What is Steam?

Steam is a great application for all those of us who love videogames. It's a download manager that lets you buy, download, and update games online in a very easy way.

Once Steam is installed on your computer, the first thing you need to do is create a user account. You'll need to provide a username, password and an email address. The whole process only takes a couple of minutes.

After creating the account, Steam will launch on your desktop and you're ready to start using it. The program features five different tabs, each of them for a different function: Store, where you can browse the Steam catalog and see all the currently available games; Community, where you can create a profile, join groups, chat with other gamers and more; My Games and My Media, where you can manage the games, demos, and movies you've bought or downloaded so far; and finally, Tools, where you can browse and download special gaming tools like dedicated servers.

Using Steam is very easy. To download a game, go to the Store tab and use the categories on your left to browse the catalog. Games are organized according to genre, price and publisher. You can also use the built-in search tool to find specific titles.

Each game has dedicated page with all the information you need about it: screenshots, system requirements, language, developer and other details. If it's a complete game, you can buy it straight away by clicking the "Add to Cart" button and following the instructions on the screen. Steam, as you can see, supports several payment methods. After paying, the game will be downloaded to your computer through Steam's download manager

If you prefer downloading a demo, simply click the "Install Demo" button and the Steam will automatically download and install the game on your system, ready for you to play.

Besides full games and demos, Steam also features videos and trailers. You can find them under the Free Stuff category. Videos can be watched right on Steam, or downloaded to your hard drive in an excellent HD version.

Like I said before, All the full games, demos, videos and trailers you buy or download in Steam are easily managed in these two tabs: My games and My media. You can play videos, launch games, find updates and more.

With its impressive game catalog, special offers and great online community, Steam is definitely a must for all PC gamers.