What exactly does steam do?

[jim]

Does it run in the background both online and off? If not can I disable it?

[Klaiber]

Hi Odir,

 

Steam is a platform that enables you to play games, buy games, and communicate with other players. Currently, Cliffs of Dover (as well as hundreds of other games) uses it as protection.

 

When you're playing a Steam based game, it runs in the background. It's a very minimal draw on your computer, and doesn't effect anything.

 

However, when you are not playing a Steam game, you can just shut it off. That's what I do.

 

Here's the wiki article on it:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_(software)