Can I copy over ALL Steam files and settings to a new computer?

[Fuzzball]

Planning to get a new computer soon. I've moved Steam across computers before, and I remember the key things to copy over are the "steamapps" folder (so I don't have to redownload all my games) and "steam.exe" (which when you click it installs Steam again).

However, this time I want to make sure I get all my settings across too. The most important thing to me is to copy over all the screenshot folders correctly. Yes, I have backups of the actual shots, and have uploaded some to the Steam Community, but I would like to make sure all the non-uploaded ones are copied over to the new computer as well. This is so I get to see them displayed in the background when looking at a game's Library details view, and so that I can upload more at a later date.

So is this possible? I take it what I would need to do is copy over literally the WHOLE Steam folder? "steamapps", "userdata", "steam.exe", the lot. Will this simple process work, or is there something more complicated to do to preserve things properly?

I'm aware that the games themselves store their save files and in-game settings in other locations on the computer, so I'll make sure I get those too. I'm just concerned about my Steam settings. Will changing my OS (I'm currently on Windows 7, and the new PC will have Windows 10 from the start) affect anything?

[Spawn of Totoro]

After you install Steam on the new computer, copy the entire Steam folder from the old computer to the new computer.

Everything should carry over.

Please note, saved games are dependent on the game, so they may be located in a diffrent folder.

I've done this a few times before and again after getting an SSD drive and yet again after upgrading to Windows 10.

[Fuzzball]

Ah right, so you're saying I should download and install Steam by itself first on the new computer, then before running the Steam program, copy over my old Steam folder? That makes sense. Have I got that right?

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by Fuzzball:

Ah right, so you're saying I should download and install Steam by itself first on the new computer, then before running it, copying over my old Steam folder? That makes sense. Have I got that right?

Yep. Otherwise it will throw an error about something not being installed. I've delt with that several times before this method. Had to delete everything but the Steam.exe and Steamapps to refresh the install.

[ᴠᴀʀ]

Yeah, exactly like that.

If you want to carry over your local profiles/saves for games that aren't supported by steam cloud, copy over any folders inside my documents that's gaming related to the same directory on your new computer.

For Bethesda and 2K games, there's a folder called 'My Games' in 'My documents'

For most other games they create their saves/profiles folders directly in 'My documents'

[Fuzzball]

Originally posted by sm0:

Yeah, exactly like that.

If you want to carry over your local profiles/saves for games that aren't supported by steam cloud, copy over any folders inside my documents that's gaming related to the same directory on your new computer.

For Bethesda and 2K games, there's a folder called 'My Games' in 'My documents'

For most other games they create their saves/profiles folders directly in 'My documents'

And yet, some games go and create save file folders in weird places! Like the hidden folders of AppData>Roaming. (Do those exist on Windows 10?) Fortunately, I know that PCGamingWiki lists the save file location for each game, so I'm able to back them up properly whenever I backup all my files.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by Fuzzball:

And yet, some games go and create save file folders in weird places! Like the hidden folders of AppData>Roaming. (Do those exist on Windows 10?) Fortunately, I know that PCGamingWiki lists the save file location for each game, so I'm able to back them up properly whenever I backup all my files.

Yes, that area exists on windows 10 as well. As with the others, it is a hidden directory so you have to change your file view to see it.