Steam is a well-known name in the gaming community, being the largest platform for distributing PC games. But even the king has his share of bad days. It's not uncommon to encounter issues with Steam clients on PC, and many users have complained about Steam being so slow at times that it literally stops responding. You may eventually notice that Steam is slow and you can't find your way around your library anymore. But don't worry. We've compiled a list of remedies you can try to fix Steam slowness in Windows 10. So, let's see what they are.
How to Fix Steam Slow in Windows 10
There could be many reasons why Steam is running slowly. Some of them are listed below.
- Lack of CPU and memory resources causes your computer to overheat.
- Too much cache and cookies
- Outdated device drivers
- The outdated Steam app
We've outlined all the possible ways to fix the slow Steam issue in the section below. However, before trying the specific methods, you should boot your system in Safe Mode. Read our article. To boot into Safe Mode in Windows 10.
Method 1: Run Steam as administrator
You should always run Steam as an administrator, as this will grant Steam administrative privileges to run all games. Therefore, follow the steps outlined to run Steam as an administrator.
1. Press Windows key And type Steam in Search bar.
2. Now, click on Run as administrator , as shown.
Method 2: Remove background processes
Running unnecessary applications in the background can lead to high memory usage. This can cause Steam to slow down your system. Follow these steps to remove background processes.
1. Turn on Task Manager , and press the keys Ctrl + Shift + Esc At the same time.
2. Select Background Operations Site Unwanted and identify them using high memory.
3. Then click finish the job , as shown.
Method 3: Change the Steam process priority
You can also set Steam priority to high from Task Manager by following the steps below.
1. Turn on Task management Go to the tab "the details".
2. Scroll down and select Process Steam.exe.
3. Right click on Steam process And go to Set Priority , then select any of the options below.
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Note: You can also set the priority to Low if Steam is using high memory by following the steps above and selecting the Low option in step 3.
Method 4: Switch to the High Performance Power Plan
If you're using a power saving plan, it may be causing Steam to run slowly. Follow the steps below to switch to a high-performance power plan to fix slow Steam in Windows 10.
1. Right click on battery icon in the taskbar and select Energy options.
2. Now, select the option high performance As shown in the image below.
Method 5: Delete HTTP and HTML Cache and Temporary Files
Follow the steps below to delete temporary files and HTML cache file to fix Steam slow issue.
1. Press Windows + R keys Together to start the dialog box "employment".
2. Write % Temp% And click "OK".
3. Press Ctrl + A keys Together select all the unwanted files and press Shift + Del keys Together to delete it permanently.
Note: Some files can't be deleted because they are in use, so you can skip them.
4. Press Windows + E keys Together to open File Explorer
5. Go to the location where you installed Steam: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam
Note: If you're not sure, read our guide: Where are Steam games installed? Here.
6. Double-click on appcache folder.
7. Here, delete httpcache folder.
8. Then go to the next path and delete htmlcache folder.
C:\Users\ \AppData\Local\Steam
9. Finally, restart your computer and check if the issue persists or not.
Method 6: Clear Steam Browser Cookies and Cache
Here's how to fix Steam slow issue by clearing Steam cache and cookies.
1. Press Windows key , And type Steam , and click Run as administrator.
2. In the upper left corner of the window, click the tab. Steam and select Settings From the drop-down box.
3. Next, go to Web browser settings from the right part.
4. Click on both the given buttons to delete your web browser cache and cookies respectively.
- Clear your web browser cache
- Delete web browser cookies
5. Click "OK" In the confirmation prompt for both options.
6. Finally, Restart Steam To check if Steam's startup is fixed or not.
Method 7: Clear Download Cache
There may be a download cache for games on Steam, which could be causing the Steam slowdown issue. Here are the steps to clear the download cache.
1. Turn on Run Steam as administrator.
2. Now, go to Steam tab and select Settings From the drop-down menu. Return to prior consent About the knowledge below.
3. Select Download Settings in the right pane.
4. Scroll down to the bottom and tap on Clear download cache button.
5. Click "OK" In the prompt to confirm clearing the download cache.
6. Finally, tap "OK" to save the changes.
Method 8: Run Steam in compatibility mode
You can also try running Steam in compatibility mode on different Windows versions to fix the slow Steam issue.
1. Right click on Steam file executable and select option "Properties".
2. Go to the Compatibility tab in the Steam Properties window and check the Run this program in compatibility mode option.
3. Select Windows version from the dropdown menu.
4. Click Apply > OK to save changes Run Steam as administrator.
5. Check if the issue is resolved, otherwise try running Steam on different Windows versions by repeating the steps above.
Method 9: Verify the integrity of the game files
If you're experiencing slow Steam launch issues while playing a particular game, you should check the integrity of that game file on Steam. Read our easy-to-follow tutorial on how to do so. How to check the integrity of game files on Steam.
Method 10: Modify graphics driver settings
Follow these steps to adjust your graphics driver settings to fix a slow Steam issue.
1. Right-click on an empty space on the desktop and select NVIDIA Control Panel.
2. Click Option Manage 3D settings On the right side go to the tab Program settings.
3. Choose Steam Select a program to customize the drop-down menu.
4. Then select your preferred graphics processor for this program. We recommend selecting a high-performance NVIDIA processor.
5. Finally, click the button. "Application" to save the changes.
Method 11: Modify LAN Settings
There may be network configuration issues causing Steam to run slowly. Here are the steps to adjust your LAN configuration settings.
1. Press Windows key , And type Control Panel , and click to open.
2. Now, set the View by Category option and select Network & Internet link as shown below.
3. Here, click "Internet Options" As shown below.
4. In a window Internet Properties Go to the tab Connections and select LAN settings As shown below.
5. Now, in Local Area Network (LAN) Settings , check the box to discover Settings automatically In the Auto Configuration section.
6. Also clear the Use a proxy server for your LAN check box.
7. Finally, tap "OK" Save the changes and restart Steam to observe any performance improvement.
Method 12: Update device drivers
Outdated drivers can also cause Steam to run slowly. Here are the steps to update your device drivers.
1. Click START YOUR , And type device Manager , And press Enter key.
2. Double-click on Display adapters to expand it.
3. Right click on Video driver (e.g. Intel(R) UHD Graphics) And choose Driver Update As shown below.
4. Next, tap "research" Automatically removes drivers as shown.
5a. If the drivers are already updated, the best drivers for your device will be displayed as already installed.
5b. If the drivers are outdated, they will be updated automatically.
6. Finally, update all outdated drivers by following the steps above and restart your computer.
Method 13: Update Steam
Here are the steps to update Steam to fix bugs and errors that cause Steam to run slow.
1. Turn on Steam Go to the menu bar.
2. Now, click on Steam followed by Check for Steam Client Updates…
3a. Steam – The self-update program will automatically download updates, if available. Click Restart Steam To apply the update.
3b. If you don't have updates, your Steam client will already display a message like the one below.
Method 14: Repair Steam
Follow these steps to fix Steam app to fix Steam slow issue.
1. Press Windows key , And type windowsowershell and click Run as administrator.
2. Click "Yeah" in control router In the user account.
3. Type the following command and press Enter key.
“C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\bin\SteamService.exe” /Fix
Note: If your Steam file is located elsewhere, you'll need to enter that directory instead. Read our guide: Where are Steam games installed?? here.
4. Once the repair is complete message appears, restart your computer.
Method 15: Reinstall Steam
If none of the above methods work for you, reinstalling Steam is your last resort to fix the slow Steam issue. Follow the steps below to reinstall Steam.
1. First, go to Steam folder Right click on steamapps folder , then select the option Copy.
2. Then paste the folder to the other location to create a backup of your installed games.
3. Now press Windows key , And type Applications and Features , and click to open.
4. Select Steam Click on the uninstall button shown in the image.
5. Again, click on "uninstall" For confirmation.
6. In a window Steam Uninstall , Click Uninstall To remove Steam.
7. Then Restart your PC Windows based.
8. DoDownload the latest version of Steam From your web browser, as shown.
9. After downloading, run SteamSetup.exe file Which is downloaded by double clicking on it.
10. In the Steam setup wizard, click the button "the following".
11. Choose the destination folder using the Browse option… or keep the default option. Then, click Installations , As shown below.
12. Wait for the installation to complete and click on "ending" , as shown.
13. After installing Steam, move the steamapps backup folder you created earlier to the installed Steam folder.
14. Finally, Restart your computer.
We hope this information was helpful and that you were able to fix Steam's slowness on Windows 10. Please let us know which method worked best for you. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the comments section.
