Old Steam Poll posts split and 'archived'

[thetack]

if you want paranoid how about this one from my nephew

dont use steam as the CIA may force them to add an algarithm to allow your computer to be interagated for their personel profiles on you

now thats paranoid and from a last year uni student

mind you considering the german police have been been found to be placing trojans in serspected criminals pcs this year not too far fetched.

[strude]

I must say, when I shut down Windows (Vista 64) Steam does sometimes pop up and slow the shutdown operation- I think it is nothing more intrusive than 'Steam screenshot manager' if I remember rightly.

I also had this. I think it's the screenshot manager not shutting down quick enough for Windows liking, so Windows briefly displays the option to force close it. I use Win 7 64bit so it might be a 64 bit thing.

I worked around it by going to the Steam menu, Settings, Downloads+Cloud Tab and unchecking the option "Open the screenshot manager after games when screenshots are taken". I rarely take screenshots anyway, and when I do I can just access them by going to the View menu, Screenshots.

The screenshot function and screenshot manager are relatively new features in Steam, so they might be having some teething problems.

[Alan Phipps]

I have a Steam account from a while back (Halflife2 and Portal) but removed all vestiges of Valve/Steam when I completed and removed the games, mainly because I didn't want unnecessary overheads when playing other games such as X3. I will be buying XR when released and so obviously reactivating Steam etc - as I have said here earlier.

A thing that this thread has achieved scattered amongst all the angst, over-protection and even provocation is to show how Steam has much evolved from that which I recall. It has highlighted many of its current features and some remaining concerns. The latter group are usually countered with at least some sort of suggested work-around (such as in the previous post). For that type of insight into Steam alone this thread has been of great potential use to me and I am grateful for the info.

[samjaza]

I have no problem with steam, Ive been using it since HL2 and the only problem i have ever had with it is resource usage.
These days with the cost of RAM it is almost a non issue for the amount of Resources steam uses.
Also for the spyware claim, you you don't have to let steam scan your hardware or software if you don't want, it is completely optional.

snip...
theory aside, if it collects data then transfer it to somewhere else, i always suspect, and steam is also memory resident and seeks control of certain functions, like why does it exert control over my windows shutdown?
...snip

If all these paranoid people would just use a HIPS (or HIDS if you just want to be notified) there would be no trouble they could control exactly what software was allowed to control or access what on their machines.
They could tell if steam or any other software was trying to inject itself into other software or load a process.

I must say, when I shut down Windows (Vista 64) Steam does sometimes pop up and slow the shutdown operation- I think it is nothing more intrusive than 'Steam screenshot manager' if I remember rightly.

I also had this. I think it's the screenshot manager not shutting down quick enough for Windows liking, so Windows briefly displays the option to force close it. I use Win 7 64bit so it might be a 64 bit thing.
...snip

Its Cloud syncing, a completely optional method of backing up your saves online, so if you have steam on multiple computers it can sync them across all of them, or if you reinstall windows you wont loose your saves.

[fairywhipper]

steam is also memory resident and seeks control of certain functions, like why does it exert control over my windows shutdown?

wtf ?

Please explain.

I'd like an explanation too. I have no idea what he's talking about...

You know ... I think I can make a pretty good guess what he meant ... but I'll hold back until he confirm it. I'll be clutching my side if my guess is correct though

ok guys, it might be my paranoia, but everytime steam starts up, my antivrus system tells me it invokes shutdown privilages of windows. maybe its just me. im using karenpsky or however its spelt.....

so why does this happen? paranoia? dodgy setting? you tell me? speculation? paronia?

i like paranoia it keeps you sane when everybody is after you, and we know they are after me, because they store the information about me!

[samjaza]

ok guys, it might be my paranoia, but everytime steam starts up, my antivrus system tells me it invokes shutdown privilages of windows. maybe its just me. im using karenpsky or however its spelt.....

so why does this happen? paranoia? dodgy setting? you tell me? speculation? paronia?

i like paranoia it keeps you sane when everybody is after you, and we know they are after me, because they store the information about me!

I think you are talking about Kaspersky, and it is a good anti-virus, Quite a few other companies actually license their detection engine for there software. It sounds like a dodgy setting i know other people that have Kaspersky and they have had no problems with steam.
I would try reinstalling steam, and checking the Kaspersky forums, i might be an out of wack behavioral blocker.

and just because your paranoid doesn't mean there not after you.

[Scoob]

Hi,

For the record I'm using Steam on a Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit build running windows firewall, AVG, MalwareBytes (non-resident) and an Ad Blocker.

The only thing that interfered with Steam was my Ad blocker...because Steam advertise games. I added two Steam IP addresses to the exception list and have not had a problem since.

The Steam client running in the background usually reports ZERO % CPU usage. If I'm actually browsing games / demos to download it may go up a bit, but ONLY while I browse or download stuff. Memory usage is consistantly quite high, as much as 150mb for me - which is more than others report - it's currently reporting 109mb used in task manager, all I've done is browse my game list.

Note: I DO have 8gb of ram so possibly Steam is taking advantage of this. I know PJKnibbs reported much lower ram usuage a few pages back so maybe the client scales.

I've been deliberately leaving the Steam client running while I'm doing ther stuff to see of there is any impact or weird incompatibility issues. None to report as of yet. This PC is my generaly workhorse, but I do also play the odd game on it - namely the online game Lego Universeat the moment - no issues there.

So, no issues so far on my particular configuration - a fairly typical one I'd expect.

Scoob.

[pjknibbs]

Note: I DO have 8gb of ram so possibly Steam is taking advantage of this. I know PJKnibbs reported much lower ram usuage a few pages back so maybe the client scales.

That might possibly have been because I'd only just started it up to check--maybe it uses a bit more after you've played a game, or something?

[strude]

I must say, when I shut down Windows (Vista 64) Steam does sometimes pop up and slow the shutdown operation- I think it is nothing more intrusive than 'Steam screenshot manager' if I remember rightly.

I also had this. I think it's the screenshot manager not shutting down quick enough for Windows liking, so Windows briefly displays the option to force close it. I use Win 7 64bit so it might be a 64 bit thing.
...snip

Its Cloud syncing, a completely optional method of backing up your saves online, so if you have steam on multiple computers it can sync them across all of them, or if you reinstall windows you wont loose your saves.

Well as I said in the part you snipped, disabling the screenshot manager option removed the problem. Cloud syncing is still enabled. It's definitely displayed as the screenshot manager in the force task shutdown list too, as it can be seen as it flashes up on the screen for a sec.

EDIT: Regardless of what causes it, it was easily worked around for me. I only mentioned it as a suggestion to the quoted poster, that they might try the same solution.

[samjaza]

Hi,

For the record I'm using Steam on a Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit build running windows firewall, AVG, MalwareBytes (non-resident) and an Ad Blocker.

The only thing that interfered with Steam was my Ad blocker...because Steam advertise games. I added two Steam IP addresses to the exception list and have not had a problem since.

The Steam client running in the background usually reports ZERO % CPU usage. If I'm actually browsing games / demos to download it may go up a bit, but ONLY while I browse or download stuff. Memory usage is consistantly quite high, as much as 150mb for me - which is more than others report - it's currently reporting 109mb used in task manager, all I've done is browse my game list.

Note: I DO have 8gb of ram so possibly Steam is taking advantage of this. I know PJKnibbs reported much lower ram usuage a few pages back so maybe the client scales.

I've been deliberately leaving the Steam client running while I'm doing ther stuff to see of there is any impact or weird incompatibility issues. None to report as of yet. This PC is my generaly workhorse, but I do also play the odd game on it - namely the online game Lego Universeat the moment - no issues there.

So, no issues so far on my particular configuration - a fairly typical one I'd expect.

Scoob.

Over 100MB is quite a lot. Its currently sitting at 33MB for me and ive been playing XTC most of today, I'm on win 7 x64 ultimate, with Comodo Internet Security, MBAM (resident) and king soft pc doctor.

what do you mean by ad-blocker? I'm assuming you don't mean the browser based one, is it proxy or host file based? does it work better than browser based blocker?

Well as I said in the part you snipped, disabling the screenshot manager option removed the problem. Cloud syncing is still enabled. It's definitely displayed as the screenshot manager in the force task shutdown list too, as it can be seen as it flashes up on the screen for a sec.

EDIT: Regardless of what causes it, it was easily worked around for me. I only mentioned it as a suggestion to the quoted poster, that they might try the same solution.

Well sorry about that, i mustn't of read it right.

[strude]

I have a Steam account from a while back (Halflife2 and Portal) but removed all vestiges of Valve/Steam when I completed and removed the games, mainly because I didn't want unnecessary overheads when playing other games such as X3. I will be buying XR when released and so obviously reactivating Steam etc - as I have said here earlier.

Twice I have reinstalled Windows and Steam, and both times had trouble installing HL2 from the CDs (5 disks, booo!). This was when installing from disks after a freshly downloaded client has already been installed. Always ended up having to download HL2 and the episodes, rather than installing from the disks.

I suspect it's because the client has changed so much since release, and the original installer doesn't know what's going on. (Of course it could just be me ) Only mention it to give you a heads up in case you try it. You might try installing from the disks before installing a new Steam client, however the client and Source engine have had so many updates since the HL2 release, it'll probably be just as tedious as just installing a fresh client and downloading the entire game.

[RegisterMe]

Couldn't vote because my preferred option was unavailable, namely "love Steam and would defiitely use it for everything if I could".

[Slashman]

I suspect it's because the client has changed so much since release, and the original installer doesn't know what's going on. (Of course it could just be me Razz) Only mention it to give you a heads up in case you try it. You might try installing from the disks before installing a new Steam client, however the client and Source engine have had so many updates since the HL2 release, it'll probably be just as tedious as just installing a fresh client and downloading the entire game.

I'm pretty sure that both HL and HL2 have undergone enough changes over the years that would make a disk install kind of pointless. They have had significant engine upgrades as well as moved to the Steam cloud system.

So yeah...its not surprising that you'd get issues attempting a disk install at this point.

[Cycrow]

Note: I DO have 8gb of ram so possibly Steam is taking advantage of this. I know PJKnibbs reported much lower ram usuage a few pages back so maybe the client scales.

That might possibly have been because I'd only just started it up to check--maybe it uses a bit more after you've played a game, or something?

it can also depend on the view you use and the amount of games you have installed.

so if your using the grid view like me then it has to cache the images for each game, so that takes up extra memory

[Alan Phipps]

@ strude & Slashman: Thanks for the advice on reinstalling HL2 and Portal etc from disk or other but I have not been and will not be doing either anyway. As I said (or meant to say) I had fully completed both stock games a while back (and didn't want to go on with sequels and expansions) and so uninstalled the games and also removed all traces of Steam/Valve etc to optimise play with other games such as TC. XR will be my next reactivation of Steam/Valve and I have certainly learned a lot about what to expect (good, bad and what to do about it) from parts of this thread.

[NUKLEAR-SLUG]

i was in that section looking at something called "data execution pevention" dep. what is that btw? (what does it do, does it have bearing).

theory aside, if it collects data then transfer it to somewhere else, i always suspect, and steam is also memory resident and seeks control of certain functions, like why does it exert control over my windows shutdown?

Data Execution Prevention or DEP is built in hardware security in your processor to help prevent certain tricks that viruses like to try when they're messing with your machine.

Yes, Steam is memory resident when it's running. No, that's not an indication of evil intent. No, it doesn't attempt to take control of any functions and no it's not attempting to subvert your Windows shutdown function long enough for it to become self-aware and attempt to destroy the world Skynet style.

[fairywhipper]

thanks,

but if dep is a hardware abstract layer, why disable it? this and the antivirus bits makes steam more suspect in terms of usage and could be seen as a virus/malware type program, no wonder i get many pop ups from my antivurus everytime it is ran.

some would suggest a complete reinstall of OS to gey rid of some of these problems, im planning that....

maybe one day, when i move away from the fields of avalon back into a virture world of choatic urban living, i might get a internet connection above 115.6k, then i might rejoin steam.......

[andrewas]

Because sometimes software triggers DEP even when it shouldn't. Therefore, support includes information on how to disable it, for those users having a problem. It would be better to remove the cause of the problem rather than cover up the symptom, but that would take more effort than most users are willing to put in, the problem is generally with third party code and theres no efficient way I know of to track down the culprit. Feel free to update drivers and runtimes before you disable DEP, you might get lucky.

Note that disabling DEP does nothing to help your Valve conspiracy - they already have absolute control over what Steam does. If they want to run malicious code, they don't need to inject it into data and trick the user into turning off DEP, they just include the code in the next client update and have it run as normal.

[Scoob]

That might possibly have been because I'd only just started it up to check--maybe it uses a bit more after you've played a game, or something?

Hi,

Actually I tested it a couple of times and just over 100mb is normal for me having just started Steam in Offline mode.

My default view is my library, and is set as a list-type view rather than details, plus I only have two titles present, both demos.

I admit, the memory footprint was one of the more surprising things to me, especially as others report much less.

Still, I often forget that Steam is running at all sometimes, so that's a good sign in regard to how intrusive / resource hungry it might be.

Scoob.

[pissmaker]

Xeon1 we have similar setups. Mine is without hypervisor.
For about a year i have no problems and before that i had windows 2003.
Again with various debuggers/compilers, even when dll hooking or attaching processes to non steam games steam had no problem.
No idea how vac would react doing those in vac games.

Also the least amount of memory steam needs is ~100mb and only when started offline in tray.