this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2026
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Steam Hardware

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I use family sharing and want to use a different family members account on my Steam Machine in general, but when i use it would like my own account, how is the experience for user switching?

Does the same game need to be installed twice? Is it quick to switch or do you need to authenticate each time?

Anyone using their Steam Machine or Steam Deck like this? Family sharing or not.

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Personally great. We have 2 accounts on our (Bazzite but it is using the SteamOS) and it works perfectly. Launches into Steam and asks who is using it today. I have my own account, but can access my partner's games as they're in my family. Switching is quick, click user and then switch profile.

Games do not need to be installed twice, there are some quirks though with a few games. Halo MCC had an error because it's installed once, and it defaulted to my Microsoft account even though she was logged in via steam (makes sense when you think of it), so she had to log out of me and log into hers. Nothing horrible though, and very infrequent.