*resolved, ignore*

[J-H]

Update: My internet filter, which I hadn't even run the updater for, was the problem for some reason. Downgraded to old version. Factorio beta was a coincidence.

I have two PCs. The last thing I recall doing on Steam on either one of them was opting in to the 0.17.2 beta. I got busy with work and didn't get to try to play anything for a couple of days.

Now Steam will not successfully load on either one. It runs the Steam auto-updater, it logs me in, and then it immediately vanishes. I don't typically get to see the main Steam window at all, although I have somehow gotten it once or twice by manually clicking on game executables directly - but it only stays up for a second or so before crashing.

I have rebooted, I have run Windows update, I have updated my Internet filter, I have tried disconnecting from the internet to log in offline, I have ensured that no other programs are running, I've reinstalled Steam, and I've tried everything else I could find on Google.

So - how do I, from outside of Steam, tell it to roll back to 0.17? This was the last thing that got changed before Steam started failing, so I believe at this point that it's a likely candidate somehow.

One thing that I find odd is that when I go to Steam\Steamapps\common\ , the Factorio files appear to generally have not been modified since 2018 (\common\Factorio\bin\x64\factorio.exe has not been modified since 6/18/2018).

Here are some crash logs, selected from my last few attempts to run Steam.

appinfo_log

[2019-03-02 08:59:32] Apps changed:
[2019-03-02 08:59:32] Change number 5895374->5895375, apps: 0/1, packages: 0/0
[2019-03-02 08:59:32] Requesting 273 apps, 0 packages (meta data, 1024 prev attempts)
[2019-03-02 08:59:32] Requested 59 access tokens, 52 received, 7 denied
[2019-03-02 08:59:33] Updated SHAs with 52 new access tokens
[2019-03-02 08:59:33] Downloaded 13 apps via HTTP, 552 KB (116 KB compressed)
[2019-03-02 08:59:33] Requesting 260 apps, 0 packages (full data, 1024 prev attempts)
[2019-03-02 08:59:34] UpdatesJob: finished OK, nAppsUpdated 273 (1060 KB), nPackagesUpdated 0 (0 KB)
[2019-03-02 08:59:35] Requesting 4 apps, 0 packages (meta data, 0 prev attempts)

bootstrap_log

[2019-03-02 08:59:27] Startup - updater built Feb 18 2019 14:12:20
[2019-03-02 08:59:27] Checking for update on startup
[2019-03-02 08:59:27] Checking for available update...
[2019-03-02 08:59:27] Downloading manifest: client-download.steampowered.com/client/steam_client_win32
[2019-03-02 08:59:27] Download skipped: /client/steam_client_win32 version 1550534751, installed version 1550534751
[2019-03-02 08:59:27] Nothing to do
[2019-03-02 08:59:27] Verifying installation...
[2019-03-02 08:59:27] Performing checksum verification of executable files
[2019-03-02 08:59:28] Verification complete
[2019-03-02 08:59:31] Background update loop checking for update. . .
[2019-03-02 08:59:31] Checking for available update...
[2019-03-02 08:59:31] Downloading manifest: client-download.steampowered.com/client/steam_client_win32
[2019-03-02 08:59:31] Download skipped by HTTP 304 Not Modified
[2019-03-02 08:59:31] Nothing to do

configstore_log

[2019-03-02 08:59:30] Loaded store 'install' from 'C:\Steam\config\config.vdf' successfully
[2019-03-02 08:59:30] Loaded store 'install' from 'C:\Steam\config\config.vdf' successfully
[2019-03-02 08:59:30] Loaded store 'userlocal' from 'C:\Steam\userdata\33110643\config\localconfig.vdf' successfully
[2019-03-02 08:59:31] Roaming config - failed to load write-aside store from 'C:\Steam\userdata\33110643\config\sharedconfig.vdf'
[2019-03-02 08:59:31] Roaming config - read via RemoteStorage().FileRead
[2019-03-02 08:59:31] Roaming config - integrating write-aside store into cloud store
[2019-03-02 08:59:32] Flushed store 'install' to 'C:\Steam\config\config.vdf'
[2019-03-02 08:59:33] Flushed store 'userlocal' to 'C:\Steam\userdata\33110643\config\localconfig.vdf'

appinfo_log

[2019-03-02 08:59:32] Apps changed:
[2019-03-02 08:59:32] Change number 5895374->5895375, apps: 0/1, packages: 0/0
[2019-03-02 08:59:32] Requesting 273 apps, 0 packages (meta data, 1024 prev attempts)
[2019-03-02 08:59:32] Requested 59 access tokens, 52 received, 7 denied
[2019-03-02 08:59:33] Updated SHAs with 52 new access tokens
[2019-03-02 08:59:33] Downloaded 13 apps via HTTP, 552 KB (116 KB compressed)
[2019-03-02 08:59:33] Requesting 260 apps, 0 packages (full data, 1024 prev attempts)
[2019-03-02 08:59:34] UpdatesJob: finished OK, nAppsUpdated 273 (1060 KB), nPackagesUpdated 0 (0 KB)
[2019-03-02 08:59:35] Requesting 4 apps, 0 packages (meta data, 0 prev attempts)

[J-H]

Minor update: Searching my HDD for factorio.exe found a file in the "downloading" Steam subfolder, along with a pdb. I am guessing that a download may have failed?

[J-H]

Further update: I deleted a bunch of folders modified 2/27 and later, and reinstalled Steam.
It started successfully, but showed Factorio as not installed.

Within a couple of seconds of hitting "Install" for Factorio, Steam crashed.
When I start it back up, I get the library for about a half second, with some kind of error that it's coming up empty...then it crashes.