Restart (and other options) no longer available for remote PC?

[Sharkfood]

Title says it all. With the last set of forced updates, the Steam link no longer has options for minimize BPM and no longer has options for restart, sleep, etc. on the remote PC menu.

Why were these changes made?

I understand that I can EXIT BIG PICTURE and get to the desktop, but relaunching Steam in BPM is now several clicks of the Steam button with fingers crossed it will launch + go full screen.

And also, of course if I'm lucky enough for "Exit Big Picture" to make it to the desktop safely that I can then hit the Start menu to restart and/or other reboot/sleep options.... but why take these off the Steam Link remote menu?

I guess less is more for handling dopey support requests or something? "I hit the "Restart" option on the main menu instead of "Stop Streaming" BOOO HOO!" - is this it? Because this is a device aimed at gamers with at least a modicum of experience with computers.. and having quick access to functionality is always better than castrating functionality in the name of enabling dopey users...

[phoenixclaws]

I just noticed this too. This is extremely frustrating for me because i use the steam link upstairs and the computer is downstairs.

Please readd these very useful options.

[Malhavoc]

I've currently on what should be the latest Link's beta build (648), and not experiencing the problem. Are you on the beta Steam on your PC too? I'm asking because on the PC I'm not on beta, so maybe that could be the reason behind me not experiencing the issue.

[phoenixclaws]

Yes the options are taken away in the latest Steam Beta update. I didn't know until I saw an offhand post about going to the "stable" Steam release on the PC in a different thread.

Just got home to test it and all the normal options of shut down, restart, etc are working on both beta/stable of the Steam Link. So the problem is the Steam PC beta and not the Steam Link software.

First time that I have had an issue with Steam betas in a very long time.

[Shrung]

Hi, I was having the same questions! It's particularly annoying for me because I can't use the desktop or chrome with a reasonable framerate. When I exit BPM, the frame rate drops to <10fps (not a hardware or network limitation, it seems that steam deprioritizes it when it isn't in focus or something?). Before I could minimize BPM and use chrome to stream content that my "smart" bluray player doesn't have an app for, now I can't, so it also has worse effects than just having to press a button a couple times.

[Sharkfood]

Yes, I do also use the Steam beta client but this is pretty much as "must have" for using the Steam Controller as the plethora of issues only get fixed in the beta client in an acceptable time frame...

Also, this is more related to the last update to the Steam Link when used with the Steam beta client as I had this functionality before exiting my remote PC and the Steam Link automatically went into update mode, restarted... and these menu options were then gone after the Link restart.

I noticed immediately as I usually go to the desktop first to ensure my internet is happy before playing anything. My remote PC may have 20mbs/233ms latency from which I can reboot the cable modem to get back to 300mbs/12ms latency. So this ritual of mine I noticed immediately after the Link restarted.

I may try to revert my remote PC to the standard client but can anyone confirm this returns the menu options? I find it unusual that the Steam Link update + restart is what enabled the problem. I can only assume that with perfect planet alignment that my remote PC must have also updated the Steam Windows Client at the same time if this is the current theory... but worth the revert (for now) if it returns the functions... but my guess is this may be like the majority of Steam forum theories... lol.

[Shrung]

Hey Sharkfood, I tried out the stable steam client. It DOES bring back the menu buttons for minimize, shut down, sleep, etc.

However, the framerate is still bad when BPM is minimized, and audio stutters occasionally (hadn't noticed this on the beta client, so this may be an issue between the different version of host and client, and could persist in BPM games even, haven't tested fully). So it doesn't help with my use case unfortunately, maybe it will for yours though.

[Omegaman007]

Steam, please bring back these opitons, they are pretty much mandatory IMO.

[Gerardo]

Same here... Please bring back the option to shutdown the remote system!

[Sharkfood]

This has been fixed in the latest Beta client! Thank you Valve for returning at least the "Minimize Big Picture" option back to the menu. Restart/shutdown PC would also be handy if possible but we can get to these from the Start Menu with BPM minimized today.