Steam is the number one stop for all PC gamers. We use it on at least a daily basis, if not hourly for some of us. Say something happened and you had to uninstall steam from your computer or better yet you got a new computer and you were about to install steam in it, and for some unexplainable reason you can’t. Steam won’t install properly. The launcher starts to update but when it enters the file extraction phase you get a “failed to load steamui.dll” error. It looks like this:-
Don’t worry, we’re here to help. Following these steps should fix your problem in no time. It might seem complicated at first but in reality, if you follow these steps it won’t be a problem at all.
1. Try using Safe Mode with Networking
Before resorting to more technical methods, you can try running your PC in safe mode (with networking) and try to update Steam.
- For Windows 8/10 see steps (here) and for Windows 7 (here).
Starting Windows in Safe mode with Networking - Open Steam and try updating/installing it again. This method should remove all obstacles (if any) which your Steam may be experiencing while updating. If this doesn’t work for you, resort to the other solutions listed below.
2. Ignore the Error Messages on Steam
Another fix that worked for many users was very simple and involved just clicking the application twice.
- Double click on your steam.exe and wait for the error to come forth.
- Don’t click on ‘OK’ and double click Steam.exe again.
- If this works, your Steam will start normally and you can remove the error window later on.
3. Use Shortcuts to run the Steam
This method involves making a shortcut in your Steam directory and renaming it. Follow the steps below and make sure to write the exact address which is listed.
- Create a shortcut of steam in your steam folder.
The default location for your steam folder should be “C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam”
Default Steam Location
Or if you installed Steam in another location one easy way to find your folder is to right-click on the icon on your desktop and choose “open file location” that’ll take you right to it.
- Now to ensure nothing bad happens to your default Steam.exe file, we will make a shortcut of your steam.exe file and paste it into your steam folder. It should look something like this:
Steam Directory - Now that you’ve got your shortcut set up, you’re going to right-click it, go to properties and you’ll be seeing this.
Steam Properties - In the target textbox, add:
-clientbeta client_candidate
To the end of the file path
So it becomes:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\Steam.exe"-clientbeta client_candidate
- Press OK to save the properties and run the shortcut you have just created.
If you followed all the steps correctly you should now have two steam applications that can be used to access Steam. One of them will work for this particular while your original steam file will be left unchanged.
4. Delete the Steam Beta File
If the methods listed above didn’t work for you, we can try altering/deleting some Steam files.
- Navigate to your Steam directory. The default location for your directory is
C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam
- Look for the folder ‘Packages’. Open it and you will find a file named ‘Beta’.
- Delete the file and restart your computer.
- Open Steam and it will prompt to download some data. After downloading, it will work normally as required.
5. Update Steam Files & Folders
If the deletion of the file ‘Beta’ didn’t work for you, we have no option other than to remove other Steam files and re-download them again. Please note that any interruption during the copy process will corrupt the files and you will have to re-download the entire content over again. Only proceed with this solution if you are sure that your computer won’t be interrupted.
- Navigate to your Steam directory. The default location for your directory is
C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam.
- Locate the following files and folders:
SteamApps (folder) Userdata (folder) Steam.exe (Application) Ssfn (Number sequence)
- Delete all other files/folders and restart your computer.
- Re-launch Steam and hopefully, it will start updating itself. After the update is complete, it will run as expected.
