How to pin a Steam game in Windows 10

Steam is a great service to buy and catalog all PC games. If you have your favorite games, you may want to pin them to the Windows 10 taskbar or somewhere else, like the desktop or the Start menu, for easy access.

However, Steam shortcuts work in a special way. They are Internet links, meaning that if you want to pin Steam games to the taskbar, you need to follow the following methods.

1. How to pin a game in Steam

If you have a huge collection of Steam games, pinning games will be convenient, so you can find and play them quickly. The best way to do this in the Steam client is to use the Favorites feature .

How to pin a Steam game in Windows 10 Picture 1 Pin the game with the Favorites feature

Open Steam and switch to the Library section . A list of all games will appear on the left. Right-click on the game you want to pin and click on Add to Favorites .

This step will create a new category at the top called Favorites. You can add as many games as you like to this section. Alternatively, you can create custom categories in Steam, but the Favorites list will always appear at the top.

How to pin a Steam game in Windows 10 Picture 2 You can add Favorites list as an item on the main window

You can add Favorites list as an item on the main window. You can sort them by using the Sort by drop-down menu . This menu has options such as Alphabetical, Hours played and Release date.

2. How to pin a Steam game to the Windows 10 desktop

You can add shortcuts to Steam games directly on the Windows 10 desktop. The game will still open with Steam, but you don't have to load the client first.

How to pin a Steam game in Windows 10 Picture 3 You can add shortcuts to Steam games directly on the Windows 10 desktop

To do this, open Steam and go to the Library section . Right-click on the game you want to place on the desktop and click Manage> Add desktop shortcut .

3. How to pin Steam games to the taskbar and Start menu of Windows 10

There are several ways to pin Steam games to the taskbar and Start menu in Windows 10. You can place the Steam client on the taskbar or the Start menu and pin the game to the context menu. Additionally, you can pin the game as a separate entity.

Pin the Steam client to the taskbar or the Windows 10 Start menu

How to pin a Steam game in Windows 10 Picture 4 Pin the Steam client to the taskbar or the Windows 10 Start menu

To pin a Steam client to the taskbar or Start menu, open Start and type steam. Steam application will be found. Right-click on the result and choose Pin to taskbar or Pin to start . Steam Shortcut will be added to the location you selected, you can click to launch Steam.

You can go one step further: Right-click on the Steam icon in the taskbar or Start menu and the context menu will open. Here, you can go straight to sections like Store or Library.

On top are 5 games that you have interacted recently. Hover over a game and a pin icon will appear. Click the pin icon if you want to permanently place that game in the new Pinned category at the top of the context menu.

If the game you want to pin isn't on the Recent list , there's no problem. You can launch it shortly for it to appear on the list. Also, for the taskbar alone, follow the instructions above to place the game shortcut on the desktop. Then, click and drag the icon onto the taskbar. It will be pinned to the Steam context menu.

Pin a Steam game to the taskbar or the Windows 10 Start menu

How to pin a Steam game in Windows 10 Picture 5 Pin a Steam game to the taskbar or the Windows 10 Start menu

You can individually pin a game to the taskbar or the Start menu. To do this, open Steam and go to the Library tab . Right-click the game you want to pin and select Manage> Browse local files .

This will open File Explorer and take you directly to the game's installation files. There will be an application file with the EXE extension. This is what is used to launch the game. If you can't find it, look in the subfolders.

Once you've located the EXE file, right-click the file and choose Pin to taskbar or Pin to start .

Pin the Steam game to the Windows 10 Start menu with Live Tiles

How to pin a Steam game in Windows 10 Picture 6 Pin the Steam game to the Windows 10 Start menu with Live Tiles

For the Start menu, you can get more fancy looking tiles by using the free Microsoft Store app called Pin Steam. Simply download and launch the application. Then enter the custom section of the Steam profile URL when prompted. Your profile needs to be public for this to work.

If you don't have a custom URL or profile in private, you need to make a few adjustments. To do this, open Steam , hover over your username in the top menu, and click on Profile. Then click Edit profile on the right.

First, set the custom URL ( Custom URL ). Next, switch to the My Privacy Settings tab and set Game details to Public. You can set your profile to private after you have finished syncing with the Pin Steam app.

After you fully connect the Pin Steam application, it will display your games as a grid. Click the games you want to add to the Start menu one by one, then click Quick Pin.

Or, click Create Tile to customize the tile specific settings, like font color. When these tiles are on the Start menu, you can right-click and select Resize to resize them to small, medium or large.

The great thing about Pin Steam is that it creates live tiles, meaning that the tiles in the Start will show up when your friends are playing the game. You can also pin your friends as a tile in Start, if you want to follow them.