How to add Steam games to the Start Menu on Windows 10

Steam can be installed to any drive. It does not necessarily have to be installed on the C drive or whichever drive Windows 10 is installed on. Regardless of which drive Steam is installed on, it appears on the Start Menu and some games will appear under its respective folder in the Apps’ list.

Some Steam games will automatically add themselves to the Apps’ List on the Start Menu and you can then pin them to the Start Menu itself. Of course, not all games are added to the Apps’ list which means pinning them to the Start menu will involve a different process.

Add Steam games to Start Menu

There are two ways to add a Steam game to the Start menu. You can pin it like you can pin a file or folder, and you can add it as an item to the Apps’ list and then pin it to the Start Menu.

Pin game to Start menu

To pin a game directly to the Start menu without adding it to the Apps’s list, follow these steps.

1. Navigate to the SteamLibrary folder.
2. Inside the \steamapps\common folder, find the folder for the game.
3. Look for the executable file for the game in its folder.
4. Right-click the executable file and select Pin to Start.
5. The game will be pinned to the Start menu as a tile.

Add to Apps list and Start Menu

You can add a game to the Apps’ list and pin it to the Start Menu. Adding a game to the Apps’ list allows you to open it from there and you do not necessarily have to pin it as a tile. It’s useful if you like to keep the Start Menu tile free.

1. Open File Explorer and go to the SteamLibrary folder.
2. Locate the game folder in \steamapps\common and open it.
3. Right-click the game’s executable file and select Send to>Desktop.
4. Open File Explorer and navigate to this location: 

C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Steam

5. Cut and paste the shortcut from the desktop to this folder.
6. The game will appear under the Steam folder in the Apps’ list.
7. To add the game as its own, stand-alone entry in the Apps’ list, paste the shortcut to this location instead:

C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

8. Once the game appears in the Apps’ list, right-click it, and select Pin to Start.

Note: If you move the game to a different drive later, the shortcut will break. In that case, follow these same steps to add a working app link to the Apps’ list.

Conclusion

Steam games can be searched for and launched from Windows Search but the Apps’ list and the Start Menu are convenient ways to open them without having to go through the Steam client. The Steam client launches automatically when a Steam game opens and a tile allows you to reduce the number of clicks in the entire process.

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Fatima Wahab

Fatima has been writing for AddictiveTips for six years. She began as a junior writer and has been working as the Editor in Chief since 2014. Fatima gets an adrenaline rush from figuring out how technology works, and how to manipulate it. A well-designed app, something that solves a common everyday problem and looks

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