The Steamworks Common Redistributable component appeared in the game package relatively recently, and many users already know that in some cases the program starts to behave not quite correctly. How much it is needed in the popular game interface and whether it is possible to do without it, we will try to find out today.
What is the SCR program for?
The question is quite reasonable: if Steamworks worked for a long time without this additional component, then how justified is its addition to the product? In fact, there are millions of such examples in life. All the creations of human hands are being improved, this is a natural process. The first cars did not use electronic components, and today, without an ECU, a car simply will not start.
Let’s get back to our question. What is this Steamworks Common Redistributable program? Technical details aside, this component of the gaming platform was designed to combine libraries and individual critical files needed for games to function. From now on, the SCR file is always in the client’s library. Physically it can be found in the Games directory as well as in the Tools folder. The component is activated every time you start the game in order to check the integrity of the necessary files and to check if there are any fresh updates available.
Recall that any more or less serious game cannot work without the use of a large number of auxiliary libraries designed, among other things, to increase the performance of the graphics subsystem. Among them there are both well-known (Microsoft Visual C ++,. NET, and DirectX), and enough specific libraries (XNA, PhysX). In general, these are not related products, and if a particular game was developed using such libraries, then when it was installed on a computer, if the required package was missing, it had to be installed independently. What often caused problems – the user had to find this missing package, and the required version, download it and install it. As a result, a lot of unnecessary duplicates could be found on the gamer’s computer (after all, new versions are usually compatible with old ones),which “ate” a significant part of the disk space – just remember the same. NET.
In addition, if a package update was released, it was also performed separately, creating an additional load on both the game servers and the Steam platform.
That is why the developers of the game interface from VALVE decided to combine all the packages used in the platform in one place, and manage them centrally, too, using the Steamworks Common Redistributable.
Now, every time you start the game, SCR uses all the necessary libraries collected in a single directory, which theoretically allows you to increase the launch speed, reduce the load on the resources of the local computer and the VALVE server, reduce the amount of Internet traffic used, update packages with the replacement of old ones, saving disk space.
From the developers ‘point of view, the emergence of the new component made it easier for them to create games, at least in terms of installing them on users’ computers.
Can You Do Without Steamworks Common Redistributables
There is a category of users who are “hostile” to all innovations. These conservatives believe that the appearance of SCR is not justified in any way, since it takes up additional space in RAM. In fact, it is an essential system component of Steam, without which games developed using this platform can malfunction.
However, accidental or deliberate deletion of the contents of the SCR directory will only have a temporary effect – after any planned update, Steamworks Common Redistributables will be successfully restored.
In the environment of computer gurus, there is an opinion that such a tool was present on Steam before, but only recently did the developers decide to legalize the component.
Those who are annoyed by the name of the program because of the constant presence in the library list of utilities used can be advised to make sure that it runs in the background and does not catch their eye.
To do this, you need to follow a few simple steps:
- go to the Steamworks library menu;
- in “Tools” find the Steamworks Common Redistributable component;
- in the right pane in the menu at the very bottom, the item “Change” will appear;
- click on it and check the box next to the phrase “Hide the game from my library.”
Sometimes Steamworks Common Redistributable does become a source of problems – for example, when an update process that was fast before suddenly freezes. It is obvious that SCR is trying to update the required packages, but something went wrong, and progress froze at one point.
Your actions in this situation:
- try restarting Steam by opening Services and then turning off and on all network components;
- if you use a VPN or programs that emulate your own Internet connection such as Hamachi or Garena (and this is what many gamers sin), disable them – perhaps the hang is connected with the work of this software;
- also try disabling your antivirus software, both built-in and third-party.
If it doesn’t help, ping the servers used by the Steam platform, and at the same time check the speed of access to Microsoft servers. If the ping is high, then it is obvious that the problem lies in the speed of the Internet connection, and then do just that.
If none of the above helped, it remains to reinstall the Steam client, and at the same time the game that caused the update to freeze. It may also happen that the update process initiated by SCR hangs, but the game itself has started and is working absolutely fine.
You can simply ignore the stuck update, and if this option does not suit you, contact Steam technical support.
So, removing Steamworks Common Redistributable is not just undesirable – it still won’t do anything as long as you are using this gaming platform, the next time you download Steam, the package and its functionality will be restored. Remember that the purpose of SCR is not to create additional load on your PC, but quite the opposite, to speed up the launch of games and save scarce disk space. You can simply hide the component in the library, but this is also undesirable – if there are problems with library updates, it will be more difficult for you to find the cause.