Link: https://strawpoll.com/w4nWW3XDYnA

On machines where you start Steam manually in order to play a game, do you keep Steam running in the background after play session is over? Meaning if you no longer play any game for the moment, and just keep it running to be ready. Or do you close Steam, after the play session?

I used to. But with the major redesign a few years ago it ran so badly and needed system resources enough to make it noticeable that it was open. So I got in the habit of just shutting to down and never using it for anything but to launch the game. I shifted all chat and game purchasing and game discovery to other platforms. Cest la vie.

If I’m going to play a game then I open it. When I’m done playing then it gets closed. Same as almost all other programs. I keep the essential programs running. Essential means drivers, my program that randomly chooses a wallpaper, etc