Use UWPHook to access Universal Windows 10 games through Steam
Every true gaming fanatic has Steam running on their machine as a gaming client and even on their phones after Valve’s app release for Windows handsets. Since then, Steam has gotten a whole lot better with the latest support it’s getting for running external games via UWPHook.
But there is a lot more to Steam than just a PC gaming client. If you own any game that you purchased via Steam, you must at some point have used the client’s comprehensive features to chat with friends or other players, stream music and browse extended sets of information like community guides. It’s all fun and games until you find a title of your liking on another platform that lacks compatibility features while running it on Steam. Though it happens rarely, it’s usually quite easy to add external games on Steam. Some gamers though are not always lucky enough to land overlay support and acquire all Steam specific features.
Now, with the introduction of UWPHook, it is quite simple to add games from the Windows Store to Steam, a process that was previously considered a strenuous task. When open, you’ll observe a “load installed apps” button on the top-right corner of the window. From there, you can access all the pre-installed apps on your machine. After selecting your preferred apps, choose “export” and make sure you don’t have Steam running while you do that. Even if it is, you’ll need to restart it.
Everything runs pretty smoothly after that. The only downside is that the app is currently limited and doesn’t offer full Flash features as you might expect. It does, however, indicate you are currently in a game with your friends running on Steam, but you just won’t be able to access the overlay, take screenshots or use the Steam controller.
The app is currently in the production process and its developer stated in a Gears of War subreddit post that the team is working on the overlay support:
“Overlays still doesn’t work, i’m trying to figure a way to inject them or to make a workaround, but this will take a little longer than i would like, but i’m actively trying to find a way.” said @BrianoStorm.
We can only hope for UWPHook to continue benefitting Steam. If you’ve experienced some issues or bugs while using it, you can report it on the official subreddit.
