Do you have games on your Steam account that you want to share with your friends or family? You can do so by using Steam's "Family Sharing" feature. It allows others to access and play games from your library at no additional cost.
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As the name suggests, Family Sharing allows others to play games from your library without having to pay for the games. Once you enable the feature, all the games in your library will also appear on your friend's Steam account. You can allow up to 5 accounts and 10 devices to gain access, and those users can play the games with their own achievements.
However, the platform doesn't let you choose which games are shared. Your entire library will be available through Family Sharing. Keep this in mind if you have games with sensitive content in your library, as parental controls don't apply here.
The biggest advantage of this feature, however, is that you and others won't be able to play any games in your library while someone else is playing a game from your library. As the owner, you have priority, but this inconvenient limitation means you'll have to be careful when playing games you and the people you share them with.
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If you, as the owner, choose to play a game when someone is using your library, Steam will give that person two minutes to save their progress and close the game before they are automatically kicked out of the game.
To start sharing games, you'll first need to enable Steam Guard, a two-factor authentication system that protects your Steam account from malicious login attempts. Also, prepare your friend and the device they want to access your library on for the process.
Launch the Steam client. In the top right corner, click on “Steam” and then click on Settings.
In the Settings window, click on "Manage Steam Guard Account Security".
You can choose between email authentication or authenticating from your phone using the Steam app for Android or iPhone.
Check the radio button “Receive Steam Guard codes via email.” This will require you to log back into your Steam account.
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Enter the Steam Guard code you receive in your email and you will be able to log in to your account.
With Steam Guard enabled, you are now ready to authorize the device for Family Sharing.
In the Steam client in the upper right corner, click Steam > Settings. In the left pane, click “Family.”
In the right pane of the window, select the “Authorize library sharing on this computer ” checkbox .
Now, log out of your account and ask your friend to log in to their account on the computer.
Log out of your friend's Steam account again and log in to yours.
Go to “Family” settings. You should now see your friend’s username in the eligible accounts section.
Click the checkbox and click OK. Then let your friend sign in to their account on the computer.
Go to the Library section and you will see your games in their library.
