[RESOLVED]How can i kill steam via command/exe?

[aldub516]

RESOLUTION: I did a full clean install of windows to solve other problems that were bleeding into steam. Ive followed the suggestions and set the shortcut with the -silent command, and minus annoying auto updates and things i cant change, my problem is now fixed. Steam starts and stays in the tray, hiding it stupid little self. thanks!

as you can see, im working through a lot of problems, and finding new ones a long the way. Im doing my best to seperate them. Im experience window focus issues when i set gameex as a startup program but thats in a different thread. I just realized a new problem..When steam is running in the backround, it steals the focus when i exit emulators in gameex. Example, if i go to play nes games, i can play for hours jumping back and forth between games, and other old console emulators. But as soon as i run pinballx, which i set to launch steam, i noticed once steam is launched in the backround, whenever i go back to my console emulators, when i exit them, i lose focus and control of gameex. Not only that, but steam is reading inputs while im playing games! when i launch pinballx and start navigating and pressing enter, it reacts in steam! i installed a steam game without even knowing it. After closing steam this problem goes away. So im trying to figure out a command or exe that will kill steam when activated. I somewhat learned about task kill which works great for other things like cabvol, which i set to close with gameex. But i cannot seem to figure out a way to kill steam when exiting pinball x. Along with that, ive experiences problems shutting down my pc. When steam is running , my pc someimes shuts down, but the fans and cpu keep running. Ive read shutdown problems are common with steam, and its more or less steams fault for all these problems as the coding sucks..

So, my current problem in short is, I already set steam to run when i start pinballx... Now, how can i completely kill it upon exiting pinballx or even gameex? Id use the built in steam in gameex, but it takes me forever to get back to gameex from when i exit a steam app...and is there any advice to minimize steam automatically? because having it read my buttons while im playing a game is not good

[Draco1962]

I can't say I have had any problems with Steam crashing my PC or keeping it on after shutting down in Windows. Both GameEx and PinballX support "run after." That being said, you could create try running in the "run after" section of your the emulator that will invoke the taskkill command to kill steam.exe after you exit each game:

taskkill.exe /F /IM steam.exe

If you should need to run more than one command, you could build a batch file to be run in that launch after that includes the taskkill string along with other programs to invoke or close.

[aldub516]

when i enter that command in RUN, it does not kill nor do anything to steam. I assume thats a good way to test it yes? The shut down problem is actually happening without steam as well which is VERY worrysome to me Everything shuts down but the main fans and cpu fans keep running. I have to kill it by holding the power button down. I can only assume itll take me years to figure that one out

[Adultery]

Do you have 'wake on lan' enabled in your bios?

Or are you hybernating instead of doing a full shutdown?

Try typing shutdown /s in a command prompt. Do your fans stay on still?

[aldub516]

thus far using shutdown /s has shut down perfect with out the fans running. I tried it about 5 times so far. And ill keep trying. This is, the way i shut down, i have a push button connected to the shut down pins on the motherboard, Always had it like that. Ill check my shutdown and sleep settings maybe i did something

[Adultery]

It sounds to me more like it's hybernating... but that's just an opinion.

[aldub516]

But how can that be. As I said I'm shutting down with a button running straight to the mobo power pins. And half the time it shuts down completely fine. Why would it switch between a hard shut down and a hibernate mode from the same

Button

[Adultery]

Well if it's shutting down properly the same exact way sometimes, then that rules it out. If not, then it may be a pinout issue. Never had that happen before personally.

[Draco1962]

I forget what OS version you are using, but it could be a setting in your Power Options settings that is at fault. Have you checked to see what is showing under the Power buttons and lid section? I would check there first before checking out the hardware pinouts for your PC.

[aldub516]

I will check that when I go home. This started within the last few days. I even suspect it happened when I updated gamex when all my problems started happening. It's a brand new PC and everything was fine so I can't imagine a pinout problem.

[aldub516]

I'm on 8.1 by the way. The other day I turned "windows 8.1 feature" on in bios. I remembered that last night and got excited thinking that was

The problem. But it wasn't.

[nullPointer]

Hi aldub

Just out of curiosity, are you running Steam in Big Picture mode by any chance? Big Picture mode likely will intercept your controller input since it gets added to the DirectX stack. When set to Desktop mode, Steam really shouldn't do that since AFAIK it's only responsive to keyboard & mouse input when running in Desktop mode.

Further, are there any factors that would prevent you from having the Steam client start with Windows and left running in the background? Not only will this increase the overall response time for Steam (a lot!), but I've seen far fewer issues reported overall when it's run in this fashion. I realize some folks prefer to avoid this approach in order to maintain a perceived sense of improved system performance, but really and truly, sometimes the path of least resistance is the best approach. Just a thought.

[aldub516]

Hey man. thanks for the response. First off, I wasn't running in big picture mode, but I realized I can set my favorite window to friends since I have non and there's not much in that screen. So when steam launches it only launches a small window so the input problem is solved I guess. To my recollection (which is jumbled after days of playing with settings) the only reason I don't start steam with windows is because of focus issues and such. I'm not concerned about computer use. I have a pretty strong system and it's never really doing anything except gamex stuff.If I can get all my other startup problems resolved, I'll try again with steam running in the back from start. It gets messy because I then have the option of setting steam to start within steam settings, or set it as a windows startup, or startup within gamex. Too many options with various outcomes. Finding the sweet spot sucks. All I want is to turn on my PC, start with gamex. The only other process that comes into play is steam for pinball arcade. 3 simple processes and I have so many road blocks

[DazzleHP]

In this situation i would have Steam startup with windows in silent mode, and disable any options to login/logout of Steam in both GameEx and PinballX (so it runs in the background in silent mode all the time). To start Steam in silent mode (which minimizes it to the system tray until manually focused) just add -silent to the end of your command line/shortcut properties. It will also help if you disable many of the online features of Steam, to avoid it taking control without your consent.

To avoid repeating myself, check this list and disable all the online stuff and you should get much better results

[brienj]

As far as your shutdown problems, have you checked your BIOS settings? You want to make sure that you have the power button set to shut down all the way. Also, you may be holding down the power button for a different period of time. Some motherboards, ATX in particular, will shut down completely whenever you hold the power button for more than 4 seconds, but may only go into suspend mode if held for less, depending on the setting in the BIOS. This could explain why it sometimes shuts down, and sometimes doesn't. I also wonder why you don't just use the shutdown menu in GameEx, since you are using it, the best way to shutdown, is using the menu to do it.

[aldub516]

For me, I like the idea of having a physical button that you can hit whenever you want to turn on as play, or shut off immediately. I'll check all above suggestions today as it's another free day for me to work on it. As for the periods of time of holding the button, I don't believe it's that. My PC started and shut the same way for months now, the push of a button. Over the last few days I did something that messed up everything and I don't know what

[aldub516]

dazzle, would u suggest setting steam to start with windows through windows actual startup programs, or should i set it within steam. This will sound newbieish, but with either method, please advise how to add the silent command to the start.. i assume if i go to my shortcuts in the start up and click properties i see "start in" with a path to said program.. do i set it there? and if you suggest doing it through steam, how do i set it to silent.. thanks so far guys!!! Im going to try your suggestions..

i would like to say, my main problem left with steam is that after i start it, then open an old console emulator(nes,snes), when i exit those emulators, i lose control of the gameex interface until i alt tab once.. this ONLY happens with steam running, even when its minimized.. The way i have it set up is that steam starts when i start pinballx.. It logs in super quick and i can play my steam pinball with no delay.. Its just the fact that i lose focus of emulators when i exit them. i will try all suggestions and report back

[aldub516]

i give up lol. this is now veering off of the topic of problems. I am now unable to get anything to boot with windows. I put a new gameex shortcut in my startup folder, and i set steam to start with windows. Neither is starting now lol.. i dunno guys, something happened at some point and everything is messed up. And after all this work i really dont want to start fresh with a new os. damn this all.

[Draco1962]

Someone wise suggested checking the Windows power management settings... Have you confirmed they haven't been changed?

[aldub516]

ok, so i can set the start up programs again.. and yes i checked the power settings. i went through ALL of that stuff thoroughly, checking shut down procedures, sleep, hibernate, everything. i checked devices, and even rolled back to a restore point before i installed my wireless adapter. I guess this problem cant be fully solved until i solve my problem of gameex not starting up properly. With that happening, i cant tell if steam is messing up window focus. A part of me feels this started with the new version of gameex

[DazzleHP]

Don't despair!

To launch Steam in silent mode on Windows Start:

Firstly, let Steam login automatically - you do this when you launch Steam, let it save your password and username.

Second, find your Steam.exe on your computer: Usually> C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\Steam.exe

Once found, right-click it and choose "Create Shortcut".

Find that shortcut (aka .lnk) and right click it, choose "properties". On the "Shortcut" tab find the "Target" section.

At the end of this line add -silent, that is one space, plus -silent. Mine looks like this for example:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\Steam.exe" -silent

Once you have done this, add the SHORTCUT to Windows StartUp. Not the .exe, but the shortcut you created.

Steam will now start with Windows, but in silent mode. In my experience it won't steel focus in this mode unless other factors come in, like cloud syncing etc. In that case then just read the post i linked previously to disable all of them