1 PC, 2 Accounts, 2 Steam libraries

[edwar368]

Hi,
I could no find a post for this exact question, sorry if its been covered before.
I am looking for the best solution for having steam on a single windows PC with multiple windows accounts and allow each user to have their own games and not be able to accidentally (or maliciously) overwrite or use each others saved games.
This is for my Grandchildren, they already have some steam games each. I have read about family sharing and it sounds like it might work but need to clarify a few things:
1. If "Fred" and "Bert" have separate steam accounts, each with some games in, would these share the same steam library? If it is possible to have different libraries in differnt places, would this be a good idea, or does one shared library have an advantage?
2. I assume if games are "Cloud save" then there is no issue with keeping their saved games seperate, but if a game is "local" saves, how does that work in terms of stopping them using or overwriting each others games?
3. If they did want to "family share", would they both need to log in to steam and authorise each others libraries (even though they are on the same PC?)
There will be only 1 PC, so they should never be logged on at the same time

Any advice on how best to implement this would be appreciated

[Tev]

Originally posted by edwar368:

1. If "Fred" and "Bert" have separate steam accounts, each with some games in, would these share the same steam library? If it is possible to have different libraries in differnt places, would this be a good idea, or does one shared library have an advantage?

Games from all Steam -accounts are installed in their universal folders.
(i.e. C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\* and any locations under steamapps\libraryfolders.vdf)

It's possible to install them in separate locations should you use
[Steam > Settings > Downloads > Steam Library Folders]; no real disadvantage in having them in the same place though.

Originally posted by edwar368:

2. I assume if games are "Cloud save" then there is no issue with keeping their saved games seperate, but if a game is "local" saves, how does that work in terms of stopping them using or overwriting each others games?

Cloud or not, some games save under C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\<SteamID3>\<app-ID>\remote\* and others save under C:\Users\%USERPROFILE%\Documents\* or --\AppData\*

The latter is primarily why having a separate Windows User is recommended. Those games saved under the Steam\userdata\ -folder are Steam user specific, so risk of overwriting isn't really there.

Originally posted by edwar368:

3. If they did want to "family share", would they both need to log in to steam and authorise each others libraries (even though they are on the same PC?)
There will be only 1 PC, so they should never be logged on at the same time

If i.e. Fred was to give Bert access to his library, he has to go under [Steam > Settings > Family] on the said computer; with his (Fred's) Steam -account, then he has to authorize the said computer as one of the 10 authorized devices to access his library from, and then tick Bert's Steam user as one of the up to 5 authorized accounts that can access his library from any of the aforementioned devices.

Same goes vice versa. Bert has to authorize both the device; and Fred's account should Fred want to access Bert's library while using the said device.

[edwar368]

Thanks for a very prompt and useful response. So If I can summarise what you have said (This is also likely to be a new PC, so have the benefit of fresh install:
1. Fred and Bert each have own Steam account (they do already)
2. Give Fred and Bert seperate Windows logins
3. Install Steam for both users - when they log into their seperate windowes accounts and seperate steam logins, both Fred and Berts Games will donwload to same local folder, but thats not an issue - at this point in time, they would only be able to play their own games.
4. Fred and Bert can each authorise family sharing, so afterwards each can play all the games in the same local library
5. Any locally saved games would still be alright as these get saved under a folder structre undferneath the windows login account

[ReBoot]

If you want to use one shared Steam folder, you need to install Steam once and only once.

[Tev]

What ReBoot said, both users can access Steam from the same folder.

When it comes to Steam Family Sharing, do bear in mind that not every game can be shared however.

[edwar368]

Thank you both very much