I am pretty sure my system is indeed 64-bit. Something in my system apparently is interrupting with Steam or something... I even tried using the Regedit method but that didn't take either...
Here's the log to illustrate how Steam has been behaving lately:
[2014-08-15 15

01] Startup - updater built Feb 10 2014 21:36:58
[2014-08-15 15

01] Verifying installation...
[2014-08-15 15
01] Unable to read and verify install manifest C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\package\steam_client_win32.installed
[2014-08-15 15

01] Verification complete
[2014-08-15 15

01] Downloading Update...
[2014-08-15 15

01] Checking for available update...
[2014-08-15 15

03] Download failed: http error 0
[2014-08-15 15

04] Download failed: http error 0
[2014-08-15 15

04] failed to load manifest from buffer.
[2014-08-15 15

04] Failed to load manifest
[2014-08-15 15

04] Error: Download failed: http error 0
[2014-08-15 15

04] Error: Steam needs to be online to update. Please confirm your network connection and try again.
[2014-08-15 15

05] Shutdown
It appears to be trying to run for Windows 32-bit I think. Maybe this is normal, and perhaps Steam doesn't have permission to read your files because it says it failed to. Try running Steam as Administrator.