Steam is one of the largest and most popular online gaming stores in the world. You can download thousands of games and connect with players from around the world. It allows you to chat to your friends and even setup games on your local network.

To use this site, you must be registered with them. Registering is easy as pie. And once you've joined (membership is free) you'll be able to purchase full retail versions of games delivered straight to your desktop, complete with automatic updates and in-game community features.

How to begin...

Here is how you start. Open you browser and enter http://store.steampowered.com/ then click go. On the right hand side of the home page, click on “Login”.  Here you will be given the option to either sign in or Join Steam.

Fill in your details on the “Create Account” page, tick the “I accept AND I am 13 years of age and older” tick box to agree to terms of use (After you read the subscriber agreement!). Then click “Create My Account”.

When your account has been created successfully the site automatically goes back the home page. It will give you no indication on whether your account was created. (Don’t worry.) Go to your e-mail inbox (of the e-mail address that you supplied to the site). If the account was created you will now have an e-mail from the Steam support team.

In the e-mail click on the link provided to verify your e-mail address with Steam.

Clicking on the link will take you to the e-mail verification page. Now your account should be active.

At the top right hand side of the page you can now click “Login”.  On the “login” page enter your new username and password and click the “Login” button.

You have now successfully created a Steam account and logged in!

Now you can customise your account.  At the top right hand side of the page click the dropdown to view and select “View Profile”.

Then click on the “Edit my Profile” link.

Here you will be able to edit your profile, join groups and change settings.

On the “Profile” tab you can:

• Change your personal details - add a nickname, your real name and a tiny bio of yourself
• Create a custom URL - an easy way to send your friends to your profile
• Select you country - connect to other local players and groups and find friends
• Upload a picture of yourself or add an Avatar
• Link your Facebook account to Steam - enables your Facebook friends to find you on Steam

When you are done updating you profile as you please, click “Save” to save your changes.

Next step is to set the privacy settings on your profile. This is to select who may or may not be allowed to see info on your profile.  Click on the “Settings” tab on the “Edit Profile” page. Here you will find three options you need to set.

• Profile status - who may see your profile
• Comment Permissions - who may leave comments on your profile page
• Inventory - who can view your game inventory on your profile page

These settings are up to you. If you would like anyone to view, comment or add you as a friend then keep your profile public. But if you only want friends to see your profile, set this to "friends only".

To see how to find friends and groups, keep an eye out for our upcoming how-to guide on Steam, part 2.