Steam stuck in the updating steam information

Hi,

Here's a quick and easy fix if you get stuck in the "updating steam information" prompt after launching the Steam client.
Don't bother to uninstall the client (be it partial uninstall or full) it ain't gonna work. At least it didn't work on my side :)

I'm using Win 7, so the instructions below will be for Windows 7, but that should not be a problem if you are using a different Windows OS.
Step 1
Go to Control Panel -> Windows Firewall and choose the "Allow a program or feature through Windows Firewall" option (left side navigation menu of the Win Firewall window).
Step 2
In this window look for the "Steam" or "Steam Client Bootstrapper" entry and remove it.
To remove it you need to click the "Change settings" button in the same window, highlight the Steam entry and then click the "Remove" button. For more information please see the image below.

Step 3
At this point you'll need to add the Steam client executable again in the Allowed Programs list.
To do this you'll need to click the "Allow another program..." button (see image above - 4) and then "Browse" to the location where you have installed the Steam client and add the "Steam.exe" in the list.
Step 4
Launch the Steam client and enjoy your games :P

Side note
This solution also solves another problem of Steam client that it is unable to download any game from the store.

Hope this solves your problem quickly and you didn't had to dig the entire internet to find this solution.

Stay well!
CJ