What is steam.exe? Is steam.exe spyware or a virus?

How to fix steam.exe related problems?
1. Run Security Task Manager to check your steam process
2. Run SpeedUpMyPC to fix related speed issues
3. Run Spyware Doctor to remove persistent malware


Although not a subsidiary of Valve, steam.exe comes bundled as part of all versions of Half-Life and CounterStrike. This enables the steam games to be run on the host and provides the list of games available in the library, browse multi-player servers and also allows the games to be played from the same account on any host in addition to giving the ability to test patches of Valve without upgrading the software itself.http://www.neuber.com/taskmanager/process/steam.exe.html 

If you want a detailed security rating about your steam.exe (and all other running background processes) read the following user opinions, and download the free trial version of Security Task Manager.

Note: Any malware can be named anything - so you should check where the files of the running processes are located on your disk. If a "non-Microsoft" .exe file is located in the C:\Windows or C:\Windows\System32 folder, then there is a high risk for a virus, spyware, trojan or worm infection! Check it out!


Click to Run a Free Scan for steam.exe speed issues.


Users Opinions

Average user rating of steam.exe: 4 based on 108 votes. Read also the 86 reviews.

599 users ask for this file. 63 users rated it as not dangerous. 9 users rated it as not so dangerous. 14 users rated it as neutral. 9 users rated it as little bit dangerous. 13 users rated it as dangerous. 3 users didn't rate it ("don't know").


All comments about steam.exe:
rate3 it is a valve (half-life and allmods) connection control Prog  See also: Link   DoNe
rate3 Steam is known to use up alot o system resources if your having trouble running other games , it is suggested you close steam   Steve
rate5 Extreamly dangerous file, may cause fatal errors on infected pc's  
rate1 just steam... (counterstrike)   h2k.nl
rate1 Steam is used for games like CounterStrike and Half Life 2. Not dangerous at all.   Mike
rate1 is for a game counterstrike :)  See also: Link   Spongebob Deutschland
rate1 Its secure ! steam , valve and most important company of games   joyman
rate0 uses 46 megs on my machine! Not dangerous but I choose when to activate it   RAWBEAR
rate1 Completely safe file used by Valve for running their games, like Half-life and Counter-strike  See also: Link   Lancaster Silk
rate2 User for online gaming. If installed correctly no probs   Nelix
rate1 Gamers! xD  
rate5 valve software/spyware/system hog   glendor
rate1 May cause addiction to games such as counterstrike: Source, other than that its harmless   SoltoN
rate1 Steam delivers Valve’s games to your desktop and connects you to a massive gaming community   Max
rate1 absolutely not dangerous, HL, HL2 and CS online multiplayer program, though personally i choose to close it down, it takes up alot of RAM   Will
rate5 valve software/spyware/system hog  
rate1 It enables you to play games such as counterstrike and halflife .etc.   l0g4n
rate1 Obviously not harmless, but can use a lot of system memory. When not playing the Valve/Steam games, I recomend closing it.  See also: Link   Darren
rate3 if your not playing steam games (ie cs, day of defeat etc..) then it would pay to have this off as it fairly chews through cpu cycles not sure what its doing perhaps relaying system info to valve?   elvispelvis
rate1 harmless but takes alot of ram i usually choose when for it to start rather then it starting it self. uses alot of bandwith   Adam
rate3 valve software/spyware/system hog but necessary to play Valve game... :( (Counter-Strike, Hl²,...)  
rate1 Valve client, seems to be patched regarding vuln.   Nemorb
rate1 Game Produkt!   M2K
rate5 allows access into your puter in which tampering can occur   greylines
rate2 Steam is used to launched all of Valve's games, and is required. It is not harmful in any way, but may use up resources. Can be completely uninstalled or not used.  See also: Link   Michael Monzon
rate1 Steam... Used to play Half-life, Counter-Strike and other Valve products!  See also: Link   Cyrius
rate0 Cs = counterstrike   Valdi
rate2 it says something like steam.exe. unable to load media library ths happens in half life 2 after the installiation of all 5 cds   ujjwal bhalla from indi
rate1 Valve product needed to play online with its games  See also: Link   HellSpawn
rate3 für gamer die cs spielen is das erforderlich, aber sie müssen wissen das infos zu valve gesendet werden (z.b.cpu tack....) dies is ungefährlich, nur blöd das ein port geöffnet wird über den auch trojaner auf das system gelangen   KARTAR
rate4 Its for Half Life and other games, but can also be a spyware for the creators. also a gateway to your computer for trojans etc   James
rate4 It cannot be deleted and causes slowdown on over java applets, never install it, i have had two different computers which had steam on and they both crashed after installing it.   Toby hs
rate3 steam.exe hs become a hidden program how do i make it visible   rambo
rate4 Valve product launcher, but is using way more resources (including network access) than it should be. Spyware likely.  
rate1 Steam is a program that allows your computer to connect to the internet to play games associated with Half-Life.   PZS
rate1 user friendly anti-piracy software (what an oxymoron!)  
rate1 Valve software to run games. Absolutely harmless, though it can take up resources (about 45 megs).  
rate2 steam is a online gaming file that connects you to a network for gaming and also a downloading system, however this procces can be used by malware.  See also: Link   no one
rate1 not dangerous at all, jsut lets you paly DAMN good games.  
rate4 steam.exe prevents itself from being terminated by Task Manager. That's damn suspicious and antisocial; remove it (from the registry keys listed above) unless you are actively using Valve's update service. Who knows what exploitable bugs it has?   David Hopwood
rate2 As stated, it is installed when you install a legit copy of Half-Life 2. However, it sets itself to auto run with the modifier -silent which is just irritating.  See also: Link   NecroNeko
rate1 This is Valve's program to manage all steam games. It's safe.   Zippy
rate3 Video Game called counter strike.   Mitchell osborn
rate1 Steam is a program use for online gaming. CS HL CSS DOD   John
rate3 Steam is for cs and not that dangerous, unless if the valve steam people wanted to make their subscribers and purchasers sue the hell out of them   Wilson
rate1 Gaming engine, completely harmless, but takes up space   xarealpersonx
rate1 Its just a gaming platform, very useful, fun, and smart.   ninjaPANDA
rate4 You have confirmed my belief that Steam includes a keylogger. Unfortunately I have also discovered that it is impossible to turn Steam off. Even if I remove it from the automatic startup key in the registry, it still finds some way to start itself (silently), and then whenever I connect to the Internet there it is in my firewall log "phoning home". Worse yet, even if I tell my firewall to block all traffic it still manages to get through somehow. So, given that it is capable of monitoring all keyboard and mouse input , and that it can't be barred from the Internet, I would say it is dangerous.   Informer
rate2 A Valve program for online games  See also: Link   William
rate2 it always messes up my mouse but i had to reinstall it cos i wanted to play EMPIRE Total War. I dont know if it needed it to work properly or not but it seemed to install intself. but after that it knocked out my wireless net connection and messed up y mouse. but when i stopped the steam.exe task (task manager) it seemed to have resolved the problem.   deen
rate1 It lets you play solo and online games through steam servers. not dangerous, but if you dont know what it is DO NOT uninstall it because somebody might have bought and installed games through it. uninstalling would result in hours of re downloading.   cyleleghorn
rate1 Steam games application, is not malicious in any way whatsoever.   Arran Fortuna
rate1 It's an online gameing program friendslist/store/demos/Team Fortress 2. SAFE!!!!   St-Jimmy- SinoSamba's Lover
rate1 It's Counter Strike   boomss
rate3 Used for games great service never harmful  See also: Link   Kieran
rate1 Steam client used for most games. Not dangerous.   Ph0en1x
rate4 Bloatware from the Valve Corporation which is only needed to play games which require Steam authentication to play. Uses the internet even when in idle state.   Anonymous
rate2 Downloading files from servers can be dangerous depending on the server   Bob Dole
rate1 Online Games. Does use a bit of memory, but completely safe.   Firzen777
rate1 steam.exe is the program for games like Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat that the game won't start without. It is not harmful as long as it's a legitimate version from Valve. It is what allows the games to update their version over the internet.   thisguy
rate1 Steam is a online, product community application made by Valve that can let you make friends online throughout Steam Internet, its rather NOT dangerous, it does chew space. But rather worth it.  See also: Link   Fomor
rate1 Game content Downloader. Some Game servers may be dangerous bot this file is totaly safe!   Boboon
rate3 Steam's main process, takes up to 110mb of memory, shut down if u aren't using.   T
rate5 I rated that dangerous because you may get serious addiction. Other than that stop trying to fool people its safe (although uses 91 KT)   YouAreReadingMyName
rate3 It forces yout o reset your computer on Vista if it crashes, because the process name in task manager cannot be deleted!  
rate3 It's nessesary for some online games  See also: Link   Robin Noort
rate1 This file is used to run the aplication Steam (From Valve Corperation) which is the largest online PC gaming platform out there. It is completly safe and can never harm your system. I have bought 400$ worth of games from Valve and Steam. If used my credit card too. ITS SAFE. USE IT. GET CSS,DODS,L4D2,L4D,HL2,HL2EP2 Ect  See also: Link   Kitteh
rate1 Used to launch/play games not dangerous at all   Norton 2010
rate1 Steam is a gaming portal for many online games, especially those made by Valve Software. If downloaded from the official Steam website, this application is harmless, though it does hog system resources.  See also: Link   EyeSeeYou
rate1 This is a wonderful program however if you take part in beta testing you may gain "*FAKE*" wich can cause problems if you enconter this all you have to do is turn off your virus scanner its aproved by the valve company and turn it back on once done  See also: Link   GEN.Admin (a steam user)
rate5 file name: wft.exe *32 Description: under processes in task manager its called: Steam (It mascarades as the Steam videogame engine app by Valve). It comes up as different windows, one which imitates security center, others which prompt you to download “Vista Anti-Spyware 2011”. location: C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local size: 316 KB (323,584 bytes)   Trevor
rate5 A virus going by "steam.exe" poses as Vista Home Secutiy, prevents programs from running, shuts down running programs, forces user to pay for "antivirus protection"  
rate3 Most of the time is it a Steam game loader, for online games, buy sometimes it is also a hidden virus, steam.exe tricks a user to think that it isn't a virus, but is is gateway for trojans. Steam.exe stops regedit.exe from working, and also your taskmanager.exe. If you dont have steam, and u have steam.exe, it is a virus.   Serge
rate0 For all you people claiming it's safe, yes i have steam and i know what it is, but there also is a virus called steam.exe and i don't know anything about that one.   CueCappa
rate1 It's not dangerous at all. The virus you're talking about is NOT actually steam. It's just named steam since it's a common file   Toy
rate1 Steam is the online game manager for most games. Yeah, it tends to chew up a chunk of resources (usually 20-45MB)...but it keeps track of all of your games for you, so you don't have to keep disks around.  See also: Link   Shroud
rate1 A lot of people say that "steam.exe" is a dangerous file while it isn't!!! If you downloaded steam at http://store.steampowered.com/ then it's a safe file. Don't believe the others claiming otherwise. It may take a bit of CPU but it's hardless.  See also: Link   Skyrider
rate1 Steam is not spyware. Its not a gateway to viruses. It is made by Valve. Valve is not collecting computer info, what would it do with millions of peoples computer info? If it uses up all of your computers resources you need a less crappy computer.  
rate1 steam keeps crashing im going to install to se if i can fix the problum   196cogaming7kid,fran
rate1 Steam is made by Valve to distribute games (For a fee although Some are free.) It also has the ability to download some mods and tools,and a SDK (Hammer Editor) is included with some games. All connections are safe, Https://  See also: Link   Loper324
rate1 It's a program by the company of Steam (located online at SteamPowered) which is the client program running in the background to any games downloaded from their website. It's harmless if it's from the real company and just their way of syncing to install updates and add badges gained while playing any Steam downloaded game.  See also: Link   Ashengrad
rate5 Very Dangerous, software that has invaded plenty of gamers computers posing as the popular game sharing program Steam, Users that are infected usually see a .exe after Steam, the usual Steam does not contain a .exe, recommend full system restore to recover.  
rate1 this is a game engine for Valve   nope.avi
rate4 Most buggy "support" system I've ever seen. I've had to restart my system 54 times because of it and counting. Only use if you really need it.   D. Besançon
rate1 Steam is used by a majority of well-known game companies to distribute their games, along with the games that Valve makes. It is used by millions of people and will not harm your computer.   A person
rate2 This is part of "Steam" on-line gaming software. It is NOT dangerous.   IcemanGJ

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More process information

Is steam.exe spyware or a virus, trojans, adware or worm? Is there a known steam.exe error?


Other Processes

steam.exe [all processes]