Steam update finally brings background downloading

Waiting for a game to download is always a pain, it's worse if you can't play another game in the mean time. Well luckily Valve is fixing that today as Steam now includes background downloads. If you want to kick back and slay some dragons while waiting for your chance to shoot some bad guys then you can, without the hassle of alt-tabbing.

Background downloads can be turned on and off as you please, as you might not want to be playing playing Counter Strike and running a Skype call with a couple of friends while downloading another game. Obviously, these weren't the only additions to the Steam client though, other updates include:

• Added ability to limit what time of day Steam is allowed to automatically update apps.
• Added option to allow other games to download while a game is running.
• Added download regions for Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Ottawa in Canada.
• Added ‘Copy all text to clipboard' context menu option in system information dialogue.
• Improved downloading status text at the bottom of the main window.

Big picture got some updates too:

• Added ability to opt in to game betas and edit launch options.
• Added Inbox item under Linux if your machine requires a reboot due to OS level updates.
• Fix infinite loop of Cloud sync error dialogs on game launch.
• Fixed mouse cursor being visible during startup animation even if it hadn't moved.

Kitguru Says: I use big picture mode with a controller most of the time so the mouse cursor being visible always bugged me- I'm glad thats finally gone. The big thing about this though is the background downloads, there was nothing more annoying than alt tabbing to re-enable a download and then having your launched game crash.

Source: PCG

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