steam-acolyte 0.7.0

Lightweight user account switcher/login keeper for steam

Steam account switcher - lightweight program to switch between steam accounts without having to reenter password/2FA.

• works on windows and linux

• one click to login the corresponding user

• works on the first start using your existing login

• waits in the background while steam is running

• close steam and directly login another user via the tray menu

• automatically shows a list of users previously logged in on this machine by reading steam config files

• has buttons to delete saved logins and/or remove users from the list

• never comes in contact with any of your passwords

• includes a simple command line interface

Installation

Install the latest version from PyPI:

pip install --user steam-acolyte

If you want this application to live independently from other python packages, I recommend using pipx rather than pip:

pip install --user pipx
pipx install steam-acolyte

For windows, an all-inclusive .exe file can be created using PyInstaller from the development files as follows:

pip install -U pyinstaller
pyinstaller steam-acolyte.spec

This .exe can also be downloaded from the github releases page. Expect that on the first execution windows shows a warning dialog along the lines of “Windows Defender SmartScreen prevented an unrecognized app from starting. Running this app might put your PC at risk”. Click “More info” and then “Run anyway” to acknowledge the warning. This is normal because I didn’t buy a code signing certificate.

Usage

Simply run steam-acolyte instead of steam.

In order to switch users, exit steam via the “Exit” option, or use acolyte’s tray menu.

Optionally, modify your steam launchers to execute steam-acolyte.

How it works

acolyte works dead-simple by saving the login token for the last active steam account upon program start. When the user clicks on a particular account it simply restores the corresponding token and then starts steam. acolyte only stores login tokes, but never any passwords! This has the following implications:

• the login token can be used to login without having to re-enter 2FA (whereas for password-based logins you would need to redo 2FA)

• the login token can only be used for a single login

• after a successful login, steam will create a fresh token which acolyte can save for the next cycle when steam exits or when acolyte is started the next time

• it is no problem to start and exit steam several times without acolyte running (as long as you always sign on with the same account), because acolyte will always pick up the most recent login token when it starts

• the token expires if unused for a several weeks

• selecting “Change Account” from the steam menu or “Log Out User” in Big Picture mode UI invalidates the login and you will have to reenter your password for the logged out user