multiple steam and windows users

[CU]

On my Win 10 computer I have two windows user accounts. One for me and one for my son. We both also have steam accounts. How can I get steam to auto start and login using the correct steam user based on the windows user. Right now steam just uses the user that last used steam. I find it hard to believe steam cannot handle this, but I cannot find a way to do it. I would like to be able to go to any of my Win 10 machines and login and have steam login as the correct user.

 

[bystander36]

I've not done this, but you might try installing Steam for each account separately. Some programs give you the option of whether the program is installed for all users for individual users.

 

[CU]

I don't remember steam giving me that option when I installed it a few days ago.

 

[bystander36]

I wish I had the perfect solution, but I do have a work around.

You can make it so Steam does not automatically open on boot up. Then create a "SteamLogin.Bat" file. Then add this script to the file:

@echo off
cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam"
Steam -login Username Password
exit

Change Username and Password for each person. You may also need to adjust the path to the Steam folder if needed. Now you just have to double click that batch file when you log in, and it'll log in for you. You can also run "task scheduler" to have this action happen automatically at login.

 

[CU]

Plain text passwords seem like a bad idea, but I don't really see another way. You would think steam would handle this better.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Make a copy of the Steam program folder in some other location for your son. Run it from his user account, it should say something to the effect of Steam reinstalling itself. That should get a distinct Steam install for each of your accounts. Just double check that any existing shortcuts and tasks are pointing to the right Steam folder.

 

[CU]

Have you tried that and does it work? From the reading I have done steam will only allow one to run per machine at once. But, we normally just switch users and not log off windows so the other one is really still running. Now if I could some how trigger it to die when you switched users that might work.

Wonder why steam just doesn't save your username, password, credentials, etc. in a OS user directory and have it work seamlessly with multiple OS user accounts?

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Try steam support you can't be the first guy with this problem

 

[bystander36]

Have you tried that and does it work? From the reading I have done steam will only allow one to run per machine at once. But, we normally just switch users and not log off windows so the other one is really still running. Now if I could some how trigger it to die when you switched users that might work.

Wonder why steam just doesn't save your username, password, credentials, etc. in a OS user directory and have it work seamlessly with multiple OS user accounts?

You can use a batch file to run "steam -shutdown". You should then be able to add a "task scheduler" action to run that upon logging out.

 

[CU]

Searched on steam support. This seems to be a problem with Steam. Several people have complained about it. It will only allow one instance to run and it doesn't care about separate OS accounts. I did create a ticket with steam support though. Maybe if enough people ask for it to work like most programs do they will fix it.

Thanks for for the steam -shutdown command. Do you know if you can schedule it run on switch users and not just log out. Although now that I think of it I may can just run steam -shutdown to kill the current one running under a different user and launch the new one by passing it the login and password (in plain text ). Although that would still need to be triggered on switching to a user and not just logon.

 

[bystander36]

Searched on steam support. This seems to be a problem with Steam. Several people have complained about it. It will only allow one instance to run and it doesn't care about separate OS accounts. I did create a ticket with steam support though. Maybe if enough people ask for it to work like most programs do they will fix it.

Thanks for for the steam -shutdown command. Do you know if you can schedule it run on switch users and not just log out. Although now that I think of it I may can just run steam -shutdown to kill the current one running under a different user and launch the new one by passing it the login and password (in plain text ). Although that would still need to be triggered on switching to a user and not just logon.

I haven't tried this, but looking at the event options (on Win 10 at least), there is the option to run an action on "on connection to user session" and "on disconnection to user session". There is also "at log on", as well as "at startup". I'm pretty sure between "at log on", and "on connection to user session", one will work. I'm not 100% sure what constitutes a session. If nothing else, you can run the -shutdown option, and have a 15/30 second delay before running the -login option at log on.

 

[CU]

Still playing around with the task schedules. I am getting closer, I think. But, I have noticed a problem. When I sign out and and sign him in under either windows user account he can see and play all my games. Why? I don't have family share turned on. I checked and the button still says "authorize this computer" and there is no check in his account that shows up under eligible accounts.