What Is Steam Overlay: How to Enable It and Fix Issues

Want to invite your Steam friends to play together without leaving the game? Try Steam Overlay, just tap Shift + Tab, and it will offer easy access to the Steam community, in-game purchasing, and other features.

In this blog, we will provide a comprehensive guide about Steam Overlay and offer practical solutions if it is not working properly. Follow this tutorial and enhance your gaming experience with Steam Overlay.

What Can Steam Overlay Do?

When you tap the default Steam Overlay hotkey, you will see some icons on the bottom of your screen. Steam Overlay allows you to customize all the features. Before managing them based on your needs, you can take a look at the available options and learn what they mean.

Game Overview

As the name suggests, you can see all the important information about the game. For example, you can read the latest updates, get direct access to the game community, know which friends own this game, or check your gaming time for recent sessions.

Achievements

Without going back to the Steam Library page, here you can look through all the game’s achievements whether you have unblocked. You can clearly see the in-process achievements and compare them with your friends. Apart from that, you can also check the global achievements.

Notes

With this note on Steam Overlay, you can easily write down your ideas about this game. Whether it’s a strategy guide to pass a game mission or just your thoughts about certain game scenes, your notes will be saved and automatically sync to other devices you have logged in to your Steam account.

Timer

It’s just a simple clock, allowing you to better manage the time and remind yourself not to be over-obsessed with the games.

Guides

If you can’t pass a certain game level or encounter some errors while gaming, try enabling the guides. You can refer to other gamers’s suggestions and troubleshoot common game issues.

Discussions

You can communicate with other gamers in the game community. Including various topics, and make sure it is related to this game.

Screenshots

Once you have activated Steam Overlay, you can press F12 to capture your game screenshot. However, be aware that you can’t record gameplay on a PC with Steam Overlay. You need to go to Settings > Game Recording and activate it.

Friends

You can see all your online friends or group chat on Steam. Apart from sharing games on Steam with your friends, you can also invite your friends to play multiplayer games together. Just press the Shift + Tab to enable Steam Overlay and share a link to them.

Web Browser

You can access Chrome while gaming, feel free to check the game’s guide online.

Controller Settings

For gamers who prefer controllers, you can easily change the settings to enhance your user experience.

Settings

You can access Steam settings without closing the game.

Minimize Windows

It allows you to adjust the size of windows for active Steam Overlay features.

How to Enable Steam Overlay?

Step 1: To begin with, you need to log in to your Steam account.

Step 2: Press the Steam icon on the left top corner of the Steam Client and go to “Settings”.

Step 3: Scroll down to find the “In-Game” section and tap “Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game”. Meanwhile, you can change the Steam Overplay hotkey on the “Overlay shortcut (keys)” option.

Apart from that, if you just want to disable Steam Overlay for a certain game, you can go to Steam Library and select one game. Tap the gear icon and press “Properties”. Under the General tab, turn off the “Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game” option.

How to Fix Steam Overlay Not Working?

Make Sure You Have Turned On Steam Overlay

The first attempt is to ensure that you enable Steam Overlay. Go the Settings > In-Game > Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game.

Restart Steam Client

If the Steam client encounters some bugs, you can reboot the client to fix them. Just press the Steam icon and tap “Exit”. Additionally, you can go to Task Manager on your computer and force-stop the Steam services.

Verify the Integrity of Game Files

Missing or corrupted game files can lead to Steam not working properly. To solve it, you can go to your Steam Library and find the game that can’t open Steam Overlay. Click the gear icon and go to Properties > Installed Files. Then tap “Verify integrity of game files”, the client will start to check all the local game files and find out which one is missing.

Use a Reliable VPN to Unblock Restricted Features

In some regions, the Steam community might be restricted to access. You can still connect to a VPN and circumvent IP restrictions. Here we recommend LightningX VPN, it also offers a free trial now.

Support Over 50 Countries: LightningX VPN offers 2000+ servers all over the world. You can easily change your IP address and unblock inaccessible websites.

Strong Encryption Protocols: With the encryption and zero-logging policy, it will secure your data and prevent any potential threats. Your IP address will also be concealed to keep you anonymous.

High-Speed & Stable Connection: LightningX VPN is ultra-fast, allowing you to enjoy smooth online streaming and gaming. All the subscription plans can enjoy the same speed without speed limits or bandwidth.

Compatible with Common Devices: You can download LightningX VPN on Windows, Android, iOS, macOS, tvOS, and Linux.It can support at least three devices simultaneously.

Check Anti-Virus Software or Firewall

For safety concerns, the anti-virus software and firewall might block some features. To solve Steam Overlay errors, you can try to temporarily disable them or give Steam access to your firewall.

Disable Other Software Temporarily

If you are running too much software simultaneously, the CPU might not be able to support them. Besides, they might also interfere with the Steam Overlay’s background processes. You can turn off other software to reduce the load on computer hardware.

Final Thoughts

Here we have introduced everything you want to know about Steam Overlay. Get quick access to Steam Community now.