Thirteen Steam Features You Probably Don't Know About

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13 Steam Features You lot Probably Don't Know About

By September 23, 2022

Like the thousands upon thousands of games information technology hosts, Steam has secrets.

Steam is, on one paw, a brilliant affair, more characteristic-rich than just about whatever other gaming platform on the planet. All the same, as it's expanded over the years it's besides taken on an infernal-automobile-like quality; it'southward go this cacophonous conglomerate of bells and whistles, many of which are cached nether other bells and whistles. It's difficult to know everything Steam is capable of, is what I'm saying.

Here are a few lesser-known Steam features I've come across, equally well as a few people brought up in this Reddit thread started past user Zyhoxem:

The search bar on your friends list isn't just for people. If y'all search a game's name, it volition pull up people playing that game, making information technology easier for you to jump in with them.

The big ol' box at the top of the Steam shop forepart page? You tin can customize what appears in it. Used to be that you had to right click on it to pull upwardly options, but now mousing over the box makes a "customize" tab appear.

Have a friend who changes their Steam handle a lot? If you go into their profile and click the arrow adjacent to their name, you can see nicknames they've used in the past. That'southward right, Tupac and famed children's fantasy author Brian Jacques. I know who y'all really are, and I know that you lot play Borderlands 2 together every Tuesday, and you call it Borderlands Tuesday, because of course y'all exercise.
Desire to know when friends changed their names? Utilize this URL: https://steamcommunity.com/id/[insert user proper name here, no brackets]/namehistory
Want to know all sorts of fun info about your graphics carte, including exactly how much defended video memory it has? Open up Steam Big Picture show Manner, then get to settings. From there, select "system."

If y'all cake a friend, their Steam friends listing tells them you lot're offline. However, if they check Steam groups and things of the like, they'll be able to encounter your actual status. That really sucks and I promise Valve changes it. For now, though, you lot've been warned.
Desire to step behind Steam's vaunted bluegray drape? Find your Steam icon and right click it. Get to backdrop and add "-dev" and "-console" to the text in the field titled "target." That will add a "Panel" tab to the top of Steam alongside things similar Steam, Library, Customs, and whatnot. It opens a command-line-based developer's console.
Here are a agglomeration of commands yous can use in dev consoles, some with Steam itself, and some in Source games (Half-Life 2, etc).

Bonus features, as suggested by readers

You can hide games in your library, to cutting downwardly on clutter and/or shame. Right click a game's title, go to "set categories," and check the box marked "hide this game in my library." (Thanks, Aaronc53.)

Friends modify their Steam names a fiddling likewise much? Yous tin can give them nicknames on your friends list. Simply click the triangle side by side to their name on your friends list and select "add together nickname." Ka-boom. At present you'll never forget which friend is your weed dealer and which is your parole officer ever again. (Thanks, BarreDeFaire.)
You can make your screenshots non suck. Only select "settings" from the "Steam" drib-downwards menu in the top left corner, hit the "in-game" tab, and cull "relieve an uncompressed copy" under screenshots. Goodbye, blurry grossness. (Thanks, Rathorial.)
Yous can salvage your favorite servers from diverse games. If you lot desire to admission them rapidly, but select the "view" drop-down menu about the summit left corner followed past "servers." (Thank you, ZexMaxwell.)
Yous can open Steam store pages in new windows. Just click your mouse bike on the link you desire to access and—praise the gods of basic goddamn multitasking—a new window will appear. THANK GOODNESS. (Thank you, piccolo113.)

So there are some bottom known Steam features yous might find handy. Are in that location whatever others y'all can think of? Let me know and I'll add them to the list.