The PC gaming landscape is overflowing with launchers. Despite numerous failed attempts by game publishers, like Bethesda’s launcher, we’re bombarded with more storefronts, libraries, and third-party apps than ever before, all vying for a piece of the magic Valve achieved with Steam back in the early 2000s. It’s overwhelming, and frankly, we’re all tired of it. While completely uninstalling all launchers isn’t an option if you want to play games from various storefronts, you can unify your library in a single location and minimize the constant interruptions. Here’s how I accomplished this.
My preferred approach is using Steam. The majority of my games are already on Steam, it’s an app every PC gamer has installed, and it boasts a robust ecosystem of tools that make organizing games a breeze. Adding any external game or application to Steam is easy. From your library, click “Add a game” in the bottom left corner and select “Add a non-Steam game.” You’ll see a list of applications installed on the hard drive where Steam resides. Choose your game from this list or select “Browse” to find the executable. For most games, you’ll need to locate the actual game executable. You’ll often find a launcher, and in some cases, adding the direct executable instead of the launcher is all that’s required. If you’ve used Steam for a while, you probably already know how to do this, but there’s a bit of cleanup needed.
Firstly, the executable for a game you want to play might not have the same name as the game itself. For example, I own Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin on the Epic Games Store, but its executable is “SOPFFO.exe.” This doesn’t look great in your library. Right-click on the game, select “Properties,” and rename the non-Steam app to whatever you prefer. This covers most games, but not all. In particular, you might not be able to add all games from the Xbox app or Microsoft Store. Some of these games are UWP apps, which aren’t standard executables. For these, you’ll need to download the UWPHook tool. This tool will add your UWP apps to Steam. Do this for all your games that are installed elsewhere—assuming they are already installed; we’ll address that later—and you’ll be left with a bunch of gray tiles with generic titles. The next step is to make them look like part of your library.
First, visit SteamGridDB and download the SGDBoop tool. This is a database of both official and non-official artwork for games, and SGDBoop is an application that can automatically apply assets to your games. I’ve written about how I revamped my Steam library with SGDBoop, and it works with non-Steam games as well. Steam will automatically fetch the icon of the executable when you add the game to your library. There are four additional elements you need to add manually: two grid images, a hero image, and a logo. The two grid images are used for the game’s representation in your library and when it’s your most recently played title. The hero image is a background when you select the game, and the logo replaces Steam’s default text over the hero image.
Steam tends to bury your non-Steam games, so there’s one final step. Using the left menu, open the filters and select the “Installed locally” box. Then, choose “Save as a Dynamic Collection.” Using one of your shelves in Steam, select that dynamic collection, sort it however you wish, and you’ll see your non-Steam games alongside your Steam games. That handles non-Steam games, but what about games you bought on Steam? There are numerous titles on Steam that come with a separate launcher, and in many cases, you can completely bypass that launcher. For instance, Cyberpunk 2077 uses the Red Launcher, while Baldur’s Gate 3 uses its own launcher from Larian Studios. Using Cyberpunk 2077 as an example, all you need to do is point Steam toward the correct executable. In many cases, Steam launches a separate executable that brings up a launcher, which then opens the game’s executable. Find the Cyberpunk 2077 installation, navigate to Bin > x64 > Cyberpunk2077.exe. Right-click on the executable and choose “Copy as path.” Back in Steam, right-click the game and select “Properties.” Under the “General” tab, find the “Launch options” and paste the copied path. It should paste with quotation marks, but if it doesn’t, add them. At the end of the path, after the quotation mark, add a space and then %command%. Essentially, you’re telling Steam to launch this specific executable when you click on the game.
This method works for any game that has a separate executable file for the launcher and the game itself. Many games have specific commands to skip the launcher—in Cyberpunk 2077, you can use –launcher-skip in the launch options, for example—but this approach should work even for games without that command. You’ll need to do some digging to find the correct file, so keep the PCGamingWiki handy for any special launch commands or file paths if you’re struggling with a particular game. Unfortunately, this process doesn’t work for things like Ubisoft Connect and the EA App. They will launch regardless.
There are two main drawbacks to this approach. First, it’s a manual process. You have to add games individually, set their artwork, and dig up commands to skip launchers. Additionally, Steam doesn’t offer a way to view your uninstalled games. You can see uninstalled Steam games, but not non-Steam games.
The alternative: Playnite or GOG Galaxy
If you’re less concerned about customization and just want all your games in one place, you should use either Playnite or GOG Galaxy. Of the two, I prefer Playnite because it’s open-source and features a variety of add-ons. This includes plug-ins for major PC storefronts:
* Steam
* Epic Games Store
* Amazon Games
* Ubisoft Connect
* EA App
* Battle.net
* GOG
* itch.io
* Humble App
* Xbox app
These add-ons not only import your installed and uninstalled games, they also keep you signed in. The app will still open, but you’ll be able to launch, uninstall, and install games in your library directly from Playnite. Out of the box, Playnite supports nearly any game you can throw at it, and it includes IGDB (Internet Game Database) integration, automatically filling in your artwork and metadata details. You can go even further, though. As mentioned, Playnite is open-source, and there are countless add-ons and themes for the app. There’s an add-on that hides duplicates if you have a game across multiple storefronts, for example, and another that can check for free games on the Epic Games Store. My personal favorite is How Long to Beat integration, which shows you the estimated playtime for a game, and SuccessStory, which integrates achievements into the app. Playnite’s capabilities are vast and a bit overwhelming. From organizing your library to custom scripts you can run before, during, and after a game, you can really dig deep and build your library exactly the way you want. I prefer the Steam method, but if you don’t mind getting your hands dirty, Playnite is undoubtedly more powerful.
GOG Galaxy is a bit different. It’s a launcher for games purchased through GOG, but it also supports community integrations for the Epic Games Store, EA App, Steam, Xbox, and Ubisoft Connect. You can install and uninstall your games, track playtime and achievements, and customize all your metadata. However, it’s definitely less powerful than Playnite. You don’t have any options to skip launchers, there’s no way to add games outside of the limited list of integrations, and there aren’t any plug-ins to customize your appearance. GOG Galaxy is a decent option if all you care about is having all your games in one spot and don’t want to spend much time tweaking.
Compared to using Steam, both of these apps definitely don’t look as nice. Playnite gives you a lot of customization options, and GOG Galaxy is easy to set up, but Steam has all the tools you need to add non-Steam apps and bypass as many launchers as possible.
Never perfect
There’s no way to completely eliminate launchers on PC, but with a bit of effort, you can unify your library and disable a significant portion of the launchers you have to deal with. You’ll still need to install several storefronts, but at the very least, you won’t have to click through endless pop-ups while trying to play your games. Beyond making your games more organized, going through this process can boost your performance. We’ve seen in the past that launchers like the 2K Launcher can actually impact performance in games.
