Occasionally, you’ll come across a problem that could be fixed with a quick Steam restart.
Steam will automatically pause any active downloads and then shut itself down.
You may be tempted to tap the X at the top-right to close Steam.
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However, clicking this doesn’t properly close Steam; it just minimizes the client to your taskbar.
Closing Steam through the client menu will terminate the process entirely and allow you to restart properly.
Expand the taskbar if need be, right-go for the Steam icon, and clickExit Steam.
To do this on Windows, pop launch the Task Manager withCtrl + Shift + Escand find theSteamprocess.
Right-click it and selectEnd Task.
you might also do this when the Steam desktop app freezes or won’t respond.
Why Should You Restart Steam?
If it can’t find the update, restarting Steam forces it to perform another check.
Restarting Steam Can Help upgrade your Games
Steam is usually very good at keeping your games updated.
Most of the time Steam automatically checks for any updates for your games and downloads any that it finds.
However, sometimes Steam needs prompting to patch a game.
Verifying the integrity of the game on Steam can prompt it to realize your game is outdated.
However, for larger games, verifying the files can take a long time.
As such, before you do anything substantial, it’s worth giving Steam a quick restart.
When Steam does this, it will show a message that reads “verifying installation.”
If Steam gets stuck during this process, it’s worth giving the client a restart.
Restarting Steam is a good starting point when diagnosing a strange issue you’re having with it.
It’s easy to do and is sometimes all that’s needed to get Steam working again.
