Fix WInidows Problems: Cannot find a running instance of Steam

When trying to play a game like Dayz, some users might annoyingly get an error message saying “Cannot find a running instance of Steam”. This is really frustrating. Moreover, even though they have tried running steam as an administrator, flushing out Steam, restarting steam, restarting the computer, none of these has fixed the issue. What is going on and how to get rid of this computer error message immediately?


If you are at the first time to receive the message “Cannot find a running instance of Steam” in playing a game, turn off the computer and restart it several minutes later. A temporary issue on the machine sometimes might result in the appearance of such an error message and “Your PC ran into a problem” message, and it can be fixed immediately after a system reboot.

If the message remains, right click the game that you are going to launch and press Properties, and go to Local Files and press the “Verify Cache” or something like that, enable the developement beta build in the properties. Sometimes, a problem within the computer itself can stop you from playing the game and display the message saying “Cannot find a running instance of Steam”.

However, a problem within the Steam itself at most of the time has been the major cause of this error message. If the two solutions above fail, uninstall and reinstall Steam so as to get rid of this annoying error message:

- Make a backup of the SteamApps/Common folder on either an external HDD or in another folder of your PC.
- Go to Start, Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs and uninstall Steam.
- Search and delete the Steam folder in its integrity. Sometimes, a folder with some properties is still there even if you have followed the above steps to go. You should manually search for this folder and completely delete it.
- Reinstall Steam and you may be able to play the game without the message “Cannot find a running instance of Steam”.

After uninstalling the Steam, I would suggest you to fix registry errors first before the reinstall job. The Registry is a complex database that is used to store valuable information related to hardware, software, and users on Microsoft Windows systems. No matter which PC request you send out to the computer, for example, opening your IE, the system will first read this database for the required entries and display the page correctly. As you uninstall, update a program, the registry database will be added with various registry keys, but not all of them were completely removed, stopping you from using the computer and the added programs properly. If something goes wrong with the Steam, you may come to the chance to receive the message “Cannot find a running instance of Steam” in playing a game.

Cannot play your game properly because of the message “Cannot find a running instance of Steam”? Want to play your game and enjoy Steam all the time? Tweaker your system right now today! An error clean system is the main assurance for a stable PC running.