Top 8 Fixes for ‘A Critical Steam Component Is Not Responding’ Error in Windows 11 (2024)

Steam’s massive game library is the reason behind its dominance in the PC games market. Stream revamp its app interface to match competitors like the Epic Game Launcher. However, the error message ‘A critical Steam component is not responding’ impedes the gaming sessions of several.

The ‘critical Steam component not responding’ error can arise due to several reasons, like missing administrator permissions, an over-protective antivirus program, or a corrupt steamwebhelper.exe file. This post compiles working methods to fix the problem with Steamwebhelper.exe, a critical Steam component, and get Steam to work properly again.

1. Restart Steam With Administrator Privileges

Steamwebhelper.exe manages all the web features inside the Steam client. Before trying out advanced fixes, restart Steam with administrator privileges to fix permission issues with Steam and its sub-processes. Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Press the Ctrl + Shift + Esc keyboards shortcut to open the Task Manager.

Step 2: Find Steam in the process list and right-click on it. Select the End task option.

Step 3: Close the Task Manager.

Step 4: Press the Windows key to open the Start menu. Type steam in the search box and click on the Run as administrator option.

Step 5: When User Account Control window appears, click on the Yes button.

Check whether the ‘steamwebhelper.exe, a critical Steam Component, is not responding’ error still pops up.

2. Whitelist Steamwebhelper.exe in Antivirus Software

Overprotective antivirus programs can block Steam or its associated programs from running on your PC. Many users found this problem when they had Bitdefender installed on their PCs. However, some face the same issue with the default antivirus program (Windows Defender). Here’s how to whitelist steamwebhelper.exe in Windows Defender:

Step 1: Press the Windows key to open the Start menu, type virus & threat protection in the search bar, and press Enter to open Windows Security.

Step 2: Scroll down to the Virus and threat protection history section. Click on the Manage settings option.

Step 3: Scroll down to the Exclusions section. Click on the Add or remove exclusions option.

Step 4: When the User Account Control window appears, click on the Yes button.

Step 5: Click on the Add an exclusion button. Select the File option.

Step 6: Browse the Steam installation folder and double-click on the steamwebhelper.exe file to select it.

Step 7: You will see that the list now includes the steamwebhelper.exe file. Close the Windows Security app.

If adding the steamwebhelper.exe file to a whitelist has no effect, you can try adding the entire Steam folder to the whitelist.

3. Run Steam Executable With Modified Permissions

Many users faced the ‘steamwebhelper.exe keeps crashing’ issue with the newer version of the Steam client. You must launch the steam.exe file with modified permissions to fix the issue. Here’s how:

Step 1: Press the Windows key to open the Start menu, type steam in the search box, and click on the Open file location option.

Step 2: Right-click on Steam and click on the Properties option.

Step 3: Navigate to the target field and click on it. Press the Spacebar key once and type -vgui in it.

Step 4: Click on the Apply button and hit the OK button.

Step 5: Close the File Explorer window.

Launch Steam and check if the error message appears.

4. Delete Web Browser Data

Corrupt web browser data in Steam can cause the ‘steamwebhelper.exe, a critical Steam Component, is not responding’ error. So, you need to delete the web browser data stored in the app. Here’s how:

Step 1: Press the Windows key to open the Start menu. Type steam in the search box and press Enter to open it.

Step 2: Click on the Steam button in the top bar. Then click on the Settings option.

Step 3: Click on the In Game option.

Step 4: Go to the ‘Delete Web Browser Data’ section. Click on the Delete button.

Step 5: Click on the Confirm button.

Step 6: Close and restart Steam to check if the error appears again.

5. Disable Browser Sandboxing in Steam

Steam uses browser sandboxing to help safeguard your PC against threats and isolate them within the browser. But if steamwebhelper.exe is facing issues, you need to disable browser sandboxing for some time. Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Press the Windows key to open the Start menu, type cmd in the search box and press Enter to open the Terminal app.

Step 2: Type the following command and press Enter to execute it:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\Steam.exe" –no-cef-sandbox

Step 3: Steam will launch without browser sandboxing. Close the Terminal app window.

6. Disable Hardware-accelerated GPU Scheduling

Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling allows your CPU to offload tasks to the GPU. But it is known to cause issues with the steamwebhelper. So, you must disable it using the Settings app. Here’s how:

Step 1: Press the Windows key to open the Start menu, type display in the search box and press Enter to open the Display settings.

Step 2: Click on the Graphics option.

Step 3: Click on the Advanced graphics settings. Disable the toggle next to the Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling toggle.

Step 4: Restart your PC to apply the changes.

7. Delete Steamwebhelper.exe To Re-download It

If disabling Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling doesn’t resolve the issue, you must delete the steamwebhelper.exe file to rule out the file corruption problem. Steam will recreate the file when you launch it again. Here’s how:

Step 1: Press the Windows key + E keyboard shortcut to open File Explorer.

Step 2: Click on the address bar, paste the following path, and press Enter:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\bin\cef\cef.win7x64

Step 3: Find the steamwebhelper.exe file and click on it. Press the Del key to remove the file.

Step 4: Close the File Explorer.

Step 5: Press the Windows key to open the Start menu. Type steam in the search box and press Enter.

Steam will identify that the steamwebhelper.exe file is missing and will re-download it the next time you launch the Steam app.

8. Reset Steam Without Losing Your Games

The last resort is to reset Steam to force it to recreate all files and update to the latest version. It is much better than reinstalling Steam because all your installed games will remain unaffected. Repeat the following steps:

Step 1: Press the Windows + E keyboard shortcut to open File Explorer.

Step 2: Click on the address bar at the top, paste the following path and press Enter:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam

Step 3: Press the Ctrl + A keyboard shortcut to select all the files in the Steam folder. Hold the Ctrl key and click on the ‘steam.exe’ file and the steamapps folder to deselect them.

Step 4: Press the Delete key to wipe all the selected files and folders.

Step 5: Close the File Explorer window.

Step 6: Press the Windows key to open the Start menu. Type steam in the search box and press Enter.

Step 7: Steam will launch and recreate all the deleted files and auto-install updates. Log in to your Steam account afterward.

Fix Steam Issues

These solutions will help resolve the ‘critical Steam component not responding’ error on your Windows PC. While the steamwebhelper.exe is indeed a critical component, we recommend that you fix that error and also all the updates for the Steam client. At times, one of those updates might carry a patch that may fix this nagging error.