Steam won't open.

[ConnorBlags]

Steam has worked for the past 6 months perfectly. Tried to open today and i get the same issue;

"Steam encountered an unexpected error during startup (0x3008).

Choose one of the following;
Restart Steam
Restart Steamwebhelper
Exit Steam "

None of which worked.

I have attempted to redownload Whisky, I have attempted to re download Steam, Then Re-run/bottle steam.

Has anyone had this before and know how to fix?

[AaronKelley]

See #1336.

[Aaru1801]

Same Issue 😭. And the dev said that he is partially discontinued this project 😭.

[Lancelotbronner]

@Aaru1801 Where did you see that? I had been working on a v2 of Whisky with an updated Wine so I can probably keep maintaining it.

[Aaru1801]

@Lancelotbronner i saw it on another post
someone posted an image of discord of you saying that i will be maintaining it but i wont update the wine and dont expect me to and dont ask about it either.

[MLnick]

Where did you see that? I had been working on a v2 of Whisky with an updated Wine so I can probably keep maintaining it.

@Lancelotbronner if you fork this project and create an updated maintained branch the community would love you! I've tried Kegworks and it works - but somehow Whisky just seems to be so much simpler and work out the box for a lot of stuff.

If we can get Whisky to be on a Wine version just one less than Crossover (which Whisky originally aimed for and also Kegworks, so as to allow Crossover to be the cutting edge commercial version) - that would be amazing!

[Chipmunks356]

I got the same issue here, I thought it was because of the new macos update.

[pavela82]

The same problem has just appeared. Steam does not start. The child is sitting next to me and crying that he can't play mechwarrior :(( This is a disaster! I've been using this for over a year now and everything worked. What should I do, what is the alternative?

[Chipmunks356]

The same problem has just appeared. Steam does not start. The child is sitting next to me and crying that he can't play mechwarrior :(( This is a disaster! I've been using this for over a year now and everything worked. What should I do, what is the alternative?

I mean there is crossover, you can use the free trial and run some code to keep the trial going forever. It ends every 14 days but it seems like a pain to do it every two weeks.

[pavela82]

The same problem has just appeared. Steam does not start. The child is sitting next to me and crying that he can't play mechwarrior :(( This is a disaster! I've been using this for over a year now and everything worked. What should I do, what is the alternative?

I mean there is crossover, you can use the free trial and run some code to keep the trial going forever. It ends every 14 days but it seems like a pain to do it every two weeks.

Thanks, we'll try. I didn't know there was anything except Whiskey)

[Lancelotbronner]

Where did you see that? I had been working on a v2 of Whisky with an updated Wine so I can probably keep maintaining it.

@Lancelotbronner if you fork this project and create an updated maintained branch the community would love you! I've tried Kegworks and it works - but somehow Whisky just seems to be so much simpler and work out the box for a lot of stuff.

If we can get Whisky to be on a Wine version just one less than Crossover (which Whisky originally aimed for and also Kegworks, so as to allow Crossover to be the cutting edge commercial version) - that would be amazing!

Knowing there's some interest is going to help me with motivation!
I'm currently in Uni so I'll resume work this summer.

[djmati149]

Steam has worked for the past 6 months perfectly. Tried to open today and i get the same issue;

"Steam encountered an unexpected error during startup (0x3008).

Choose one of the following; Restart Steam Restart Steamwebhelper Exit Steam "

None of which worked.

I have attempted to redownload Whisky, I have attempted to re download Steam, Then Re-run/bottle steam.

Has anyone had this before and know how to fix?

Hi, I found a solution to the problem. Just change the bottle configuration from Windows 10 to Windows 8.1. Set MSync and everything should work. The problem I haven't found a solution to is the resolution in the game. Tested on Desperados 3. If Retina mode is not enabled, the Steam window looks normal but the resolution in the game itself reaches a maximum of 1440x900, while after enabling Retina mode, the Steam window has very small letters but the resolution in the game can be set to a larger one, e.g. the one our display/monitor has. Changing the dpi in Whiskey has no effect.

Tested on MacBook Air 13.3'' M1 8/256GB

[adamkingdotnet]

Hi, I found a solution to the problem. Just change the bottle configuration from Windows 10 to Windows 8.1. Set MSync and everything should work.

This worked for me too. Started with a fresh Windows 10 bottle, installed Steam fully, and then switched to Windows 8.1.

M1 MacBook Air, Sequoia 15.4

[maia-s]

Changing it to Windows 8.1 worked for me too. There's a banner on top of Steam that says "Steam will stop running on Windows 8.1 in 0 days" (links to this), but it works fine (for now). I didn't have to make a fresh bottle, changing my existing one with games installed worked. The display settings in some games got reset but configuring them again fixed that.

[JacobSteinebronn]

Changing it to 8.1 worked, for getting steam to run, but the game I've been running (Satisfactory) crashes on startup now. It used to work beforehand :(

[BigJyugo]

Ive changed it to 8.1 and its still saying theres an error :(

[galbarriatito]

Working solution from whiskey discord:

then click on the "config" dropdown and now you will have local and arguments. copy paste this line in argument -forcesteamupdate -forcepackagedownload -overridepackageurl http://web.archive.org/web/20240520if_/media.steampowered.com/client -exitsteam then click run in the bottom right. steam will "update" (it will download the downgraded version) then closes itself automatically.

then you have to go back to your programs and click the gear agasin on steam like in step 1 (because Whisky will still show the program running if you don't do that so you can't run again)

once you're back on the page with the Arguments, delete the whole line and copy paste this instead -noverifyfiles -nobootstrapupdate -skipinitialbootstrap -norepairfiles -overridepackageurl
Now press run again and steam should be working

seen on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/macgaming/comments/1j8g5oy/steam_not_opening_through_whisky/

[Screedy]

I support @galbarriatito answer. Only caveat I got with it is, that it will download quite an old version of steam from 2024, which is not recommended due to security issues. I traced down the last recorded version of steam backed up by Internet Archive and recommend running the first command-line argument like this:
-forcesteamupdate -forcepackagedownload -overridepackageurl http://web.archive.org/web/20250306194830if_/media.steampowered.com/client -exitsteam
It should be from 6. March 2025.

I only tested this on Crossover 24.0.5 but should work on Whisky aswell.

[JoseTech04]

I support @galbarriatito answer. Only caveat I got with it is, that it will download quite an old version of steam from 2024, which is not recommended due to security issues. I traced down the last recorded version of steam backed up by Internet Archive and recommend running the first command-line argument like this: -forcesteamupdate -forcepackagedownload -overridepackageurl http://web.archive.org/web/20250306194830if_/media.steampowered.com/client -exitsteam It should be from 6. March 2025.

I only tested this on Crossover 24.0.5 but should work on Whisky aswell.

Tested on Whisky 2.3.4 and fully working.

[Sumanthhs27]

The same problem has just appeared. Steam does not start. The child is sitting next to me and crying that he can't play mechwarrior :(( This is a disaster! I've been using this for over a year now and everything worked. What should I do, what is the alternative?

I mean there is crossover, you can use the free trial and run some code to keep the trial going forever. It ends every 14 days but it seems like a pain to do it every two weeks.

can you please let use know what code should we run.

[Hax0rgurl]

-noverifyfiles -nobootstrapupdate -skipinitialbootstrap -norepairfiles -overridepackageurl

Brilliant. It worked for me. Life saver!!!

[nikita-fuchs]

For those who don't know where to put this:

-noverifyfiles -nobootstrapupdate -skipinitialbootstrap -norepairfiles -overridepackageurl

In your bottle in whisky, right-click the steam icon -> configurations -> arguments

[Chipmunks356]

The same problem has just appeared. Steam does not start. The child is sitting next to me and crying that he can't play mechwarrior :(( This is a disaster! I've been using this for over a year now and everything worked. What should I do, what is the alternative?

I mean there is crossover, you can use the free trial and run some code to keep the trial going forever. It ends every 14 days but it seems like a pain to do it every two weeks.

can you please let use know what code should we run.

I don't use crossover I just found it while trying to optimise whisky but here's a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6osand95UVY

[vitoqian]

traced

This worked for me

[yl1181]

Steam has worked for the past 6 months perfectly. Tried to open today and i get the same issue;
"Steam encountered an unexpected error during startup (0x3008).
Choose one of the following; Restart Steam Restart Steamwebhelper Exit Steam "
None of which worked.
I have attempted to redownload Whisky, I have attempted to re download Steam, Then Re-run/bottle steam.
Has anyone had this before and know how to fix?

Hi, I found a solution to the problem. Just change the bottle configuration from Windows 10 to Windows 8.1. Set MSync and everything should work. The problem I haven't found a solution to is the resolution in the game. Tested on Desperados 3. If Retina mode is not enabled, the Steam window looks normal but the resolution in the game itself reaches a maximum of 1440x900, while after enabling Retina mode, the Steam window has very small letters but the resolution in the game can be set to a larger one, e.g. the one our display/monitor has. Changing the dpi in Whiskey has no effect.

Tested on MacBook Air 13.3'' M1 8/256GB

this worked for me. I downloaded REPO and everything works except the multiplayer button. is there a fix for this 😅

[fizxxr]

for me any steam game worked by setting only steam to be windows 8.1 in wine configs, then just set the other games to windows 10

[ethanuppal]

https://docs.getwhisky.app/steam.html#steam-encountered-an-unexpected-error-during-startup-0x3008

[nikita-fuchs]

Hey @Lancelotbronner, any chance you could make a fix happen? 🙏

[Lancelotbronner]

During the summer maybe, I'm a University student and drowning in assignments until the end of the semester!

[PabloLazaroPuchalt]

Hi, I solved it (temporarly)

Run your steam with:
-forcesteamupdate -forcepackagedownload -overridepackageurl http://web.archive.org/web/20240520if_/media.steampowered.com/client -exitsteam

It wil downgrade.

And after, run it with:

-noverifyfiles -nobootstrapupdate -skipinitialbootstrap -norepairfiles -overridepackageurl

to block updates.

Originally posted by Joffrey54. Worked for me.

[ethanuppal]

Hi, I solved it (temporarly)

Run your steam with: -forcesteamupdate -forcepackagedownload -overridepackageurl http://web.archive.org/web/20240520if_/media.steampowered.com/client -exitsteam

It wil downgrade.

And after, run it with:

-noverifyfiles -nobootstrapupdate -skipinitialbootstrap -norepairfiles -overridepackageurl

to block updates.

Originally posted by Joffrey54. Worked for me.

You don't need to duplicate https://docs.getwhisky.app/steam.html#steam-encountered-an-unexpected-error-during-startup-0x3008 if that link is already posted...