Download Game On New Computer Steam

 

If you’re a PC gamer there’s a good chance a large portion of your game collection is housed in Steam. And while Valve’s desktop game launcher/retail storefront/social network amalgamation is a great tool for organizing games, sometimes its defaults aren’t the best choice for everyone.

Take where your games are automatically installed. By default, Steam drops them into your C drive, but what if you’ve got a larger D partition, or an SSD you want to dedicate to games? No problem. Adding install locations is simple.

To start, launch Steam and click on Steam > Settings in the menu. You should now see a settings window as pictured below.

Click Downloads in the left-hand navigation column, and at the top of the Downloads section you’ll see the “Content Libraries” heading. Click the Steam Library Folders button just underneath that.

Another window opens displaying the location of your Steam Library Folders. Usually, it’s C:Program Files(x86)Steam. Now click Add Library Folder in the lower left corner.

How to redownload a game from Steam? It will show you what games you have and what you can download. Vortex 9 years ago. Report Abuse. Add a comment. Can I redownload Steam games from an old computer onto a new one? More questions. Sep 7, 2016 - In general, you can install a Steam game on multiple computers (though there may be a limit to the number of computers you can authorize at. When you download Steam, you have to create an account. When you buy a game on Steam, it attaches that game to your account. So if you throw away that PC, or install Steam on another PC at the same time, as long as you log in with your account that you bought the game with, you’ll have the game to download for free. Steam is a digital distribution service owned by Valve. Originally created to distribute its own games, Steam has since expanded to become the de facto standard for digital distribution of PC games, and supports community features, downloadable content and achievements.

Download Steam Game On Another Computer

Yet another window opens displaying your PC’s file system. At the top, there’s a drop-down menu allowing you to switch between different drive labels (C, D, etc.), with the selected drive’s file hierarchy displayed below.

Select a new location for your Steam downloads. The key thing to remember is Steam allows just one Steam library folder per drive label. After choosing the folder location, click Select. Continue this process if you have more than one extra drive that you want to use.

To buy PC games on Steam, you will need to first have the Steam software running on your computer. Steam is an alternative for buying PC games digitally, instead of having to own physical copies of games. When you buy a game from Steam, it downloads directly to your computer and automatically installs itself.

Now you’ve got multiple locations to store your Steam games.

New Pc Games Steam

If you want to make a specific drive the default, right-click one of the newly created folder locations in the Steam Library Folders window and select Make Default Folder from the context menu.

The next time you install a game on your PC, your default install location will be automatically chosen. If you need to change that, click the drop-down menu labeled “Choose location for install” in the installation window as pictured here.

Those are the basics of installing Steam games on drives other than C.

Download Game On New Computer Steam Games

Move what’s there

If you want to move a game that’s already installed, right-click on it in the Library section of Steam and select Properties.

Once the properties window opens select the Local Files tab and then click Move Install Folder.... Another window opens listing your possible install locations. Choose the one you want and you’re good to go.

If you want more tips on how to make the most of Steam, we’ve got a ton. Check out PCWorld’s primer on 15 obscure Steam features that can power up your PC gaming.

To comment on this article and other PCWorld content, visit our Facebook page or our Twitter feed.

So you’re running out of hard drive space (maybe on that fast-but-tiny SSD of yours), and you need to move a few of your PC games to another hard drive. Don’t uninstall and re-download them! You can actually move your games to a new drive without having to wait hours to reinstall each one.

There are many ways to do this, but in my experience, most solutions fall into one of two categories. Here’s how to each method works.

Advertisement

Option One: Create Symlinks with Steam Mover

Despite its name, Steam Mover is an awesome app that will move any game—Steam, Origin, or otherwise—and play it without re-installing. It does this by creating a symbolic link at the old location, so your computer thinks everything’s in the same place—but all that space-eating data really resides on another hard drive.

Download Game On New Computer Steam Pc

Advertisement

Here’s how to use it:

  1. Download Steam Mover and start it up. It’s completely portable, so you don’t need to install anything—just run the EXE file.
  2. At the top of the window, select the folder where your game currently resides on the left. On the right, browse to where you’d like to move the game to. (If the folder doesn’t exist, you can create it now.)
  3. Select your game from the list and click the blue arrow at the bottom.
  4. Steam Mover will bring up a black command prompt window that shows you the progress of the copy. Let it run, and when it’s finished, your game should be in the new folder, with a “shortcut” in the original folder. You should be able to run it from Steam, Origin, or from that shortcut as if it never moved.

Advertisement

That’s it. You can repeat the process with as many games as you want, and move them back at any time by re-opening Steam Mover and clicking the blue “left” arrow at the bottom to move them back.

You can also make the symlinks yourself, without Steam Mover’s help, but Steam Mover makes it incredibly simple.

Option Two: Move the Game and Direct Your Game Manager to the New Location

New

Advertisement

If you’d prefer not to download extra software, you don’t have to—both Steam and Origin have ways to “detect” installed games after you’ve moved them. You just have to perform the right steps in the right order. If you’re using Steam:

  1. Create a folder in the new location where you’ll store your games. If you’re on Steam, you’ll need to do it through Steam. Head to Settings > Downloads > Steam Library Folders and click “Add Library Folder”.
  2. Navigate to your new Steam library folder and create a new folder within it called steamapps. Then, create a folder in steamapps called common.
  3. Head to your current Steam folder and find the folder for the game you want to move. You’ll likely find it in steamapps/common. Copy the game’s folder, e.g. “Borderlands 2”, to the new steamapps/common folder you created in step 2.
  4. Open Steam, right-click on the game you’re moving, and select “Delete Local Content”. This will uninstall the game from its original location.
  5. When that’s done, click the Install button to re-install the game. In the “Choose location” dropdown, choose the Steam folder on your new hard drive.
  6. Instead of re-downloading the game (which could take hours), Steam will detect the existing files there and make any necessary minor changes. When it’s done, you should be able to play the game as usual.

Download Game On New Computer Steam Cleaner

Advertisement

If you’re moving an Origin game, the steps are very similar, but just a tad simpler:

  1. Open Windows Explorer and create a folder in the new location where you’ll store your games.
  2. Head to your current Origin folder and find the folder for the game you want to move. Copy it to the new location, and delete the old files.
  3. Open Origin and head to Origin > Application Settings > Advanced. Under “Downloaded Games”, click the “Change” button and direct it to the folder on your new hard drive. Don’t worry, this only affects newly-installed games, so your current library will not be affected.
  4. Return to the “My Games” view and click the Download button to re-install the game. Instead of re-downloading the game (which could take hours), Origin will detect the existing files there and make any necessary minor changes. When it’s done, you should be able to play the game as usual.
  5. If you want to install future games to your old hard drive, repeat step 3 with the old location.

Advertisement

Free

This method may not work as well for games installed without a manager like Steam or Origin, but for everything I tested, it worked like a charm.