If you were running Steam on your background when playing a game, then you hit the Shift + Tab by mistake the overlay will open, so you may wonder how to disable the steam overlay.
Sometimes opening the overlay while you’re playing a game can ruin it completely, as seconds are important enough to announce your victory or defeat.
However, you may also don’t like the overlay to show on your screen.
Although Steam Overly has a lot of functionalities and options for the In-game experience, some users just don’t find it useful in their gameplay.
So you can Instead use the Discord app in the background to communicate with your friend by voice call without any interruption.
So today I will show you how to disable the Steam overlay in 4 easy steps.
What Is Steam Overlay
Steam overlay is a window that occurs in front of you while gaming, which contains all the necessary information related to the Steam gaming account.
In addition to that, it allows you to access the steam community, such as chatting with your friends while playing the game.
You can use the Steam overlay to capture your screen by hitting the F12 button.
However, you can have instant access to the features available on the Steam app without having to quit the game.
For example, if you are playing CSGO and you want to chat with your friends, you need the Steam Overlay.
Also, if you want to trade items quickly before the match begins, it happens through the Steam overlay.
How To Open Steam Overlay
To open the Steam Overlay window, simply hit the “Shift + Tab” buttons together while you are playing the game, then the popup will show up with all the options.
However, Steam overlay is usually enabled by default with the Shift + Tab buttons as a shortcut.
So when you are playing the game you can access it at any time with these two buttons.
Yet, sometimes you may face an issue that the overlay doesn’t open.
Therefore, you have to take a look at the “Overly shortcut keys” on the Settings to make sure that it’s always the Shift + Tab.
If it’s not, then you can re-enable back the two buttons by clicking on the shortcut box.
Then hit the Shift + Tab button to re-enable them as the shortcuts.
Now, if you don’t want to see the Steam overlay on your game anymore, you can disable it from the steam app.
How To Disable Steam Overlay
To disable the Steam Overlay interface, open the Steam app, then go to the “Settings” page, and uncheck the In-game checkbox.
Therefore, you will be able to play your game without getting the Steam window anymore.
Now if you want to re-enable it, you can go to the same page and recheck the same checkbox.
However, some users prefer to use the Discord app as a background app.
Which helps them to communicate easily by voice call instead of the Steam Overlay chat.
1.Open the Steam app
First, make sure to close the game you’re playing.
Because the Steam Overlay will stay active on the running game if you disable it without exiting that game.
Go to your Steam Client app, then click on the “Steam” word at the top left of the screen.
Then a drop-down menu will occur.
So click on “Settings”.
Then the Steam settings will show up in a new window.
2.Click on In-Game
When you open the Settings popup, you will see multiple options and menus.
So click on the “In-Game” menu.
Then a new page menu will show up, which is the Steam Overlay page, so here you will be able to disable it.
You can also modify the shortcut buttons as well, on the “Overlay shortcut keys”.
3.Uncheck “Enable the Steam Overlay”
On the In-Game page, there are three checkboxes at the top of this menu page.
So to disable the Steam overlay window, uncheck the first checkbox in which they have written: “Enable the Steam Overly while in-game”.
After unchecking the checkbox, click on “OK” to confirm.
Then your Steam Overly will get disabled.
So, you can play your games without interruption.
4.Open the Game to test it
Now that you’ve disabled the Steam overlay, it should disappear when you launch any game.
But it’s better to double-check if it worked by launching the game.
So launch your game on Steam and hit the Steam Overlay shortcut buttons to check if it still pups up.
Now, if you see that it still pops up, make sure you’ve disabled it by unchecking the checkbox.
Also, check if you closed the game before you disable the Steam Overlay from the settings.
If the game is still open, close it then relaunch it to check.
In addition to that, restart your PC to complete the process.
Conclusion
Steam overlay has lots of functionalities such as connecting you with the Steam Community, taking screenshots easily, chatting with your friends.
However, if you see that you’re not getting any benefits from it, or you only want to disable it temporarily, then you can do so on the Steam Settings.
But keep in mind that you have to close your opened game before disabling the Overlay.
So today you’ve learned how to disable the steam overlay in 4 easy steps.