Steam and Windows accounts?

[Kargor]

Am I getting the wrong impression here, but does Steam really store at least some settings "globally", across all accounts on a machine?

I was trying to setup a Steam account for my parents; first thing I noticed is that I couldn't even run the Steam client, probably because it was already running on my account, which I just exited via "switch user", not via logoff.

The next thing -- I don't store my password on a machine that's basically not mine, but I stored theirs. Turns out, launching the steam client on my account gets their credentials -- WTF?

Is there a way to tell Steam to respect the boundaries between windows accounts?

[Looming Dementia]

_wilco님이 먼저 게시:

You can however install another instance of Steam and use that for your parents' account. For example:
C:\Program Files\MySteam\...
C:\Program Files\ParentsSteam\...

That's also unacceptable. Valve needs to freaking fix this. I've already submitted a ticket on the subject.

Why can't they store login information in each Windows login profile, like every other program does?

[Looming Dementia]

Hilarion님이 먼저 게시:

The fact that Valve is not doing anything about it comes only from the users not complaining about it.

Right there with you, man.

There's another issue: Steam Cloud Sync. If it's auto-logging into another profile, what's happening with our save games? I suspect that this could be problematic in that respect, too.

[Looming Dementia]

Burgeoning.RD2L님이 먼저 게시:

You mean it's not secure for a guest to log into the admin's steam account? Get it together Steam.

Correct.

[Looming Dementia]

pike님이 먼저 게시:

all you need do is logout when you exit steam and set it so you have to re-login when you start steam , this is what you should be doing , not having steam setup to auto login ,
you dont want it to auto login you want to be account specific ,
you cant possibly be that lazy to not want to login when you start steam if your restarting the computer to switch windows accounts or even doing the log off current windows user.
if you setup steam to require a login when you start steam then you don't even have to bother switching windows user accounts (still it's a good idea)

The problem is that my other two PCs can just be set to log in automatically, since I'm the only one who uses them. And if you forget just once, your save files will be completely ♥♥♥♥♥♥ from syncing with the other person's cloud files.

This is a major problem, because one slip, and you can get screwed.

[jimconner01]

I agree this is a problem. It's 2015 and it is not fixed.

[Looming Dementia]

jimconner01님이 먼저 게시:

I agree this is a problem. It's 2015 and it is not fixed.

I got a response from tech support, after about 2 months. They're not able to fix it at this time, or something similar. Meh. I don't imagine that they ever intend to.

Almost 2016.

[RealRaven2000]

Let me add my vote to this - I am a software developer and this should definitely be possible. My daughters are sharing a PC (Windows 7 Pro, separate user accounts) and the amount of BS because of these shared accounts is amazing. At least Valve should provide a workaround in form of a command line parameters, such as:

steam usr:<username> pwd:<password>

then it would be simple enough to configure a start menu item or desktop shortcut to do this even with a shared location for the exe. Also, does the workaround (2 steam instances) also require every game to be downloaded in 2 different locations?

Edit: I found https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Command_Line_Options
so you can at least use
steam.exe -login user password
as workaround.

[Deozaan]

Thanks for the tip on the command line option!

I've been considering installing Steam to my User directory so that other users can't launch "my copy" of Steam or change my settings, and then using a symlink/junction to the steamapps directory (which would be located on another drive in a public location) so that games wouldn't need to be downloaded multiple times in multiple places.

But some games store the save files and other data in the game directory, so for those ones you still run the risk of interfering with another user's data, or them interfering with yours.

[Ansgar™]

I ran into this problem today as well...I suspect that there is no "proper" solution proposed by Valve so far?

[Looming Dementia]

Ansgar™님이 먼저 게시:

I ran into this problem today as well...I suspect that there is no "proper" solution proposed by Valve so far?

Nope, I got a message back from Steam support saying essentially that there isn't a solution, besides disabling auto-login, and it won't be happening anytime soon, if ever.

[edisn]

Same Problem Encountert here. (My sister wants to use my PC, Because heres dosent has the Graphic-Cards for some Games.)

Maybe i will try one of the Methods Suggestet here:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1099223
http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/40761/how-do-you-force-steam-to-use-a-different-account-for-each-windows-user-account#40762

But it seems that the setup of the autologin is a huge Security Risk.
(Since Data is Accessible by every user.)

[ReBoot]

Well, you can always emulate autologin by using a Steam shortcut that you've added your username & password to. With EFS, it's quite secure. As secure as your Windows user password, that is.
Still, it sucks. Valve could make Steam work with multiple user accounts in Linux and MacOS but Windows is, according to Gabe himself, a single-user operating system. We're in 2016. Just sayin'. Poor job, Valve.

[edisn]

@ReBoot
Man könnte meinen sie könnten wenigstens das Loginfile in %USERPROFILE%/ speichern. (in Linux ist das ~/ )
Dann wird beim start von Steam im Userloginn das richtige File Genommen.
(Ev geht auch ein Trick mit Symbolic link ...)

PS: In windows benutze ich nur Standard User Management.
PPS: Kann Steam auch CredentialFile? (Username/Password in einem File, das dann in %USERPROFILE% liegt.)

[ReBoot]

I have no idea what login file you're talking about.

[JMusacha]

I have the same problem. My son apparently has full access to my steam account, because Steam does not handle separate accounts properly. I've never seen anything like this. It is a huge security problem.