Fix: Steam thinks its running in compatibility mode

[koray96]

thanks heaps but i just uninstalled then reinstalled again and it is now working.

keep up the good work!!!

[Boggzy]

Thank you so much for posting. This worked great. I only made an account here because of how impressed i was with the help i recieved. i will def tell my friends about this site. and again, thanks!

[iratesniper]

Many thanks, it took me a bit to figure out, but would have taken me so much longer, if ever I were to figure it out without you, so thanks.

[Joaquin]

I tried doing this and cant find the the steam entry at all. help please? I re-installed steam twice before I wonder why I am having this problem now.

[warbax]

Thanks a lot for the help, the instructions were very easy to follow for a newbie like me. Thanks again.

[Tatarus]

Thanks ZeroHour!!! ive tried fixing this for the past few weeks.. Thanks!!! Edited June 6, 2012 by ZeroHour

[Knivesomega]

I am happy this led me to the answer and a new forum!!! Thanks again

[luvpopsrox]

I accidentally clicked cancel, will that cause problems for me? :\

[Hacon]

So last night, I decided to play Skyrim. But a critical DragonScript Error prevented me from playing.

Then, today, after hundred of methods to try to fix it, I end up in compability mode on Steam, and I am all frustrated and such because I had two problems now. Then, I sat down at my computer, googled how to fix it and found this site, and this thread. I followed your steps, and guess what! It worked! And not only did I get Steam out of compability mode, but thanks to you, I also fixed my DragonScript Error. Don't know how, but I could not have done that without your help. So thank you, good sir. Thank you so freaking much! I will mention you in my wedding speech, whenever I get married. Again, thank you.

[Sciezka]

Thank you so much! Worked when I thought I was going to have to reformat

[pokerspook]

Thanks for the help. Like many others i created an account to thank you. I also wanted to say that I found paths to steam in both of the layer files you mentioned.

[bau33r]

thank you so much, i made an account just to thank you i've been searching the internet for a fix for this for 3 days now and i can finally use the games i paid for with no help from the game company or steam. >.> anywayz thanks alot!!!!

[westwoodtom]

Thank you. I also made an account just to thank you. Worked as well as everyone has said. I found the location without any issue and steam is working great now.

[Chrisr21]

I made an account just to thank your for i am forever in your debt!!!

[kate64]

I wished this worked,there are only 3 things,not one of them says steam

 

A default at top,value not set

 

and two bitTorrent.exe type WINXPSP2

 

No steam

 

Help

Edited July 10, 2012 by kate64

[travellerTTT]

Ok. Here's the problem. I don't have a "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers. There is a HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT but they have the picture or avatar of a folder. It doesn't seem to be what you were talking about. I have nothing to do with a link or like anything other then HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT HKEY_CURRENT_USER HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE HKEY_USERS HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG.

I am using the " Windows 7 home premium ". Please do help me. I have a few things I need to do on steam. I also have a bit of money on it aswell.

[RnRClown]

This fix got my Steam back up and running after 'Killing Floor' crashed out due to a virtual memory problem, and took my Steam down with it.

 

Thank you.

 

I've been looking for a few new communities to become a part of and low and behold as fate would have it, I stumbled upon this wonderous bastion of wisdom. I hope to bring something to the table, even if it's only general banter and gaming chatter.

 

[tysteam]

thank you for your help

it really solve the problem, i'm worried why my steam suddenly fail to launch whereby i only play Age of Empire, i guess the os auto change when you play the old game in win7?

Cheers!

[Itsumi]

I realize this topic is old, all be it still alive, but has anyone considered that Windows is just doing its job and Steam isn't recognizing it? Steam launches myriads of programs, both games and installer executables. In theory, any one of these could be calling old execution APIs that don't entirely work with UAC and resulting in crashes when elevated privileges are required for execution. Since Steam is the parent application it gets flagged by windows as needing special treatment to allow UAC to request elevation requests from the user instead of just crashing, even if this crashing is limited to one of Steam's children. By implementing this registry entry windows is not elevating Steam's privileges, rather it is flagging Steam.exe as needing special API treatment so UAC can properly request privilege escalation when Steam.exe or its children need it. The deletion of the registry entries seems to work by virtue of no longer confusing Steam of it's compatibility mode but at the expense of UAC compatibility.

 

Google "Using the ElevateCreateProcess Fix" to read an MSDN article on the fix and why it exists.

 

I opted to allow windows to put steam on its ELEVATECREATEPROCESS list to help sort out potential future setup problems and because, from what I've read, it is not a security threat, rather it is intentional design to handle process creation API incompatibilities.

 

If my theory is correct, then either Steam should recognize what windows is trying to do specifically with respect to this scenario, or Microsoft should implement a solution to UAC-compatibility for non conforming executables. The former of which seems much more feasible.

 

I only have a fair understanding of some of these bits so be sure to correct any misconceptions =). I'm just trying to get at the root of the problem to be sure that just deleting some registry entries is indeed the proper course of action.

[ZeroHour]

I realize this topic is old, all be it still alive, but has anyone considered that Windows is just doing its job and Steam isn't recognizing it? Steam launches myriads of programs, both games and installer executables. In theory, any one of these could be calling old execution APIs that don't entirely work with UAC and resulting in crashes when elevated privileges are required for execution. Since Steam is the parent application it gets flagged by windows as needing special treatment to allow UAC to request elevation requests from the user instead of just crashing, even if this crashing is limited to one of Steam's children. By implementing this registry entry windows is not elevating Steam's privileges, rather it is flagging Steam.exe as needing special API treatment so UAC can properly request privilege escalation when Steam.exe or its children need it. The deletion of the registry entries seems to work by virtue of no longer confusing Steam of it's compatibility mode but at the expense of UAC compatibility.

 

Google "Using the ElevateCreateProcess Fix" to read an MSDN article on the fix and why it exists.

 

I opted to allow windows to put steam on its ELEVATECREATEPROCESS list to help sort out potential future setup problems and because, from what I've read, it is not a security threat, rather it is intentional design to handle process creation API incompatibilities.

 

If my theory is correct, then either Steam should recognize what windows is trying to do specifically with respect to this scenario, or Microsoft should implement a solution to UAC-compatibility for non conforming executables. The former of which seems much more feasible.

 

I only have a fair understanding of some of these bits so be sure to correct any misconceptions =). I'm just trying to get at the root of the problem to be sure that just deleting some registry entries is indeed the proper course of action.

 

Hi

I think your mistaking UAC with app compatibility mode in parts.

Steam tests games before they are distributed and it will elevate permissions using a UAC dialog when it needs to.

The problem this thread covers though is a because windows somethings *thinks* steam is too old an app using old API's and applies app compat settings to steam rather then the game being run not just UAC. I have 249 games through steam (its an orignal account) and so far everything has worked fine without app compat mode so its certainly not a big issue as I dont apply any specific special settings.

I think this issue occurs less due to various patches in windows over the years.

I understand what your saying, just more steam generally never has this issue with UAC etc which is why it complains when the mode is enabled.

[mittydoug]

I found the file and everything, but I'm not quite sure what to delete. Do I delete the Steam.exe folder, or the 4 files on the right hand side underneath "default?"

[greenteamaniac]

Im still having a problem with my game Killing Floor. So I deleted Steam.exe and my game still crashes. Some times it says not enough memory and then it shows me another error. Is there anything else that can be fixed?

[NotGoodWithComputers]

Well, I've done what you say, but after deleting the only one that mentioned my path to steam, steam still refuses to run. I checked the compatibility under the right click properties of Steam, and the box that asks to run in compatibility mode is unchecked. Steam refuses to run. Can you help?

[OvenlordKirby]

Hello Zero.

 

When i got into regedit (I use windows vista) i went into HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/Software/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/AppCompatFlags as you had instructed. However (and im not sure if this is because I had vista or not ) But instead of having Layers, I had Compatibility Assistant, and then had Persisted. Within persisted I had a one that has steam.exe at the end. I deleted it as instructed. But, I had steam open. Steam is still considered as in compatibility mode, and still can't run big picture mode.

 

After streaming through the comments, I stumbled upon your comment to another persons problem saying: 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.

 

Its at the "Make sure steam is not running" That caught my attention and made me realised that the reason its not fixed must have been because steam was still online.

 

If there is a way to fix it WITHOUT having to reinstall steam, then please tell me, or if there is a way to make the file come back so that I can re-do the instuctions.

 

Thank you in advance, and have a good day.

[amber5ash]

You are brilliant. I registered to tell you that.