Sharing Steam folder between XP and Vista?

Borden · 3 Jan 2008 at 14:13

Hi guys,

I'm about to get Vista and will be dual booting with XP. Do you know if i can share the steam installation folder between both XP and Vista? I don't really want to have a 40GB folder duplicated.

If you can, is it just a case of installing steam from within Vista to the same directory and letting it detect the games?

Cheers

Skeeter · 3 Jan 2008 at 14:35

Yep, ive done it

just install steam in the same directory and it will pick up all your files. I do this with all my games, and all my document folders.

Borden · 3 Jan 2008 at 14:37

Excellent, cheers.

Just need to wait for Vista to arrive through the post now.

Ice Rich · 3 Jan 2008 at 14:48

I have all my games installed on a separate hard drive which alwasys works find EXCEPT when I reformat windows, then the only game that works is STEAM. I get error messages on other games when i click the .exe in other games and have to reinstall them.

Borden · 3 Jan 2008 at 15:10

I think other games have a load of registry entries that are lost when you reinstall, obviously steam doesnt have any which it relies on to run the games.

Skeeter · 3 Jan 2008 at 15:17

Correct. I have a seperate drive for all my games The files remain after an instal, but all the reg setting etc that are needed for windows to know that the game exists needs to be put back, so I need to reinstall games over the top of there current location. Major advantage is that it keeps all my saves in tact.

This isnt strickly true for all games though, only those that require registry etc, as Steam works fine, and so does EVE online.

steve258 · 3 Jan 2008 at 16:53

Don't even need to install steam again in vista, just go directly to the steam directory and run steam.exe, it will install a few services in order to run in vista but that's it as far as installation goes. Create a shortcut on desktop and you're away.