Steam Client Beta overhauls downloads page and storage management, looks great

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Also: see what kind of update is pending at a glance.

Steam
(Image credit: Valve)

Participants in the Steam Client beta program just got access to a fancy new downloads page, but Valve buried the lede a bit: the downloads section is undoubtedly improved, but the real boon is the new storage manager. This lets you see which drive games are installed on, and lets you easily move games between drives.  

Steam Client Beta update

(Image credit: Valve)

To access the download manager, you'll need to access your downloads page, hit 'settings' and then 'Steam Library Folders'. 

Most of the broader changes are welcome UI revamps. When a game or update is downloading, Steam will now display the total progression completed, including the disk allocation process. "Previously the progress bar would only display the downloading content progress but not the disk allocation process which would make an update appear completed when it was not," the notes read.

Elsewhere, a new icon is now displayed next to every pending update to indicate its nature, so at a glance you'll be able to see if an update is Game Content, Workshop Content, or Shader Pre-caching. Pretty handy if you're eager to jump into a game and need to decide whether an update is urgent or can wait for later.

Some other nice things: the download page's colour scheme has been updated to better cater to the visually impaired, the download queue is reorderable with drag and drop, and partially downloaded items will have faded progress bars to indicate that they're paused, but need attention. Check out the full patch notes here, and here's the new page at a glance:

Steam Client Beta update

(Image credit: Valve)

No word as yet when this will roll out to the main public client, but entering the beta is easy: in the Steam client, hit 'Steam' in the top menu, select 'Settings', 'Account' and then select it from the Beta participation menu. 

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Shaun Prescott
Shaun Prescott
Australian Editor

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.