Steam games cost the same no matter who plays them; however, there are ways you can utilize the service to make accessing your collection cheaper and simpler for friends and family members. One particularly helpful feature available on Steam is how to share a steam game which allows users from different computers to authenticate with one account in your library and play from your collection.
Get started quickly by simply logging into your own Steam account from the computer where you wish to share your library with someone else. From there, navigate through Steam’s Settings panel and Family tab – from here select up to five accounts that have also logged onto this machine to authorize. When clicked “Authorize Library Sharing on This Device”, these chosen accounts will see your games displayed as part of their Library section when they log back in on that specific machine; should they already own it they can request access and you will be sent an email with a link allowing them to borrow it temporarily for seven days!
Log out of your Steam account and log into the one you would like to share with. On their machine, navigate to the Steam app and access its Settings panel – once they do this you should see their username listed among the eligible accounts on the right-hand side of Family window – just check their box and click “OK.”
Once family sharing has been activated, any Steam accounts included on this list will have access to all of your games across all authorized computers – though only one account at a time may play shared games at a given time and will take priority over other users logging in at that same machine. Furthermore, games can be restricted by type so only those you want shared are accessible by friends and family.
At any time, you can revoke access to your games by going back into Family Library Sharing and selecting Manage. This will display all accounts that have been granted permission to access your library, and from here you can revoke individual users. When someone is no longer on this list of authorized accounts, they won’t be able to download or purchase games from it anymore – making sure your hard-earned progress in shared games does not vanish! The best part is this feature is free so no money needs to be stolen by greedy friends! Just remember it only share with those whom you trust!