Add a certain non-steam game to steam?

[606 Bebop Games]

So I'm attempting to add Magic the Gathering: Online to steam as a non-steam game but I have a bit of an issue. There's MTGO.exe but the game can not be ran from that executable, but is rather ran by a shortcut. I'm wanting to add this game so that I may broadcast it and have my friends watch me.

League of Legends had a similar issue where the launcher would run a separate exe (which was the actual client instead of the launcher you added to Steam) when you launched a game but it was fixed. With this one I'm wanting to figure out how to do the same. The shortcut I've linked to is a "ClickOnce Application Reference (.appref-ms)" type file and the contents are "http://mtgoclientdepot.onlinegaming.wizards.com/MTGO.application#MTGO.application, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=f6187a2321850a68, processorArchitecture=msil" which will run the MTGO.exe eventually. Is there any way to have steam detect when MTGO.exe is ran and to hook into it?

[Tom Thomas]

This post is nearly 2 years old, but I wanted to post my solution since this is currently high up on a google search.

Due to the "ClickOnce" .NET weirdness you referenced, I managed to get around this issue by creating a 2 line .bat file:

"C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Wizards of the Coast, LLC\Magic The Gathering Online .appref-ms"
pause

Substitute <username> for yours. Of course you'll have to close the terminal emulator window after you're done playing every time. It might be a bit ugly, but it works.

[Coodu]

Apologies to Necro this thread, but some updates that some may find useful as Tom mentioned, this thread is still high on Google:

2023 Changes:

- Create the Bat file as above, but with some changes for the new DayBreak Client.
- Replace 'username' with your Windows user.

"C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Daybreak Game Company LLC\Magic The Gathering Online .appref-ms"
pause

- Save the bat, then convert it to .exe using Slimm's tool:
https://download.cnet.com/Slimm-Bat-to-Exe/3000-2069_4-75834541.html?part=dl-&subj=dl&tag=button

- Add to steam as normal via add non-steam game and use custom artwork as desired.

Thanks Tom for your hard work which with a few changes still works in 2023.

[socks]

2025 update: (using Windows 11)

I would recommend omitting the 2nd line from the .bat script. Mine loads just fine without it and then I don't have to close a terminal window. If you can't run the script without it, then I recommend adding:

- timeout \t 10

instead of `pause`. This will close the terminal after 10 seconds.

If you don't mind following a convoluted process, you can also create the .exe with built-in IEXPRESS.

- Open start menu and search for iexpress
- Right click and "run as administrator"
- Follow instructions to create .exe file: https://stackoverflow.com/a/54125632

Personally, I'm super paranoid about downloading a program that creates .exe files. The above tool on cnet.com is probably much easier.

[Sabrine]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.