Steam is a great platform for any avid gamer, but can be a bit confusing to someone new. Here’s some essential Steam tricks for anyone new to the Steam marketplace!
Steam is quite possibly the authority when it comes to online gaming marketplaces. It is super useful for finding quality games through its useful search engine paired with its vast library of available games. However, some of the more minute aspects to Steam can be confusing for new users. Most of these fall into the category of the social aspect to Steam like profiles, usernames, etc. Some of the more core mechanics of Steam can even be confusing, especially for those who are not tech savvy. To help those people out, here is a list of Steam tips revolving around these three categories:
One of the worst feelings a gamer can experience is having an awesome moment occur in-game, but playing alone so no friends get to see it. Thankfully, there is an easy workaround to this for those who prefer to rock solo, yet still share their superb gameplay with Discord buddies: the screenshot! Screenshotting for Steam games is a relatively simple process but can be somewhat confusing for those who have never done it before. To help those people out, here are some helpful tips for screenshotting including:
Steam makes it super easy for the user to capture a snippet of their gameplay whilst utilizing Steam. Simply press F12 while playing any game through the Steam client to instantly capture a screenshot of the current gameplay. Just to note, if you have changed your default screenshot button to something else, then F12 will not work. To view what you have it binded to, go to Steam -> Settings -> In-Game. On this page there is a Screenshot Shortcut Keys section you can change or view your screenshot button with. While we are here, ensure that you have Steam Overlay enabled for the screenshotting process to work!
After you have taken some screenshots, I am sure you will want to know where to find them! The easiest way to locate your screenshot folder is to follow the same process as the last step to get to the In-Game settings. Within this tab, simply click on the Screenshot Folder button and your screenshot folder will automatically open up. You can also press Shift + Tab while in game to pull up the overlay. From there, look towards the bottom left for a button titled Screenshots.
Alternatively, you can simply press the View tab while on the Steam homepage. Find the Screenshot button and click on it to find all of your screenshots. This is a great alternative for those who do not like utilizing Steam’s in-game overlay as it can be a bit annoying at times.
This process will be the same for Mac and Windows users. To find your screenshot directory, simply open up the Screenshot Folder through the process above and note down where your folder is located within your files!
One great alternative to the Steam screenshot button is to simply utilize Windows’ built in screenshot function. Simply press Windows Key + PrtScn to automatically save the screenshot to your clipboard. This is useful for those who just want to quickly share a snippet of gameplay with some buddies, but do not want to actually save it to their computer and take up space.
The Snip & Sketch tool (Windows Key + Shift + S) allows you to drag your mouse over what areas you want included on the screenshot, rather than your entire screen. This is useful for those who only want to capture a smaller window of the screen rather than the entire screen.
Mac users can utilize Command + Shift + 3 and Command + Shift + 4 for each of these tools, respectively.
As you can see, the process of screenshotting through Steam is super simple. Locating the folder may be the only somewhat tricky part, but hopefully this guide got you sorted out. All that is left to do now is go get some epic in-game highlights to put your new screenshotting skills to good use!
Before we get into changing your Steam username, we should clarify a few different details revolving around account names within Steam. Whenever you initially make your Steam account, you are asked to create a Steam Account Name. This value can not be changed, even by a Steam support team member. This means that your account name when logging in will always be the same, even if you change your username. This means you should be one hundred percent sure of the Steam Account Name you create as it can never be changed without making a completely new account.
Your Steam username, however, can be changed quite easily through the Steam client. Simply click on your Username in the top right of the screen. In the drop down box, click on View Profile followed by Edit Profile. After that, just type whatever you would like to change your username to in the Profile Name box. Once you are happy with your changes, click on the Save Changes button at the bottom. Congratulations! Your Steam username should be changed now.
The simple answer to that is everyone! Your Steam profile name is always visible to other Steam users, even if you make your profile private. A private profile will hide just about everything except for your set username and profile picture. If you would like to learn how to make your Steam profile private, check out this article for more specific tips & tricks for Steam users. (LINK HERE AFTER I MAKE THIS ARTICLE)
As you can see, the process of changing your Steam username is not that difficult. After just a few clicks you can have a brand new Steam username set as whatever you would like. It can even be a repeat of someone else’s name as your Steam ID will distinguish between the both of you. All that is left to do now is to get brainstorming on what your awesome new Steam username will be!
Giving Steam a forced restart can be useful in a ton of different situations. Oftentimes, downloads will get stuck at a certain percentage (as with just about every download on the internet) and the first troubleshooting method you should try is to give Steam a restart. Another common situation you may encounter is that your game will crash and, after exiting the game, Steam will not allow you to click the play button to relaunch as it thinks that the game is still open. Once again, the easiest method to address that situation is by restarting Steam.
To restart Steam, you have a couple different methods. The easiest method revolves around just exiting Steam. Click on Steam in the top left. In the drop down box, click on the Exit button to completely exit Steam. After that you can just re-launch Steam and that will work as a restart! Similarly, Windows’ users can right click on the small Steam icon in the hidden icons tab at the bottom right and then click exit. This method works just as well and can be useful if the client itself is acting buggy.
A more forceful method to restarting Steam, useful in the case of complete freezes, is to force close it through the task manager. To do this, press Control + Shift + Esc (Cmd + Alt + Esc for Mac users) to open up your task manager or activity monitor (Mac). Find the process titled Steam Client Bootstrapper and right click on it. Click End Process or End Task to force close the application. After that, you can re-launch Steam as normal and it should be working as intended!
There may come a time when you need to uninstall Steam for a variety of different reasons. Perhaps you need to free up some space on your hard drive for more pertinent applications. Maybe you need to give your computing device to someone else, or sell it, and you need to remove all of the applications without going through the annoying process of factory resetting your computer. No matter what the cause is, uninstalling Steam is a simple process that anyone can do. Before we get to that, let’s go over how to back up your games in case you do not want to wait to re-download them if you decided to re-install Steam
To back up your games, find your steamapps folder and move it out of the main Steam folder (Desktop would work fine). To find the folder, it is usually located in C:\Program Files\Steam. An alternative to this can be done through the Steam client. To do this, click on Steam in the top left and then Backup and Restore Games in the drop down menu. After that, simply check Backup Games and then choose a destination for the games to be saved to. Once you have that done, you should be all set to uninstall Steam.
For Windows users, click on the search bar in the bottom left. Type in Add or Remove Programs and click on it. In the list, type in Steam and then click on it. Click Uninstall and follow and pop-ups Windows provides to uninstall. After that, your computer should be completely free of the Steam application!
For Mac users, the process is as simple as finding Steam in your applications and dragging it to the trash. After that, open Finder and click to Hard Drive\Users\(Your Mac username)\Library\Application Support. Drag the Steam folder on that list to the trash and then you have completed the process of removing Steam from your Mac device!
With so many new users on Steam every month, these tips are bound to be of some use for a new Steam user out there! Whether you needed help with screenshots, usernames, or uninstalling and restarting Steam, this article had it covered including support for both Mac and Windows. Armed with these useful tips, now you can confidently use Steam at a more advanced level and get the most out of your Steam experience!
Image courtesy of eurogamer.net
