Fix steam protocol problems in Windows Vista

Many people face this problem “steam://purchase/38 is not a recognized protocol” when they try to purchase anything from the steam store. But Farid brought a fix for the same problem. Here is how you can fix the steam protocol problems in Windows Vista.

The problem lies within Vista’s registry security settings. I am writing this from memory (I don’t have Vista myself). Here’s how to fix it:

1. Using Vista’s start menu, type “regedit” in the run field to start the registry editor.

2. Browse to the “HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\steam” key. If you are having the problem you will notice that you aren’t able to view the key content

3. Right click on the “steam” key and click on “permissions…”.

4. You will notice that no user is listed under “Allowed users”. Add the following users/group and give them full access: Administrators (group), System (user) and your own user name.

5. If you press Ok, it may complain that you are not the owner and aren’t allowed to do this. In this case simply click on Advanced and add the above users as owners and try step 4 again. I only added System as owner and that did it. (You may need to close the permissions window and reopen after assigning owners)

6. That’s it! You now should be able to see the content of the key but it may be empty. In this case re-install steam and you should be good to go.