# How to disable auto-SteamVR launch on UE4 launch? fixed! **URL:** \ **Category:** XR Development\ **Tags:** SteamVR, unreal-engine, question\ **Created:** [May 19, 2018, 3:07pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-to-disable-auto-steamvr-launch-on-ue4-launch-fixed/425480 "2018-05-19T15:07:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MomoSmith](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/momosmith/32/914598_2.png) [@MomoSmith](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/MomoSmith)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2018, 3:07pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-to-disable-auto-steamvr-launch-on-ue4-launch-fixed/425480/1 "2018-05-19T15:07:50Z")
hello every one if you are not making a vr game and never will with unreal then got in to the files and plugins then find runtime and then find steam go in there and you will find steam vr delete it. it will never open the steamvr again. ---
**Author:** ![mcleary](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/mcleary/32/924204_2.png) [@mcleary](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/mcleary)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 2:57pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-to-disable-auto-steamvr-launch-on-ue4-launch-fixed/425480/2 "2018-05-24T14:57:13Z")
Or you could go to **Edit → Plugins → Virtual Reality → Steam VR** and untick **Enabled**. With this, you can keep all engine files. ---
**Author:** ![mikochu](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@mikochu](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/mikochu)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 12:43pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-to-disable-auto-steamvr-launch-on-ue4-launch-fixed/425480/3 "2018-05-25T12:43:38Z")
Thanks for the heads up! Do you also have an issue where the headset doesn’t initialize correctly when you click VR Preview? I have to run it a couple of times to get headtracking on a WMR headset. However, doesn’t happen with my Oculus headset. ---
**Author:** ![mcleary](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/mcleary/32/924204_2.png) [@mcleary](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/mcleary)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 3:05pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-to-disable-auto-steamvr-launch-on-ue4-launch-fixed/425480/4 "2018-05-25T15:05:16Z")
This happened to me a couple of times but not as frequent as you are saying, in my case, I think it is the headset going into idle mode. ---
**Author:** ![CocoFresco](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@CocoFresco](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/CocoFresco)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2018, 3:16pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-to-disable-auto-steamvr-launch-on-ue4-launch-fixed/425480/5 "2018-07-29T15:16:50Z")
The problem is that the vr apks start to launch before I can select any project. I would wish to have an option that allows the vr apks to start only if launching an vr project. I hope that’s possible somehow ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Biomech](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Darth\_Biomech](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Darth_Biomech)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 12:01am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-to-disable-auto-steamvr-launch-on-ue4-launch-fixed/425480/6 "2019-03-05T00:01:44Z")
The other option is to go inside that folder, open up “SteamVR.uplugin” file with notepad and set “EnabledByDefault” to false. Edit: Also set the file to read only, since I found that it can be reset for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![Bennykill709](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Bennykill709](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Bennykill709)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 1:08am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-to-disable-auto-steamvr-launch-on-ue4-launch-fixed/425480/7 "2019-06-21T01:08:16Z")
Thank You!!! I’ve been looking for a solution to this for months, and most people state that you can go into the plugins within Unreal Engine and disable Steam/Oculus VR, but this does not work as the SteamVR compositor starts up BEFORE loading Unreal Engine, and furthermore, it only saves that setting on the specific project you are working on. To clear up what OP was saying, you need to go to UE’s install directory in File Browser. Mine was listed here: C://Program Files/Epic Games/UE\_4.22/Plugins/Runtime/Steam/ I deleted the entire Steam VR folder within and the issue has been resolved! Unfortunately, if I do decide to work in VR in the future (and I will), I’m going to have to do more research to find out how to re-add that directory without breaking my UE install, or just re-install UE in it’s entirety. Epic, if you are viewing this, there’s gotta be a better way to disable SteamVR from running when opening UE. I don’t want to leave my computer alone for a couple days to find my Vive displays burned out because I didn’t notice the compiler was running. That thing was expensive. ---
**Author:** ![MomoSmith](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/momosmith/32/914598_2.png) [@MomoSmith](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/MomoSmith)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 2:48am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-to-disable-auto-steamvr-launch-on-ue4-launch-fixed/425480/8 "2019-06-21T02:48:58Z")
you can just get the plugin back for the new versions of unreal ---
**Author:** ![Echu](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Echu](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Echu)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2020, 4:49pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-to-disable-auto-steamvr-launch-on-ue4-launch-fixed/425480/9 "2020-09-15T16:49:11Z")
This is the perfect solution. None of the above made it disappear but this one C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE\_4.25\Engine\Plugins\Runtime\Steam\SteamVR\SteamVR.uplugin ---
**Author:** ![Woah](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Woah](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Woah)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 8:46pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-to-disable-auto-steamvr-launch-on-ue4-launch-fixed/425480/10 "2020-09-23T20:46:30Z")
Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![DarkStarSword](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@DarkStarSword](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/DarkStarSword)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2020, 10:30pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-to-disable-auto-steamvr-launch-on-ue4-launch-fixed/425480/11 "2020-11-15T22:30:57Z")
End users can use this command line parameter to prevent SteamVR/Oculus/etc from kicking in when launching UE4 titles that forgot to disable the plugins: > -nohmd ---
**Author:** ![jcstranger](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@jcstranger](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/jcstranger)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2021, 1:25pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-to-disable-auto-steamvr-launch-on-ue4-launch-fixed/425480/12 "2021-06-09T13:25:08Z")
This works, thanks! ---
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_b34785ab](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_b34785ab](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_b34785ab)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2021, 1:48am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-to-disable-auto-steamvr-launch-on-ue4-launch-fixed/425480/13 "2021-06-17T01:48:13Z")
It does work! And Unreal loads so much faster now. To make it easy to add VR back in, just rename the file SteamVR.uplugin to SteamVR.uplugin.BAK or something like that. If you ever need the VR plugin, just rename it back to the original name. ---
**Author:** ![weiz\_vr](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/weiz_vr/32/551945_2.png) [@weiz\_vr](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/weiz_vr)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2021, 7:12pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-to-disable-auto-steamvr-launch-on-ue4-launch-fixed/425480/14 "2021-09-08T19:12:35Z")
For anyone wondering, this works in UE5 just fine _(as expected, but you never know)._ Happy that it is loading faster since isn’t loading SteamVR each time. More so I’m glad that my hardware is getting powered on and idling all the time unless I intervene… these HMDs aren’t cheap, and I’d rather keep the usage down whenever possible. Thanks for the info! ---
**Author:** ![dogbandit2lukem1](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@dogbandit2lukem1](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/dogbandit2lukem1)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2022, 2:08am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-to-disable-auto-steamvr-launch-on-ue4-launch-fixed/425480/15 "2022-10-20T02:08:57Z")
This one worked a treat, I plan to develop in VR for my career so deleting it wasn’t an option for me. But this simple setting made it not launch when UE 4.27.2 starts. Now if I want it in my VR projects I can just enable it as and when I want rather than having it forced on me. ---
**Author:** ![Xaeveax](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/xaeveax/32/680189_2.png) [@Xaeveax](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Xaeveax)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2022, 10:47pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-to-disable-auto-steamvr-launch-on-ue4-launch-fixed/425480/16 "2022-10-23T22:47:58Z")
I use Steam VR for work every day, but when doing my own personal development it became very frustrating to have to constantly close it every time I opened up the launcher. The previously mentioned trick of editing the file in _“C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE\_4.25\Engine\Plugins\Runtime\Steam\SteamVR\SteamVR.uplugin”_ worked perfectly. Setting enabled by default to false fixed it instantly for me. ---
**Author:** ![FouGui](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@FouGui](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/FouGui)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2025, 9:12pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-to-disable-auto-steamvr-launch-on-ue4-launch-fixed/425480/17 "2025-11-07T21:12:40Z")
This is what worked for us since disabling the SteamVR setting manually in the engine prevented us from packaging the game. Thanks!