--- description: Anyone with a Steam account can stream games from one PC to another running a completely different operating system, so long as it's on the same network. title: Steam In-Home PC Games Streaming Is Now Available image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Steam In-Home Streaming Now Available, Lets You Play PC Games on Virtually Any Computer by [Matt Peckham](/author/matt-peckham/) ## Matt Peckham Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 21, 2014 6:18 PM CUT by [Matt Peckham](/author/matt-peckham/) ## Matt Peckham Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 21, 2014 6:18 PM CUT Valve put its Steam In-Home Streaming program — a way to play Steam games between two computers on your home network — out for public beta just a few weeks ago, after running a private beta test for months. Testing presumably went smoothly, because Valve’s announcing today that the feature is now available to anyone with a Steam account: --- > “” --- The upsides of In-Home Streaming are really twofold: You can either stream content to something like your living room’s mongo-sized TV without dragging your PC around (or building a Steam Machine), or simply use a lower-end laptop running any number of operating systems, from Windows to OS X to SteamOS to Linux. It’s also not a new concept: My colleague Jared Newman’s been streaming Steam games from his PC via Nvidia’s Shield [for a while now](http://time.com/37579/nvidia-shield-pc-game-streaming-hits-the-road/ "undefined"). But Valve’s approach is more manifold, letting you mix and match existing or older devices without trading down to something the size of a handheld — a problem for PC games that don’t scale well on five-inch screens. Valve’s put up an info page on the fledgling service [here](http://store.steampowered.com/streaming/ "undefined"), with a handy info-graphic and step-by-step. Not that you really need the step-by-step. According to Valve, there’s just three: Log into Steam via Windows, log into another computer on the same network, then hit your library, select a game and fire away. **MORE**: The History of Video Game Consoles – Full ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/107836/steam-in-home-streaming-now-available-lets-you-play-pc-games-on-virtually-any-computer/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/107836/steam-in-home-streaming-now-available-lets-you-play-pc-games-on-virtually-any-computer/"},"headline":"Steam In-Home Streaming Now Available, Lets You Play PC Games on Virtually Any Computer","datePublished":"2014-05-21T18:18:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:02:17.985Z","description":"Anyone with a Steam account can stream games from one PC to another running a completely different operating system, so long as it's on the same network.","url":"https://time.com/107836/steam-in-home-streaming-now-available-lets-you-play-pc-games-on-virtually-any-computer/","keywords":["Tech","Video Games","streaming video","steam","valve"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Matt Peckham","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/matt-peckham/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/107836/steam-in-home-streaming-now-available-lets-you-play-pc-games-on-virtually-any-computer/","name":"Steam In-Home Streaming Now Available, Lets You Play PC Games on Virtually Any Computer"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"A History of Video Gaming Consoles","description":"The full series on gaming consoles packed into one video for you to watch.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/c8bQ37tV/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-01-08T16:50:03.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/c8bQ37tV.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/107836/steam-in-home-streaming-now-available-lets-you-play-pc-games-on-virtually-any-computer/","duration":"PT23M45S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/107836/steam-in-home-streaming-now-available-lets-you-play-pc-games-on-virtually-any-computer/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```