An all encompassing Steam FAQ thread

[orderoftheflame]

Hopefully this thread will cover some of the reoccurring problems and questions that people seem to have.

I'll continue adding to it and keeping it up to date with new problems that people have, as well as adding ideas or questions that anyone else wants to contribute to it.



General / Tips

Which games can be activated on Steam?

These retail games can be fully activated on your Steam account, gaining all the benefits of automatic updates, unlimited re-downloads etc. that Steam offers. To activate them to your account, click the "Activate a product on Steam" option in the "Games" drop down menu, then follow the on screen popup and enter your CD-Key when prompted.

Additionally, you may add other games to Steam manually by clicking the "Add a game" button and adding the the game from either the list or by browsing to it's folder and selecting it's .exe.
This method does not link the game to your Steam account in any way, however it does enable the in game overlay, allowing you to talk to friends, take screen shots, and browse the web from in game.

How do I move Steam from one PC (or location) to another or back up my games?

The quickest and most hassle free way to achieve this is to just copy and paste your entire Steam folder to it's new location and to then Run the Steam.exe file within it.

Sometimes when doing this, games will state that they are not installed in the list on Steam. If you click to install these games, Steam will instantly "download" them from the files you've already got and the game will be installed again.

Where are screen shots stored?

They're stored in your userdata folder under the ID for a game e.g. "..\Steam\userdata\<User ID>\760\remote\<Game ID>\screenshots"

Quickest way to find the Game ID is to look at it's store URL, it'll mostly be right apart from games that have more than one short cut on Steam.

So as an example....

Steam Store

Steam is the ultimate destination for playing, discussing, and creating games.

store.steampowered.com

440/

..\Steam\userdata\<User ID>\760\remote\440\screenshots

The 760 refers to the game ID of the screen shot utility.

I haven't any friends. Who can I add?

You'll want to take a look at the ****The OcUK Steam Names List**** for that.

How do I install Steam to one drive and move games to another?

There are two popular ways of doing this. One is to use an application to set up links between directories in your Steam folder and other hard drives, and the other is to use mklinks to manually set up directory junctions.

There's plenty of easy to use applications available for this. Two that spring to mind are GameSaveManager and Steam Mover. Personally I use GameSaveManager because of all it's other handy features.

To do this manually you first need to close down Steam, and copy the folder of the game in question to it's desired location.

Once this is done you'll need to open a command prompt and enter the following:

mklink /J "<Original Steam Folder>" "<New Destination Folder>"

So as an example, for Left 4 Dead you'd enter something like:

mklink /J "D:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\left 4 dead" "E:\Games\left 4 dead"

Once this is done, Steam will just think that the game hasn't moved at all and can be relaunched.

Free games?

There are quite a few games that are available for free on Steam, but many of them have been removed from the Store and require direct links to install.

Somebody on the Steam forums has compiled a handy list of them.

In addition to this, several "Free-to-play" MMO games are now available on Steam, details of which can be found in this FAQ.

Steam pricing and sales

Valve do not have the final say on the pricing of games, that decision lies ultimately with the Publisher/Developer.

Despite the slightly higher than retail regular prices, Steam often has some extremely good sales throughout the year, usually coinciding with big holidays such as Easter/Summer/Thanksgiving/Chrimbo.

In addition, Steam also has at least one mid-week and weekend deal on a regular basis that can offer some bargains.

Can I use Steam on more than one machine?

You can login to your Steam account on any number of machines you like, however you can not be connected to online mode on more than one machine concurrently. Logging into Steam while logged into another will require you to logout of the old machine first.

You can set as many machines as you like work in offline mode concurrently, where you should be able to use any games that you have installed, but will be unable to download games or updates, talk to friends or use any other Steam Community features.

How do I use Steam on my PS3?

Coming soon. Until then, the Steam FAQ on the subject should answer the question.

How do I cancel a pre-order?

Create an account on the Steam Support website (this is a separate login to your Steam or Steam forum accounts).

Raise a new question with a category of "Purchases and Payment" and a sub-category of "Pre-order", and fill in the remaining details.

Ensure that you put the correct account name where prompted, this is your login name, not the name that appears in your friends list. If you're unsure, it's displayed in the top right corner of the client as "<Account Name>'s Account".

For the body of the question just type something polite and to the point. e.g:

Would it be possible for me to cancel my pre-order of Half-Life 3.

I'm happy to have the money refunded to either the card used in the purchase or my Steam wallet.

Thanks.

You should get a reply from a Steam tech support within a day or two, to confirm you want to cancel, and to ask where you want your refund.

Note: If you purchased other games at the same time as your pre-order, you have to get the entire transaction refunded. You will loose access to all of those games, and will have to repurchase the game again as new.

Security

What is verification and why should I bother?

By verifying your contact email with Steam you're requiring that Steam confirms with you any changes to your password, contact email or secret question. Doing this makes it very hard for you to loose entire control of your account to an unscrupulous person. This is something that you should 100% look at doing to ensure the security of your account.

To do this:

Select the "Steam" drop down > Settings > Account

and check that your contact email is correct and that you have access to it. Then:

Click "Verify Email Address.."

Follow the instructions in the pop up window, and you'll receive an email from Steam with a link. Upon clicking opening the link, your account will be verified. You'll now receive an email asking you to confirm any changes to your account settings. Meaning that if someone does happen to work out your Steam password, only you should be able to change it.

Valve are also adding a new package of security features in addition to this in the coming months.

What is Steam Guard and why should I bother?

Steam is an additional layer of protection available in addition to email verification. When Steam guard is enabled, an attempt to log into your account from an unknown computer will be blocked until permission is given by you to allow that computer access.

Upon logging in on a new machine, an email will be sent to your verified email address with a code to enter on the new machine that will authorize it to log into your account.
In addition to logging into the Steam client, logging into the Steam website will also require validation for a new browser.

This effectively means that even with your account name and password, nobody will be able to log in to your account without your permission. Like email verification, this should be seen as an important service to use in order to ensure the security of your Steam account.

Steam Guard will be on by default for people with verified email addresses. You can opt out of the service by selecting "Manage Steam Guard account security" from the "Settings > Account page.

The latest up to date instructions for enabling Steam Guard along with more information can be found in this FAQ.

Common Problems and Fixes

Steam is stuck on updating.

As an early resort that fixes many problems that you may run into:

Cancel Steam from updating, navigate to your Steam folder and delete the "ClientRegistry.blob", then relaunch Steam.

XYZ Game won't launch.

Due to all the different games available on Steam, there's no real way of telling the problem and giving a simple answer to this.

However... One of the first things you can try is verifying the games cache. This will check to see if any of the downloaded files for the game have been damaged or are missing.

To do this:

Right click on the game > Select "Properties" > Select "Local Files" > Click "Verify Integrity of Game Cache..."

Steam will then scan the game's files, and re download any files that it finds problems with.

Other than this, it's worth checking the Steam forum for the game you're having trouble with to see if anybody there shares the same issue. You can get there quickly by right clicking on the game in Steam and selecting "View Forum"

Steam stops downloading when I launch a game

This is to prevent your download from affecting your connection during multiplayer games. However, it's not something you always want to happen.

To re-enable downloading and continue playing a game on Steam. After launching the game, you must Alt-Tab out, and navigate to the "Downloads" page on Steam. Then you should click twice on the "Stop All" button (once to stop, the second to resume). You can now tab back into your games, and download whilst you play.

The Steam Store isn't displaying correctly

The first advisable thing to try is clearing the client browser cache.

To do this, navigate to:

\Steam\config\htmlcache

And delete it's contents.

The Steam Store isn't displaying in pounds

Click here.

The Steam Overlay is causing issues for XYZ game.

Some games don't work too well with the Steam overlay and can have problems associated with it.

The overlay can be disabled on a per-game basis:

Right click on the game > Select "Properties" > Select "General" > And un-tick Enable Steam Community In-Game""

Games I've bought don't appear in my library

The Steam library has several filters that can be applied to make your list of games more manageable.

Make sure that the search bar at the top of the library page is clear, and the drop down list is set to "All Games".

If the games still don't appear, try restarting Steam to refresh your library.

Steamworks games won't install from disc

Often users can have issues where steam will want to download a game in it's entirety rather than using the files already available on the retail disc.

You can force Steam to install from the disc with the following steps:

• Find the game in your Steam Library and "Delete local content" for it.
• Quit Steam completely (ensure it isn't still hiding in the system tray).
• Bring up the Window's run menu (WinKey + R).
• Insert the game disc into your DVD drive.
• Type (including quotes):

"C:\Program Files\Steam\Steam.exe" -install E:

You'll need to replace the path to Steam with your own if you've moved it, as well as the letter of your DVD drive if it's not E.

As an example, someone like me that seems to mess with everything might have:

"D:\Games\Steam\Steam.exe" -install G:

• Click "OK" and Steam will launch (prompting you to login if you don't save your password) and the installation from disk will begin.

Beta clients

Beta clients

Quite often, Valve will release beta versions of the Steam client for anyone to try. As they're beta clients they may be less stable, but may give you an opportunity to try out new features before they're released.

Not all betas will have significant updates, and often some will have no visible changes to functionality.

To enable a beta client if one is available:

Select the "Steam" dropdown > "Settings" > "Account" tab > Under "Beta participation" select "Change..." > select the beta you wish to participate in > Click "OK" > Click "Restart Steam" when prompted.

The "Report a bug" link under the "Beta participation" section, will take you to an appropriate thread on the Steam forums where feedback can be given on the beta.

No betas currently running.

Signatures

Thread link

I have had quite a few questions about my signature. If you would like a similar one, go to:

http://steamsignature.com/

Just follow the instructions on the website, it is very simple.

I personally really like them because:
- they fit the OcUK sig rules
- show your current Steam status
- now have an add friend button so we can all connect easier!

After you have copied the generated link into your sig on OcUK, make sure you change the URL so that it links to your Steam profile and not steamsignature.com

http://steamprofile.com/
http://www.steamsigs.com/
http://steamcard.com/

 

[ps3ud0]

GWF - Id also add about email verification to make it harder for your account to be hacked. Might be worth stickying since it is the favoured digital distribution platform on OcUK..

ps3ud0

 

[orderoftheflame]

GWF - Id also add about email verification to make it harder for your account to be hacked. Might be worth stickying since it is the favoured digital distribution platform on OcUK..

ps3ud0

Good idea. Have added a bit on verification.

 

[bledd]

+1 for sticky

Verification is real important

 

[Evilsod]

+2 for sticky. You forgot to add that the steam overlay can cause problems.

/epicfail(onmypart)

 

[CaptainRAVE]

+3 for sticky - could be useful to many.

 

[orderoftheflame]

Cheers guys. Would be great to get it stickied.

 

[uv]

well played, it's about time all this info was in one thread

 

[Evilsod]

Now we've just got to hope they read it

 

[Antar Bolaeisk]

Great thread, we should probably give it a couple of stars to make it more noticeable as sometimes people can't see the stickies hiding way up here in a semi fixed position above all

 

[Gimpymoo]

Please can you add this:

Pricing

Valve do not have the final say on pricing, that decision lies ultimately with the Publisher/Developer.

Valve may recommend a price, although they do not have the final say.

 

[orderoftheflame]

Please can you add this:

I've added it. Good idea, there seems to be plenty of confusion about it in recent threads.

 

[orderoftheflame]

I've added a section on Steam Guard as well now, as I can see it catching a lot of people out when it actually goes live.

 

[FNGsam]

Ooh nice sticky.

Very handy having all the info in one place.

 

[Evilsod]

Ooh nice sticky.

Very handy having all the info in one place.

Shame no one seems to have read it given the 2 latest threads atm

 

[orderoftheflame]

Shame no one seems to have read it given the 2 latest threads atm

Maybe I should have gone all out with ***************** in the title...

 

[mikeyholt]

It's also a million times better than Games For Windows Live...

 

[Bennie-Mac]

I was just about to post idiotic questions of my own then i saw this thread, cheers

 

[Bennie-Mac]

Quick question, im in the process of downloading Half Life 2 (first purchase) and i left it download, however a couple of times i came back to check on it and it says "SUSPENDED" meaning i have to pause then resume the download. Is this normal behaviour for steam? I dont want to have to watch my downloads like a hawk in future..

 

[ps3ud0]

Perhaps your PC went to sleep/power saving and cut the internet connection? Not sure how Steam works regards to background downloading either (does it stop when it recognises other 'higher priority' bandwidth usage)...

ps3ud0