Fix: Steam thinks its running in compatibility mode

[th3_fr4gil3]

i to just joined to say thanks muchly the fix worked for me.

 

turned my comp off last night didn't notice any message but when i rebooted this morning steam threw up that message, so of course i went did what it said to no avail.

then i turned to google and your fix.

only thing i can think of that might have triggered it is that i installed the free mechwarrior 4:mercenaries game from mektek last night and added it to my steam library, and i recall reading on site that you may have to run game in xp compatibility mode (which it isn't), and maybe win7 just decided to do it but for steam exe and not game exe as i launched via steam.

[jayyce]

Just wanted to say (like a million others apparantly) thank you for this post! :-D

[Rynuusuke]

Hey! First off thanks for posting this!

 

Second, I looked in the two locations you mentioned and I can't find the blasted registry file there. I did a troubleshooting and compatibility check. Anyway, I had to set it to a compatibility mode and hit cancel. I just looked at the "steam.exe" properties and the compatibility box is still unchecked. It is working now, but not sure if that actually fixed my problem or just buried it.

 

Thanks!

[InsanityOnABun]

Made an account just to say thanks for this. The fact that none of the settings were switched on in the exe's properties was really throwing me for a loop.

[ionzero]

This solution did not work for me. Deleting this entry is the 2nd solution I have tried, the first one was locating the compatibility tab, and for me the check mark box option to "Run this program in Compatibility Mode for:" is greyed out being non-changeable.

 

(scratch that, it took my computer about 10min to "compute" the change i made and steam worked again. Belay this post. sorry)

Edited August 10, 2011 by ionzero

[ZeroHour]

Thanks all of you that joined to say "Thanks"

Remember if you have any other computer related problems dont hesitate to put a message up and I am sure someone will be able to help or at least point you in the right direction.

 

Thanks again for the kind words.

[ChillWolf]

Thanks for this fix. Worked like a charm and got me to sign up here. Will be using this site as much as I can!

[Cwagmire]

I also created an account just to thank you Zero Hour. I went through all the compatibility settings myself and nothing worked until I read your thread. You saved me a lot of possible turmoil as I probably would have reformatted to try and fix it like some other users since Steam is my most used application. Thanks again!

[eharlow]

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!

 

I too created an account, few years later from the last post and I just got this problem but you solved it for me. Thanks a lot man, you have no idea how detailed and simple you articulated it. We appreciate it so much!

[ZeroHour]

Glad its working for most of you, please dont forget to hit the button at the bottom of the page to let more know

[tentimes]

Thank you! I am also now a member of Edugeek, which I had never seen before today, after reading your kind advice Much time save for me also!

[DreamWalker]

I accidentally deleted the "Layers" folder in HKEY_CURRENT_USER. Is there anyway to get that folder back? What are the side-effects of not having that folder?

 

I tried going through the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder and went to the "Layers" folder as you have directed and have found in that folder the registry "C:\Program Files\Steam\Steam.exe". I was afraid to delete it since a pop-up came up saying that if I deleted certain registry values, it would cause system instability. I'm not that much of a tech geek but is that the last step in possibly solving this problem? Help will be appreciated!

Edited August 25, 2011 by DreamWalker
Being more precise

[ZeroHour]

I accidentally deleted the "Layers" folder in HKEY_CURRENT_USER. Is there anyway to get that folder back? What are the side-effects of not having that folder?

 

I tried going through the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder and went to the "Layers" folder as you have directed and have found in that folder the registry "C:\Program Files\Steam\Steam.exe". I was afraid to delete it since a pop-up came up saying that if I deleted certain registry values, it would cause system instability. I'm not that much of a tech geek but is that the last step in possibly solving this problem? Help will be appreciated!

 

Deleting the layers folder would remove the compatibility settings for any others apps and steam. Windows I *think* would auto remake the folder after a reboot/when needed but if any other apps had settings saved they would potentially be lost although in most cases they probably are not needed. If you only delete the entry with "Steam.exe" in it only steam will be changed and it should fix the issue.

[DumbArse]

hi ive got this same problem

 

i just followed your instructions checking both places for the steam.exe and i cant find it? im running win 7 64bit

[DreamWalker]

Deleting the layers folder would remove the compatibility settings for any others apps and steam. Windows I *think* would auto remake the folder after a reboot/when needed but if any other apps had settings saved they would potentially be lost although in most cases they probably are not needed. If you only delete the entry with "Steam.exe" in it only steam will be changed and it should fix the issue.

 

Thank you for your help. I'm busy at the moment and I haven't tried what you said but I appreciate your help! Thanks again.

[dbcooper]

I registered to thank you for your post, ZeroHour.

 

The compatibility dialog windows displayed all checkboxes as clear, yet the compatibility warning still came up. Only removing the entry from the registry worked.

[geomister666]

Hi, I followed your guidance on how to fix the problem, but when i looked for the steam entry in regedit, both locations didn't contain it. I am running on Win Vista 32bit.

Help would be much appreciated!

 

Thanks!

[Vikingmead]

My OS is Windows 7 basic, (if that's an option. I don;'t know computer very well, I just play the video games). I tried following the steps, and I got to finding the folder that was called AppCompatFlags, but after that there was no folder named Layers. I went into the steam file by right clicking it and going to properties. I turned off compatibility mode, and it shows that it is still off; but for some reason the problem persists. If you have any suggestions on what to do, they would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

Viking

[Steve21]

I tried following the steps, and I got to finding the folder that was called AppCompatFlags

 

Did you check in both locations mentioned? One of them should have the layers in.

 

Steve

[Turbine]

ZeroHour,

I just created an account here to throw you a big THANK YOU for taking the effort to post the solution to my Steam problem.

Thanks again!

[StickNik]

Thank you so much! I am almost too lucky that this was only the 4th thread I looked at, a couple of the threads I passed through had people searching for days!

[we3bjamn]

Thanks man this was the first link that popped up when I googled the issue. Everything worked fine and only took me a matter of seconds to do.

[Soyak]

So I am having issues with steam freezing my computer as soon as I try to run it. I used to have no problem running steam before until all of a sudden it started acting up. Its on a windows 7 platform. I tried everything in this forum and even deleted and reinstalled many times yet it still freezes my whole system upon startup. If there are any suggestions I would love to hear them. I need to play my CSS again

[Soyak]

Fixed the problem, apparently ASUS G laptops have conflicting sound drivers so I had to delete all of the creative drivers. Not sure why they do that. :/

[Zoldar]

I, just like a lot of people in this thread, created an account just to say thank you. I did find it funny that the original post was made back in 2009 but is still applicable. Thanks again