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If the Steam overlay gets in the way of your gaming or if it makes your computer run slow, you can easily turn it off. You can turn off the Steam overlay for all games at once or for specific games. Here's how to disable the Steam overlay using your Windows or Mac computer.
Steps
Disabling Steam Overlay for All Games
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Launch Steam and click Steam in the top menu. This will open a drop-down menu.[1]
- If the Steam overlay pops up at inconvenient times during your gameplay, you can easily disable it for all your games. This may also help if you're having any performance issues while playing.
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Click Settings. A new window will open.Advertisement
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Click In Game. You can find this in the left panel, between Cloud and Accessibility.
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Toggle off "Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game". The switch will turn grey (off). This will prevent the Steam overlay from opening in all games you play. If you want to disable the Steam overlay for specific games, see the next section to do so.
- If you don't want to turn it off entirely, you can change the keybinds by clicking the Overlay shortcut key(s) box and entering a new shortcut.
Disabling Steam Overlay for One Game
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Launch Steam and click Library. This will open a list of all your games.
- Use this method to turn off the Steam overlay for a specific game rather than every game.
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Find and click a game. You can scroll through your recent games or find it in the list on the left. You'll be taken to the game's page.
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Click the cog icon and select Properties. The cog icon can be found in the top-right, underneath the game's header. A new window will open.
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Toggle off "Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game". The switch will turn grey (off). This will prevent the Steam overlay from opening in this specific game.
- If you need to disable the Steam overlay in other games, repeat these steps for those games.








