If I have legit purchased password, how do I play the game at Steam

[Popeye Doyle]

I bought 4 games for sale during Christmas, so my game codes or passwords are legitimate, but how do I play these 4 games at steam. I'm not going to buy them again from Steam. How do I get the games into my Steam game storage?

[DarkCrystalMethod]

If you purchased the games from steam itself then they're already in your LIBRARY tab under GAMES.
If you bought the box at a store then there's a strong possibility that the box only contains the activation code for the game on steam and the CD is already useless.
If you bought from humble bundle or gog or elsewhere then you have to copy/paste those codes into steam.

[FFL2and3rocks]

If you bought it elsewhere and it didn't come with a key to activate on Steam, then you're out of luck.

[Kargor]

Also, if those are not Steam codes, you can't "convert" them.

When you try to activate keys, and it tells you it's an invalid key, then you've either mistyped it (if it's not a copy-paste from an EMail or another website) or it's not a Steam-key at all.

If it tells you it's a "duplicate product", then the key was already used before and you got scammed. There are no "used games" on Steam as you cannot transfer them between accounts.

[peter purvis]

If you can't activate your codes on Steam, then you can go to +Add A Game in the bottom left hand corner and choose Add A Non Steam Game. Then search for the games .exe file and tick it's box. Then click Add Selected Programs. You can now play your game through Steam, but you won't have all the functions that a proper Steam game has.

Hope this helps.

[Jack Schitt]

Where did you purchase these games from?

If you purchased them from the online store at steampowered.com

all you have to do is login to the Steam Client (program) and download the games you purchased by going to the store page on Steam for that/those games and clicking the install button.

If you bought some sort of package that contains a CD at a physical store

open the Steam Client install the game onto your computer from the CD and go to
Games > Activate a Product On Steam.

Activate a Product On Steam:
https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/2A12-9D79-C3D7-F870

If what you have is a Steam Activation Code

Steam Issued Activation Keys:
https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/2FF7-8298-9409-BC1D

If none of the above is the case and you have a CD key

These keys would be in the packaging of games you bought somewhere other than the Steam Store, the keys are usually somewhere in the paperwork inside the CD case, use
Games > Add Non-Steam Game to Library

Activate a Retail CD key on Steam info:
https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/0E71-0971-324A-1161

If you bought a Steam Card at a retail store

you didn't actually buy games you bought credits to purchase games on steam with. There's a code under a scratch-off section on the back of the Steam Cards. These funds deposit funds into our Steam Wallet:

Redeem a Steam Wallet Code (from a Steam Card):
https://store.steampowered.com/account/redeemwalletcode

[Popeye Doyle]

Originally posted by Blonde Phantom:

If you bought those games on 3rd party website you need to activate them on Steam.

Steam client: Top left click on Games > Activate a product on Steam

Steam website: https://store.steampowered.com/account/registerkey

Thank you, thank you, thank you, I've done this before but forgot what to look for. Your help was exactly perfect, or perfectly exact, or erfectly pexact!