Valve and its founder Gabe Newell doesn’t really like Windows 8 and its “metro” environment. As such, we didn’t expect Valve to integrate its flagship product, Steam, with Windows 8. Well, good news because an elegant solution arrived sooner than we would have thought. The community stepped up and created a Windows Store app that integrates your steam games with metro! Now, you can have a more seamless experience with Steam and Windows 8 despite Valve’s opinions.

The app that’s behind it all is called Pin Steam. It has two main functions; the first is that it is a metro version of your Steam games library. Now, rather than having to go to the desktop and launch Steam, you can open this app and view all your Steam games in a clean, metro style, app. The second function of the app is its highlight. It lets you pin your Steam games to the Start Screen as a tile!

Because Steam games are desktop apps, pinning it manually through the OS only shows you a small icon on the Start Screen. However, if you pin it with Pin Steam, you get a big tile that displays the Game’s cover art. It makes your game collection prettier on your Start Screen. Now, you can launch Steam games directly from Start in an elegant way!

Pin Steam Configuration
When you run this app for the first time, you will be asked to type in your Steam ID. If you need help, the app will help locate it for you. This ID is required to access your Steam games library.
Steam Profile
If you need help locating your Steam ID, the app will launch your Steam profile and will tell you where to look to find your ID.
Sto Pic 2
The app displays your Steam games library in a clean, metro style, environment. Just click a game to play it. Right click it if you want to pin it to your Start Screen
Store Pic 3
You can customize the tile, if you wish, that will be pinned to the Start Screen.

The app is $1.49; however, you can download a trial version that lets you use the app as a metro style Steam games library. To be able to pin apps to the Start Screen, you will need to buy the full version. Also note that you need to have the official Steam desktop app installed for this to work.

A note to Valve: if you think Windows 8 will be a catastrophe, think again. Windows is too big to be a failure. Thinking that users and developers will ignore Windows 8, like they did with Windows Phone 7, is wishful thinking. If you don’t step up your game and play nicely with Windows 8, someone else will. Let’s just hope that someone isn’t a competitor.

Download from Windows Store: Pin Steam

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