Fix ‘Installing Steam Service’ Error in 3 Solutions

The Steam Service error appears when launching Steam on your computer. This error message will appear among the following text: “The Steam service component is not working properly on this computer. Reinstalling the Steam service requires administrator privileges.” The problem is related to the Steam service which is vital for Steam to operate properly.

There have been many successful methods used to solve this problem so make sure you try them all out below in order to hopefully solve the problem.

What Causes the Steam Service Error?

The major cause for the Steam Service error is that Steam simply doesn’t have enough permissions either to perform a certain action or to access a certain file. This can be solved easily simply by running Steam as an administrator.

Furthermore, the error may be caused by Steam Service simply not running when it should which can be solved by restarting the service and changing how it starts up. The service might also be broken and you will need to repair it.

Solution 1: Run Steam as an Administrator

As it can be understood from the error message, Steam might need admin permissions to access certain files on your computer and running its client with admin permissions may just be the solution you need.

1. Locate the Steam shortcut or executable on your computer and open its properties it by right-clicking its entry either on the Desktop or the Start menu or the Search results window and choose Properties from the pop up context menu.
2. Navigate to the Compatibility tab in the Properties window and check the box next to the Run this program as an administrator option before saving the changes by clicking OK or Apply.

3. Make sure you confirm any dialogs which may appear which should prompt you to confirm the choice with admin privileges and Steam should launch with admin privileges from the next startup. Open Steam by double-clicking its icon and try relaunching the game to see if the Steam Service error still appears.

Solution 2: Make Sure Steam Service Starts up Automatically

In order for everything related to Steam to run smoothly, the Steam Service needs to be running. This service should start up each time Steam is launched but sometimes that is simply not the case. In order to resolve that, you should make sure this service starts up automatically on your computer.

1. Open the Run dialog box by tapping the Windows Key + R key combination on your keyboard. Type “services.msc” in the Run box without the quotation marks and click OK in order to open Services. You can also just search for Services in Start menu on Windows 10.

2. Locate the Steam Client Service in the services list, right-click on it and select Properties from the context menu which will appear.
3. If the service is started (you can check that just next to the Service status message), you should stop it by clicking the Stop button in the middle of the window. If it has already been stopped, leave it as it is (for now).

4. Make sure that the option under the Startup type menu in the Steam Client Service’s properties is set to Automatic before you proceed with the instructions. Confirm any dialogue boxes which may appear when you set the startup type. Click on the Start button at the middle of the window before exiting.

You may receive the following error message when you click on Start:

 “Windows could not start the Steam Client Service on Local Computer. Error 1079: The account specified for this service differs from the account specified for other services running in the same process.”

If this occurs, follow the instructions below to fix it.

1. Follow the steps 1-3 from the instructions above in order to open Cryptographic Service’s properties. Navigate to the Log On tab and click on the Browse… button.
2. Under the “Enter the object name to select” box, type in your account’s name, click on Check Names and wait for the name to become recognized.
3. Click OK when you are finished and type in the password in the Password box when you are prompted with it, if you have setup a password. It should now start without issues!

Solution 3: Repair the Steam Client Service

The Steam client service can sometimes break and it needs to be repaired using a simple command in Command Prompt. This command will reset it and you should now be able to enter the Steam client without receiving the Steam Service error!

1. You can use the Windows Logo Key + R key combination in order to bring up the Run dialog box. Type in “cmd” in the dialog box which appears and use the Ctrl + Shift + Enter key combination in order to run Command Prompt with admin privileges.

2. You should also find out the root folder of your Steam installation which will be necessary to run the command. You can find the full path by right-clicking its shortcut on the Desktop and choosing the Open file location option from the context menu.

3. 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. The default path should be “C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\bin\SteamService.exe”. Let’s use the default path to run the command. Make sure you replace it with your own path when running the command:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\bin\SteamService.exe" /repair

4. Reopen Steam and check to see if the Steam service error is gone!