Many (not all) of my games on Steam always want to do their initial installation stuff like checking Directx installation etc every time I run them. This triggers UAC, so I have to type in my admin password every time I want to play. Up until now, this has just been mildly inconvenient, but I would like to put the computer in the living room and run Big Picture mode at some point in the nearish future, which means it will be more of an issue since I won't have a keyboard easily accessible. Anyone know why this is happening and how to fix it?

The old solution for this is to go into your games folder (steam\steamapps\common\<gamefolder>) and delete any vdf files (installscript.vdf, 12345.vdf etc), which are installer files which should have been deleted after the first launch. That should probably fix it, unless they've changed how that is handled. Other than that perhaps running the Steam Cleaner tool - http://steamcleaner.tikione.fr/en/ - to get rid of all the extra redistributable packages for each game, which may stop the games from trying to run the installation files again as they won't be there. Failing that I guess you'll need to get a wireless keyboard...

Thanks, I'll give the .vdf thing a shot!

Run as adminstrator

Unplug your router then plug it back in.

Turn off UAC?

I have this exact same problem too. It's a small annoyance but it only takes like 3 seconds and then the game launches anyway. Not a huge deal.

This might help:

• Close Steam and make sure it's not open in your task manager. If it's still in task manager after you close it, force-kill the process.

• Open up your Steam installation directory. It's most likely C:\Program Files\Steam or C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam

• Delete the files appupdatestats.blob. Doing this will force Steam re-check all your games for updates and hopefully solve the problem.

• Restart Steam and let it update itself.

• PROFIT!

Cheers!

Run as adminstrator

Thanks for the helpful ideas and the troll posts! I will definitely try unplugging my router and plugging it back in. @Ravenlight , that is absurd and I will absolutely not be trying that next.

@OrfBC:

What are you on about? Here, I'll link you the same steps straight from the Steam Support site: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=2971-RUAG-7390

@Ravenlight said:

This might help:

• Close Steam and make sure it's not open in your task manager. If it's still in task manager after you close it, force-kill the process.

• Open up your Steam installation directory. It's most likely C:\Program Files\Steam or C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam

• Delete the files appupdatestats.blob. Doing this will force Steam re-check all your games for updates and hopefully solve the problem.

• Restart Steam and let it update itself.

• PROFIT!

Cheers!

Oh thank God - I didn't know this was a common issue but it's been driving me mad for the past year. Guess I'll find out if it works next week once Dishonored and Xcom are released...

Your sarcasm detector is broken. Or my sarcasm generator is. I will, in fact, be trying that next, and thanks for the suggestion. :)

@OrfBC said:

Your sarcasm detector is broken. Or my sarcasm generator is. I will, in fact, be trying that next, and thanks for the suggestion. :)

It's been a long day apparently :/

My post only listed appupdatestats.blob file, but the Steam support site says to delete clientregistry.blob both of these files can be safely removed without breaking anything and 90% of the time deleting and reacquiring them fixes issues with Steam or Steam games.

Cheers!