multi-user login for family accounts

[TigA; ❤]

my family is using this computer for playing games on steam.
we always have to logout, login, verify with steamauth and so on...
this is a little bit annoying, so it would be nice to add a feature that allows you to switch signed in accounts without logging out. so you can just choose the account you want to play on by a dropdown selection.

[my new friend]

From another thread on the same topic.

There used to be a quick switch feature in Big Picture mode but users were getting their accounts hijacked because it didn't ask for guard codes. This all happened primarily in gaming cafes and the like.

[Supafly]

Option I use is to give my kid a windows user account. I then installed Steam on a separate drive, That Steams shortcut is on his desktop not mine. We don't need to logout of Steam. Does require Exiting Steam and changing Windows account though. Also requires multiple Steam installations

If you don't have other drivers you could just install Steam to different locations. For example

D:\Dad\Steam
D:\Kid1\Steam
D:\Kid2\Steam

Not ideal, just an option for how it is currently

[my new friend]

You can look into these.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/ake9st/switching_steam_accounts_without_having_to_type/
https://www.reddit.com/r/GlobalOffensive/comments/7kvuvc/this_script_will_let_you_easily_switch_between_2/
And see if any of that can help you.

[Brian9824]

Originally posted by TigA ❤:

my family is using this computer for playing games on steam.
we always have to logout, login, verify with steamauth and so on...
this is a little bit annoying, so it would be nice to add a feature that allows you to switch signed in accounts without logging out. so you can just choose the account you want to play on by a dropdown selection.

Sounds like a giant security risk. That means anyone who has access to the computer could log on to anyone elses account and mess with your stuff or get you banned, At the very least switching should require a login for security.

[Maran23;]

I think this is a good idea. Other applications handle this similar, e.g. on MS Teams you can also choose between different teams on the top right via a dropdown.

Originally posted by brian9824:

Sounds like a giant security risk. That means anyone who has access to the computer could log on to anyone elses account and mess with your stuff or get you banned, At the very least switching should require a login for security.

I don't see how this is a security risk. If you choose to login automatically when you start Steam, you have basically the same.

[my new friend]

Originally posted by Maran23:

I don't see how this is a security risk. If you choose to login automatically when you start Steam, you have basically the same.

With gaming cafes being a thing, Valve stopped allowing the easy quick switch method using Big Picture years ago when people had their accounts hijacked because it didn't ask for guard codes.

[TigA; ❤]

Originally posted by my new friend:

You can look into these.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/ake9st/switching_steam_accounts_without_having_to_type/
https://www.reddit.com/r/GlobalOffensive/comments/7kvuvc/this_script_will_let_you_easily_switch_between_2/
And see if any of that can help you.

Thanks, this helped me a lot.

[Brian9824]

Originally posted by Maran23:

I think this is a good idea. Other applications handle this similar, e.g. on MS Teams you can also choose between different teams on the top right via a dropdown.

Originally posted by brian9824:

Sounds like a giant security risk. That means anyone who has access to the computer could log on to anyone elses account and mess with your stuff or get you banned, At the very least switching should require a login for security.

I don't see how this is a security risk. If you choose to login automatically when you start Steam, you have basically the same.

I don't have multiple people sharing a computer with steam accounts but if you had 3 people sharing a PC and 3 windows accounts does it ONLY allow 1 steam account's credentials to be saved across all 3 windows accounts, or can each windows account have its own steam login saved under that account?

[Supafly]

Originally posted by brian9824:

Originally posted by Maran23:

I think this is a good idea. Other applications handle this similar, e.g. on MS Teams you can also choose between different teams on the top right via a dropdown.




I don't see how this is a security risk. If you choose to login automatically when you start Steam, you have basically the same.

I don't have multiple people sharing a computer with steam accounts but if you had 3 people sharing a PC and 3 windows accounts does it ONLY allow 1 steam account's credentials to be saved across all 3 windows accounts, or can each windows account have its own steam login saved under that account?

Each account would only have it's own Steam shortcut if it was reinstalled to different locations. In my example in post #2 there isn't really anything stopping someone just using the Steam.exe from any installation to get into the account it's set to remember.

[FOXDUDE69]

Originally posted by Maran23:

Originally posted by brian9824:

Sounds like a giant security risk. That means anyone who has access to the computer could log on to anyone elses account and mess with your stuff or get you banned, At the very least switching should require a login for security.

I don't see how this is a security risk. If you choose to login automatically when you start Steam, you have basically the same.

Not only that, but this would be meant to be used by families, so, if it was implemented correctly, which I believe Valve is competent enough to do, the only people who'd be able to switch to their accounts from your log in, or vice versa, would be the people you'd link as a family member and authorize to use your computer.

So it would be pretty much fool-proof, unless a stranger can convince another that they are a long lost family member, get that person to add them as a family member on Steam, and then gain access to their computer!

And, unless a person completely failed at being a father, they're kids are not gonna mess with their parents' inventory without permission, and they definitely won't use cheats on their parents' account, nor their own, for that matter. And if they do, it's their parent's responsibility.

[TigA; ❤]

Originally posted by FOXDUDE69:

Originally posted by Maran23:

I don't see how this is a security risk. If you choose to login automatically when you start Steam, you have basically the same.

Not only that, but this would be meant to be used by families, so, if it was implemented correctly, which I believe Valve is competent enough to do, the only people who'd be able to switch to their accounts from your log in, or vice versa, would be the people you'd link as a family member and authorize to use your computer.

So it would be pretty much fool-proof, unless a stranger can convince another that they are a long lost family member, get that person to add them as a family member on Steam, and then gain access to their computer! :lunar2019laughingpig:

And, unless a person completely failed at being a father, they're kids are not gonna mess with their parents' inventory without permission, and they definitely won't use cheats on their parents' account, nor their own, for that matter. And if they do, it's their parent's responsibility.

that's what I thought about security too. thanks for pointing that out.

[Yosuf]

I think it would be a great thing to have, and if security is an issue they always can ask for the verification code: it is better to check that and write it than write user and password each time