Steam makes shortcuts to games on my desktop

[Nodakear]

Steam makes shortcuts on my desktop to games i install, i don't want this as i have steam open anyways when i play games and start them from steam which makes desktop shortcuts redundant... I searched through the entire settings menu but i can't find an option to make steam stop doing that. Any1 knows how i can make steam stop making shortcuts on my desktop?

[ReBoot]

Untick "Create desktop shortcut" when installing

[J4MESOX4D]

When you install a game it asks you if you want to create a desktop shortcut. You need to untick the box rather than just hit install immediately.

[Nodakear]

ohw wow... it never did that before... is that new? Because it only recently started doing that...

[....]

I think they changed something. I also never had that issue before it started some time ago. But yes delete them or choose when you install.

This should be disabled by default to be honst - if i had a shortcut for all of my games my PC would probably crash ...

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by Nodakear:

ohw wow... it never did that before... is that new? Because it only recently started doing that...

That means that this got recently enabled. Maybe you ticket that check box, maybe someone else using your system did. Just untick that checkbox and it'll stay off until the next time someone turns it on.

[Nodakear]

No1 else uses my pc, i am here all alone, i never tciked any checkbox.. i think steam turned it on with 1 of their updates or so... i also could swear that option was never there before.... but ya.. when it never did before and suddenly it does do it, u can never be sure if it was there as an option or not...

[KeplersConjecture]

Originally posted by Nodakear:

No1 else uses my pc, i am here all alone, i never tciked any checkbox.. i think steam turned it on with 1 of their updates or so... i also could swear that option was never there before.... but ya.. when it never did before and suddenly it does do it, u can never be sure if it was there as an option or not...

Its not new, it was there at least 14 years ago when I joined.

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by Nodakear:

No1 else uses my pc, i am here all alone, i never tciked any checkbox.. i think steam turned it on with 1 of their updates or so... i also could swear that option was never there before.... but ya.. when it never did before and suddenly it does do it, u can never be sure if it was there as an option or not...

I've been having it off for years, didn't turn on by itself either. Are you maybe on the beta?

[Black Blade]

I will say I leave it off and turn it off before, and it does seem to turn itself on from time to time, not too sure why

[NS Plover]

The desktop shortcut tick box on install has been on steam as long as I have (maybe longer). After my first 30 or 40 games I got rid of it since my desktop was too full...

[Nodakear]

huh weird then.. i can't remember to have ever ticked it off... but i definately never ticked it on... but at least now i know where that option is.. would be nice if they also would put it in the settings menu tho.... also not on the beta.. never have been... maybe steam put me on beta with an update? That would be totally weird :P

[SeriousCCIE]

I've been here for years and the past few games did not ask me if I wanted a shortcut, created them anyway, and then required me to be logged into steam anyhow to launch the game.

That is compared to say Witcher 3, which didn't give me the option, and didn't need steam to run, so I created a shortcut myself and ran it with that and didn't use the steam client when playing the game.

Anyway I am saying that I too have seen the same thing and it's really odd because it isn't a convenience if we have to run the steam client anyway. I'd rather they did not do that or go back to asking me if I want it.

Now... is it a conspiracy? Did Valve cause this? or are some developers just doing that without asking first? I don't know. But it is annoying.

[Satoru]

Odd I feel like making a deskstop and start menu has always been the default?

But in any case did some testing and if you uncheck the boxes, it will remain unchecked if you install other games within the same session.

If you restart steam, those settings persist.

So basically

1) At one point you had unchecked adding the shortcut to the desktop/start menu
2) Either you unchecked it later, or its possible that your settings might have been removed. I've heard some people have lost their custom categories recently. I suspect they're part of the steam client beta. Are you in the steam client beta? Possibly you lost that particular customization

[NS Plover]

When I install a game using the normal steam client - I get a popup that says how much disk space is required and how much is available and the estimated download time. It has two tick boxes - one for create desktop shortcut and another for create start menu shortcut.

From the steam client it has been like this a long time.

It's pretty easy just to click next without noticing this...

Edited to say: the initial option on the tick boxes was on - after too many desktop shortcuts I turned it off and it has stayed that way for years...

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by Satoru:

Odd I feel like making a deskstop and start menu has always been the default?

It is. They're both on by default.