 by ZeroHour

[Lukebad]

As many others in this thread, I'd like to thank you for your post!

I registered to thank you, but I intend to keep using this forum from now on.

Thanks again, mate!

Lucas

[tudajfor]

Thank you so very very much, This worked like a charm

[Troy]

This doesn't work for me.., pretty much tried everything I can find.

[ZeroHour]

This doesn't work for me.., pretty much tried everything I can find.

 

Can you try browsing into your folder where steam.exe and double check no compatibility settings have been enabled in there?

What O/S and edition?

[ParanoX]

Thank you ZeroHour! It worked and the problem is gone!

 

THANKS from Sweden!

[mik02911]

yeah, i've done everything even what you suggested nothing works i've done everything thing the steam forums suggested i don't know what to do i have windows 7 professional and at time it'll let me reinstall steam but sometimes when it is uploading the platform it'll try 3-5 times before an error comes up saying "steam is temporary unavailable, please try again later" can someone help me i've been told its a corrupt file in the installation but i have no clue how to get it out... can someone please help me

[unknownx0]

I tried this but it keeps on replying it has been disabled by your administrator but i have not disabled anything my OS is windows vista basic and i dont know what else to try.

[ZeroHour]

I tried this but it keeps on replying it has been disabled by your administrator but i have not disabled anything my OS is windows vista basic and i dont know what else to try.

 

Virus's/malware can block running regedit. Are you logged into your pc as administrator?

Is it part of a managed network? e.g. work network etc.

[ciric50]

Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam and right click on Steam.exe. Select Properties, then the Compatibility tab. Make sure the compatibility checkbox is not checked.

 

THEN click the button at the bottom of the dialog titled "Show settings for all users". This will bring up another dialog, and on this one also make sure the compatibility checkbox is not checked. This worked for me!

[kademan21]

OMG thank you so much i was looking everywhere to solve the problem. you are my god and idle.

now for some random smilies

 

[kyle1337]

Hi zero hour,

 

You seem like you know what your talking about and I was hoping you might be able to give my problem a try.

 

I have l4d2 installed on windows 7 32 bit. It had been running perfectly for quite some time until a few weeks ago when it started crashing whenever I got into gameplay. I tried your fix but unfortunately no luck.

 

The crash happens the same way every time. I start l4d2, the opening cinematic and the menu interface work perfectly. I join a lobby and again everything is normal. The level/server loads and the opening cinematic renders perfectly. Everything continues as always except that once the game goes into gameplay (first person), the game shuts down immediately and goes directly back to windows. There is no lagging of any kind, the game simply turns off and returns to windows.

 

Now after reading some articles and posts on the internet, some people think it may be a hardware issue. However, I am still able to run Day of Defeat perfectly while simultaneously running a movie on my second screen. To me this would indicate that my computer hardware is not the problem. Presumably if it were a hardware issue my computer would not be able to handle other similar tasks.

 

I have checked my graphics cards settings and all of the settings are on default. I'm stumped and I would love if you could give me a hand.

 

One final note, I pre-purchased the game and on the night it was released there was issues with running it. Someone posted a quick fix by changing the name of a file. I used it and the game worked fine. Not sure if my problems are related to that but i thought I would give you all the relevant information.

 

Thanks for your consideration

[ZeroHour]

Hi Kyle

First things, have you updated your sound card and graphics card drivers to the latest versions?

What sound card do you have?

Do you get any kind of crash message or do you just see your desktop without error messages?

When you say you checked your card settings was that ingame settings or the actual grpahics card control panel?

I hope I can narrow down a fix for you

 

Cheers

[ThaProphet07]

Hey ZeroHour. I too have come from the steam forums and appreciate your solution. I had a couple questions about the matter though.

 

1. Do I need to uninstall steam and delete all the folders including the one in my registry, and then reinstall for this to work? Because I tried it without uninstalling steam and it still says my steam.exe is in Windows Vista compatibility mode.

 

2. Do you think this problem has anything to do with these random issues I posted on steam: (Link is on second reply)

 

 

and finally 3. If you don't think this compatibility mode thing is not the cause of those problems mentioned, do you have any suggestions or know anybody that might?

 

 

 

Thank you in advance

[ThaProphet07]

(Heres the link to my post on the steam forums)

 

Slow game launch (and other random issues) - Steam Users' Forums

 

Sorry for the length, thanks again!

[cadkroll]

When I try to install a game or just use Steam on my desktop it starts and when I enter my account name and password and click login it crashes and Windows tells me that "Steam 732897 is not responding".

 

Sometimes before it does this it will try to update Steam but I am getting very slow download speeds, around 3 Kb/s when I know my internet connection is better than that and I can download other things at normal and faster speeds while it updates.

 

What do I have to do to make Steam not crash and let me install my games?

[kyle1337]

Hi Kyle

First things, have you updated your sound card and graphics card drivers to the latest versions?

What sound card do you have?

Do you get any kind of crash message or do you just see your desktop without error messages?

When you say you checked your card settings was that ingame settings or the actual grpahics card control panel?

I hope I can narrow down a fix for you

 

Cheers

 

Hey Zero Hour,

 

First let me thank you for taking an interest in my problem.

 

I have checked, and yes, both my graphics card and sound card drivers have been updated to the latest version.

 

The sound card I have is a Realtek AC'97 Audio

 

I do not see any kind of error message whatsoever. The desktop simply appears immediately without any error messages.

 

I checked my card settings in the Nvidia control panel.

 

I am running a nvidia 8800 gts graphics card along with two hard drives. One of which was installed recently.

 

I hope this helps you narrow down a fix

 

Thanks again for all your help,

Kyle

[ZeroHour]

Hey ZeroHour. I too have come from the steam forums and appreciate your solution. I had a couple questions about the matter though.

 

1. Do I need to uninstall steam and delete all the folders including the one in my registry, and then reinstall for this to work? Because I tried it without uninstalling steam and it still says my steam.exe is in Windows Vista compatibility mode.

 

2. Do you think this problem has anything to do with these random issues I posted on steam: (Link is on second reply)

 

 

and finally 3. If you don't think this compatibility mode thing is not the cause of those problems mentioned, do you have any suggestions or know anybody that might?

 

 

 

Thank you in advance

 

Hey, to point 1:

DO NOT UNINSTALL STEAM! it means you will have to redownload everything (I made this mistake when I got the issue but thankfully I had a 100gb backup)

Make sure steam is not running and remove the reg entry if its there and then it should be turned off.

 

2:

No not specifically but I too have noticed things can be a little sluggish on w7 over even vista but not as bad as that.

 

3:

I would try changing your primary dns server in your network card settings to say googles one of 8.8.8.8 as I suspect that steam could have issues with some routers with w7. I have for example found that sometimes when I run steam it shows the "connecting to {account name}" when its launching but fails to connect but simply closing steam and restarting it fixes the issue. I switched to google dns and have not had this issue since.

 

Give that a try and post your results. It may not fix anything but its worth a go. Also what ISP do you have?