Steam (overlay rant)

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3ICE
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Steam (overlay rant)

Unread post by 3ICE »

No good reason, really. The word "Principles" is far too majestic and powerful to be wasted on the likes of a mere grudge. Laziness is another factor. Improved performance and security a third and fourth reason behind it.

Grudge:
It was annoying in the past, when I'd accidentally open it during gameplay. Trying to check my K/D ratio (or score) with     , while sneaking with [SHIFT] held down, resulted in my accidental death: shift+tab… Overlay opens, I lose control of the game, let go of shift, my character stands up, *boom*, I return after closing the stupid overlay to find out that I received a nasty headshot while I was "AFK". K/D ratio ruined…)

Laziness:
First I just disabled the overlay shortcut but found that apps can still open it so it had to go completely. I did more than just turn it off in the settings. (Because it kept running in the background, despite my choices!) So I deleted the dll and exe files associated with it. Also denied permission to anyone trying to recreate them (update-proof) so even if Steam is reinstalled, the web helper portion of it will not return. Sure, I could re-enable it by undoing all that protection I applied, and doing a repair install of Steam, but all that only for the minute it takes to accept the unorthodox GDPR of one game? No thanks. Too much work. Also I heard Steam uninstalls every single game along with itself — definitely not going to test that rumor on my own skin. (Makes sense too, Steam is DRM, if the DRM goes, the games it protects would surely go too.)

Performance:
Steam child processes hog resources. Not having to run the overlay along my games is resources saved. I already have a browser, why run two more, per game… Yes there really are two web helper processes spawned next to games - I open 5-6 games at once, that's 12 web browsers running in the background, checking steam, watching achievements, keeping a pointless copy of my friends list, tracking time, etc. (What else does the overlay do? I haven't seen it in years.)

Security:
I don't use steam's built-in "whatever it's called" web engine to browse the store/community either. It could have hidden/unknown vulnerabilities, it could be an old version of the webkit engine (known to be vulnerable), or maybe something much worse (IE6!?). Let's not go there…
If I see a notification, I open my secure browser to check steamcommunity.com manually. If I want to buy a game, I buy it through store.steampowered.com (where I can autofill my details, adblock steam's more annoying sections, and trust my connection really is secure.
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3ICE
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Re: Steam (overlay rant)

Unread post by 3ICE »

For context:

3ICE has Magicka 12 Jun @ 12:02am
Please take a moment to read this notice from Paradox Interactive — Literally unplayable...
A "Read the notice (opens a web browser)" button is the only interactive element on the screen.

But when I click it, no web browser opens! Also there's no skip / close / later / NO option. The Ok button below it is disabled. Presumably I cannot continue until I click something in the invisible Notice.

Had to Alt+F4... No, I do not allow steam overlay to run. Ever.
Last edited by 3ICE; 12 Jun @ 12:02am

Thank you. Exactly what I was worried about. Well that's just great.
Originally posted by TheUmpteenth:
You have to turn on the steam overlay. It's required to view the notice.
Originally posted by 3ICE:
No, I do not allow steam overlay to run. Ever.
Uninstalled.

[Lemons] w!z@rD Moderator 10 hours ago
Originally posted by 3ICE:
No, I do not allow steam overlay to run. Ever.
Out of curiosity, why?
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Re: Steam (overlay rant)

Unread post by 3ICE »

Wow, I did not intend to write so much. Bashing Steam is fun though! I'm definitely going to take this content over to my website, probably as an impromptu blog post. Might as well earn some ad money from this :)

Edit: Done. (https://steamcommunity.com/app/42910/di ... 782061111/)
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Re: Steam (overlay rant)

Unread post by 3ICE »

[Lemons] w!z@rD Moderator 5 hours ago
I see. Thank you for this thorough explanation! I'll try deleting the steam webhelper files on my old laptop as well...

I had to delete your other post though as advertisement is generally not allowed on the Steam Discussions.
Last edited by [Lemons] w!z@rD; 4 hours ago
Unread #5

3ICE has Magicka 44 minutes ago
Of course, outside links are not allowed. I should have known, really. Thank you for reminding me so kindly.

I'll just put back what I wrote without the link to my website then.
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