
Click the Steam option from the menu at the top of the client’s screen and choose Settings. Make sure you follow the steps below to revert the Steam client’s skin to the default. It’s nice having a different skin but it’s better to have a stable and functional Steam installation. Solution 2: Change the Client’s Skin to DefaultĬhanging the client’s default skin was reported to bring issues such as high CPU usage by Steam Client Bootstrapper. Reopen Steam, launch any game on your PC and check to see if the Steam Client Bootstrapper high CPU problem persists! Click the Steam option at the top left part of the Steam client and choose Exit to exit Steam completely (don’t just click the x button at the top right corner).
Uncheck the box next to the Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game option and click the OK button at the bottom of the window in order to apply the changes you have made. In the Settings window make sure you navigate to the In-Game tab and check The Steam Overlay section at the top of the window.
Windows 10 OS users can also search for it using Cortana or the search bar, both of them next to the Start menu at the left part of your taskbar!
Open Steam by double-clicking its entry on the Desktop or by searching for it in the Start menu. It’s a strange problem as this overlay is sometimes quite useful for in-game features but you might want to consider disabling it for the current version of Steam. Users have experienced that the process’ CPU usage increases vastly when running a game and they managed to figure out that the culprit was Steam Overlay. There is something about Steam Overlay which causes high CPU usage by Steam Client Bootstrapper. Even though the problem has since been resolved, the spyware may have remained and it gathers data while causing high CPU usage by Steam Client Bootstrapper. Red Shell spyware – This piece of spyware used to be installed alongside several Steam games. It’s a weird fix but it has worked for plenty of users! Default window set to Store – If your Steam client opens the Store tab by default, consider switching it to Library and see if the CPU usage problem is resolved.
Different skins – Changing the skin of your Steam client can cause the Steam Client Bootstrapper high CPU anomaly so we highly recommend you revert to the original skin!. However, it appears that even Steam itself struggles because of this overlay so make sure you disable it. Steam Overlay – Using Steam Overlay is almost always a risk as many games tend to experience instability when using this overlay alongside.