Steam, multi boot, Windows 10 and Windows 11

[ssjwizard]

So right now I have a system configured with both W10 and W11 installed.
Both OS on their own SSD, and a 3rd SATA shared SSD.

So as I am curious do any of the config files live in the /steamapps folder?
I am thinking that since its all the same HW and should be setup on both OS, that I could simply use the 3rd drive as the designated steam folder.

In theory I should be able to access all of my games and apps between both OS without having to redownload or store separate copies?

I know that in the past I have had issues importing previous libraries by simply adding the directory where the apps are stored, so is there anything in particular I should keep a look out for in this?

 

[EarthDog]

In theory I should be able to access all of my games and apps between both OS without having to redownload or store separate copies?

You'll likely have to reassociate them through steam (point to the path where the games are) on the OSs. Outside of that, it will connect, yep.

 

[ssjwizard]

You'll likely have to reassociate them through steam (point to the path where the games are) on the OSs. Outside of that, it will connect, yep.

Right so the idea is to set the default steam library app to the same location on Disk3 so that the steam client on each OS will be linked.
I know that in past attempts I've run into issues, but that wasn't always same device to same device.

 

[TerranBrackiatt]

i'm not sure how it would work on multiboot systems, but on my own, i installed steam straight to the 3rd drive... and then when launching steam, it wrote the stuff it needed onto the boot drive's documents folders. i imagine that it would do the same in a multiboot setup, just saving it's related stuff onto the documents folders of each boot drive... the only catch, is that your save files would be separated. so you wouldn't be able to play the same save file between both boot drives. ie, if you started up Skyrim while using win 10 boot drive, play 20 hours, save it to the win 10 boot drive, and then boot into the win 11 drive, you wouldn't immediately have access to the save file. you'd prolly need to copy it over to the win 11 drive's appropriate documents folder. I don't know if you can configure steam to save the game-save-files into particular spots.

having 2 different copies of steam (1 on each boot drive) should be simple enough to use the games' folder by simply setting up which folders it looks for for games, but i'm pretty sure the save files would be like i described above...

 

[EarthDog]

Right so the idea is to set the default steam library app to the same location on Disk3 so that the steam client on each OS will be linked.
I know that in past attempts I've run into issues, but that wasn't always same device to same device.

For each OS, you'd have to install steam and setup/point to that path on the disk. But each will be independent in that if you install a game on one OS, you'll have to 'point it out' to Steam on the other OS as they won't automatically associate.

Perhaps installing Steam on the 3rd (mutual) drive would work, but I don't know.