Fix: Jade Empire Failed to Find Steam

Jade Empire is an action role-playing video game published in 2005 for the Xbox console. It was later ported to Microsoft Windows personal computers (PC) and published by 2K Games in 2007. The game is set in a world based on Chinese mythology. Players have the chance to control the last surviving Spirit Monk on a quest to save their tutor and defeat the forces of corrupt emperor Sun Hai.

Some users who downloaded and installed the game via Steam simply weren’t able to play it properly because of a quite self-explanatory error message: Failed to find Steam! There haven’t been many solutions applicable to this problem but the ones which were confirmed as working by some users have solved the problem for almost everyone so make sure you check them out below.

What Causes Jade Empire Failed to Find Steam Error?

This problem is most often related to an issue where the Steam path settings are messed up, especially if your Steam folder is located in a different drive or partition than your Steam library. This is evident if you are able to solve the problem by placing a Steam.dll file in the game’s folder.

Other possible causes include incompatibility with the operating system you have installed or insufficient privileges by the Steam.exe executable.

Solution 1: Place the Steam.dll file in the Game’s Directory

This is one of the more advanced methods but the sheer amount of people who were able to benefit from this method was just enough to put this method at the top of our article as the first method you should try out when troubleshooting this problem when launching the game via Steam.

1. Navigate to the Steam’s root folder in the File Explorer which can be accessed by opening a folder and clicking This PC or My Computer at the left side pane.
2. If you haven’t made any changes during the installation of the Steam client regarding the required installation folder, it should be Local Disk >> Program Files or Program Files (x86) depending on your OS.
3. Additionally, if you have the Steam client’s shortcut on the desktop, you can simply right-click on it and choose the Open file location option from the context menu which will appear.

4. The Steam.dll file should be in this window when the Steam folder opens so make sure you right-click on it and choose Copy. Next, locate the library folder where your problematic game is located (the default location is Steam >> steamapps >> common) and make sure you open it.
5. The game’s location can also be opened via Steam if you have multiple libraries and you don’t know exactly where the game is saved. Open up your Steam client and navigate to the Library section in the Steam window and locate Jade Empire in the list of games you own in the library.
6. Right-click on the game and choose the Properties entry which will appear at the top of the context menu. Navigate to the Local Files tab in the Properties window and choose the Browse Local Files button.

7. Right-click inside this window and choose the Paste option from the context menu in order to paste the Steam.dll file. Try running the game again to check if the error still appears.

Note: Folks who weren’t able to solve the problem with the first part of the solution were often helped by the following set of steps which simply consists of creating a blank .xml file which shouldn’t take more than a minute yet it can be quite helpful.

1. Open Notepad by searching for it after clicking the Start menu button or the search bar right next to it. You can also use the Windows Key + R key combination and type “notepad.exe” in the Run box in order to open Notepad.

2. Leave the file blank and click the File option from the top menu at the top left part of the Notepad window. Choose Save as from the dropdown list and navigate to the game installation folder you navigated to in order to paste the Steam.dll file.
3. Under the Save as type option, switch it to All files and set the File name option to “SystemInformation.xml” without the quotation marks.

4. Click OK in order to save the file in the game’s installation folder and try reopening the game from Steam to see if the Failed to find Steam error still appears.

Solution 2: Restart Steam as an Administrator

If the Steam client experiencing certain issues as it has a habit to do so, the problem could be fixed easily by closing Steam and reopening it as this worked for some lucky users.

Other players suggest that running Steam as an administrator managed to solve the problem and they never heard of it again. This method is a combination of the two simple fixes and it may as well help you solve your problem.

First of all, you should right-click the Steam icon located at the system tray (lower right part of your screen) and choose the Exit option in order to close the Steam client completely. You can also click on the Steam button at the top right part of the Steam client window and choose Exit.

1. Wait for a while for Steam to shut down completely before you try to locate the Steam app’s shortcut at the Desktop. You can also search for it in the Start menu, right-click its result, and choose Open file location.
2. Either way, right-click the executable called Steam.exe when you have found it and choose Run as administrator.

3. The problem should now be resolved. However, if the issue persists each following time you try to run the game, you can set the app to be run as admin always. Right-click the executable again and choose Properties.
4. Click to open the Compatibility tab and check the box next to the “Run this program as an administrator” option under the Settings part at the bottom and click on OK. Reopen the Steam client and the Jade Empire game to see if the error still appears.

Solution 3: Add a Path Variable on Your Computer

If the Steam installation folder is not recognized properly on your computer, you may need to create a Path variable in advanced system settings and it may solve your problem for as well as it will probably prevent other errors from appearing on your computer at all, especially the ones related to Steam.

1. Right-click either on My Computer/This PC depending on the version of Windows you have installed on your computer and choose the Properties option. After that, locate the Advanced system settings button at the right side of the Properties window, click on it, and navigate to the Advanced tab.

2. At the bottom right section of the Advanced tab, you will be able to see the Environment Variables option so click on it and you will be able to see a list of all user variables under the User variables section.
3. Click the Path variable under the User variables and click the Edit button below. If there is already a path for the Steam folder, select it and choose Delete. Click the New button and paste the full path to your Steam installation folder.

4. You can find a full path to the Steam installation folder by right-clicking its shortcut on the Desktop and choosing the Open file location option from the context menu. Click the address bar at the top of the folder which should display the path so use the Ctrl + C combination to copy it to the Clipboard.
5. Paste this in the Edit environment variable window and click OK. Try reopening the game and check to see if it will run from Steam now.

Solution 4: Lower the Security of UAC or Turn it off

The User Account Control (UAC) can sometimes cause problems with third party executables located on your computer as it tries to overprotect your computer from malware and intruder attacks.

Basically, it will often display warnings about running a file you downloaded or similar and turning it off or lowering its security settings won’t cause a direct to your computer yet it can solve the Failed to find Steam error after launching Jade Empire.

1. Open Control Panel by searching for it in the Start menu. You can also use the Windows Key + R key combination, type in “control panel” in the Run box which pops up and click OK.
2. Change the View by option in Control Panel to Large Icons and locate the User Accounts option by scrolling or looking at the bottom.

3. Open it and click the “Change User Account Control Settings” button. Windows 10 users will see this window immediately simply by typing “UAC” in the Start menu or the search bar next to it.
4. You will notice that there are several different levels you can choose on the security slider. If your slider is set at the top level, you will definitely receive more annoying warnings and the chances of receiving the error are the highest.
5. Try decreasing this value by one if it’s at the top slider and check to see if it helped after launching the game via Steam. Repeat the process if the error still appears or turn of UAC completely.

6. We recommend you turn off UAC for now as the game should probably launch successfully. You may also be able to play the Jade Empire game if you don’t disable UAC completely, but you should leave it on as it serves to protect your PC and wait for an update by the game developers or by Steam.

Solution 5: Run the Game in Compatibility Mode for Windows XP SP3

The game itself is definitely old and the Windows XP platform definitely works the best for such an old game. This being said, plenty of users were able to solve the problem at hand simply by running the game in compatibility mode for Windows XP SP3. Furthermore, there are 4 files you should repeat the same process for: JadeEmpire, JadeEmpireLauncher, JadeEmpireConfig, and TestApp.

1. If you have installed the game via Steam, locate the Jade Empire installation folder by opening Steam, right-clicking the game from the Library section, opening Properties, and clicking Browse Local Files from the Local Files tab.
2. You can also search for the game’s main executable as well as other required files by clicking the Start menu button or the search button next to it and typing Jade Empire. Anyway, right-click on the executable and choose the Open file location option from the context menu which will appear.
3. Right-click on one of the files listed above and choose Properties from the context menu which will show up.
4. Navigate to the Compatibility tab in the Properties window and check the box next to the “Run this program in compatibility mode for:” setting under the Compatibility mode section. Click the dropdown menu and choose Windows XP Service Pack 3 from the list.
   
5. Click on either OK or Apply and restart your computer just to make sure the changes have been applied. Check to see if the game is launching without the Failed to find Steam error.