The Steam client is an intrinsic part of using Steam for purchasing video games. It does not mean that all of the clients are happy about it though. When it comes to the Steam client there is a plenty of room for improvement.
Some of the issue scan be addressed on your own. There are several useful ideas for it.
Options for data management
Backing up your data is a crucial thing you should do if you do not want to waste time on downloading the entire library of Steam which can be required in particular situations such as switching to a new computer. This task can be solved with the inbuilt backing up utility of Steam, however, the users of this platform are not particularly happy about this function and find it too much of a hassle.
Fortunately, there are other ways to back up your library on Steam. One of the most effective options available to gamers is the Steam Mover programme. This utility is very simple and it will allow you to transfer your games between libraries without any difficulties.
Steam Mover has a lot of great functions including moving games between your disks which will let you save a lot of time especially when it comes to massive programmes.
Options for managing your library
While some of Steam users have very modest collections of games, there are also gamers who have been playing for a long time and have managed to purchased hundreds of games. If this is your case, you are certainly aware of the complexity of managing such a large amount of games with the help of the standard options offered by the Steam client.
The Steam client has its own sorting functions, for instance, adding custom tags to all the games. Yet, this can take some time since you will have to perform at least four clicks in order to add such a tag for one game. If your collection massive, this way will certainly not be something you want to do.
In order to address this problem in a more effective way, you can refer to other programmes such as for instance, Depressurizer. This one is able of streamlining the entire process of tagging.
Depressurizer can scan your Steam library and show you all of the data in the form of an ordered list. The Tool menu of the programme will give you an option known as Auto-Cat All. Here, you can choose the option called By Genre which will automatically import the genre information available on Steam right to your library. The programme will assign appropriate genres to your games.
Certainly, it might happen that you are not happy with the sorting results. In such a situation, you will still have a chance to add your own customised categories. When you see that all of the data is presented in the way you like it, all you will need to do is just to save your profile. If you do not see immediate changes, do not worry, just try to restart Steam.
Add your own skins to the Steam client
Undeniably, changing the appearance of your Steam client has nothing to do with the effectiveness of this programme, however, it can make your playing experience more pleasant.
There is a large collection of ready-to-use Steam skins to choose from, albeit you can create your own skins with Steam Customizer. With this tool, you will be able to use your own image as well as a colour palate and create a gorgeous set of skins for your client.
Tools for cleaning up
Cleaning up is not necessary if you have a modest game collection, yet, it does not have to be enormous for your computer to lose all of its free space. This is happening since installation of games on Steam also installs various runtimes which will be required for playing. This can take all of the space.
A great tool for cleaning up your Steam is Cleanup. This utility will automatically look for redundant files and, if it finds they are not needed, it will also remove them. Note that this programme can also be used with Uplay, GoG and Orgin.
All you will need to do to use the programme is to download it and it will do all of the work for you.
Allow the downloads to keep on while you are playing
By default, Steam will stop downloads while you are launching games. This is actually a good feature since playing particular games, especially competitive ones, you do not want to lose the power of your machine on the downloading process. Yet, if you are not into such video games this might be needed and you will not experience any troubles while playing and downloading games at the same time.
In order to make this possible, all you have to do is just checking the box on the page for Downloads on the Steam client.
You can change your homepage on Steam
The Steam client allows you to change a homepage which is google.com by default. You can enter a URL of anything you would like to see in your client in the first place.
By the way, pay your attention to the fact Steam is hiding its URL bar to keep it minimalist but in some cases you might need to copy a URL. All you will need to do is just enabling the URL bar through the box located on the Interface page.