Steam sucks? Two Clients/Accounts, same PC, same time

[lambda]

Hi folks, I recently came back to Steam and computer gaming, after 10 years of break.
I don't even know if this is the right place for this question but here's my problem:

TLDR;
When I try to open Steam Client twice, the second one seems to kill the first one.
That's a known issue, and it's Valve's fault. Steam's client is poorly written, and the installation isn't user-aware, in 2020.

Please read before answer "VM"
I'm trying to run two steam clients with differents accounts.
I'm not talking of the games, that's already ok.
It's about running steam's client, twice.

Why I need it:
I have a multiseat workstation, with Windows WVD.
Running in a VM with GPU/SSD passthrough.
I want each windows user run his own steam client, with his own steam account.

What I DON'T want to do:
- use any kind of VM, or additional layer like Sandboxie or Windows 10 Sandbox
- arguing about how pointless is having two steam accounts logged on the same PC

What I already tried, unsuccessfully:
- do it while disconnected from the internet
- spawn steam processes from different Windows accounts
- copy'n'paste the executable or the entire folder, and running two different ones
- install it twice, once for user, in their own user folder, and launching it from there
- installing/running Steam's Client, Helper and Service from Administrator or Normal users
- running Steam Client without the Steam Service running

Title
It's just controversial clickbait, I'd like attention on this BIG problem. Steam sucks refers to Steam software itself. As platform is a great idea that maybe saved computer gaming and took it to the cloud/drm era. Thanks Valve.

I just want to play with my wife, and It took months to reason her trying to play.
Please... "Don't stop me now 'cause I'm having a good time".

Thanks a lot to everyone that will keep useful information about why and how this behaviour works,
Luca.

[lambda]

Originally posted by wuddih:

Steam is 2003 in this regard and there is nothing super viable that someone can do until this is aspect is reworked.

thanks a lot for your answer! I agree on that.

Originally posted by wuddih:

there are some solutions that will work on multi user OS setups and Steam will run like any other program that was actually designed to run on multi-user OS(which Steam was not)
but those solutions are either too much time consuming or/and too advanced for power button pushers.

I'm not a power button pusher and willing to time consume. Can you share something about that, beside VM and sandboxes that are not viable in my case? That's exactly what I was looking for, man! Thanks.

Originally posted by wuddih:

so ... since Valve works on advancing the Steam client out of this grave they dug for it 16 years ago ... the easiest thing is to wait for Valve to do this, shouldn't take more than 3-4 years.

so only real working solution is to don't use steam, for me.

Originally posted by wuddih:

also Steams process is by default not admin elevated.

yes you're right, I was messing up with the installer and the service.
the point is, steam keep closing when another user starts his one.

I even tried blocking the service, disconnected from the network.
Two different folders, one per user, with the entire steam's portable version.
Normal or admin users, it's the same: the second one kills the first.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by lambia:

@Mods
Thread was closed giving as "right" answer a likely good answer, but problem isn't related to the windows steam service.

As was said:

Originally posted by Spawn of Totoro:

If you wish to suggest such a feature, then may I suggest the suggestions and ideas forum?

Since you seem to want to do something that is not currently possible with out a VM or such.

Please keep in mind that reposting a locked/deleted thread is not allowed.