I created a simple Steam Idler tool for my personal use to idle my own app, ShareX on Steam. About 11 months ago, I decided to make it open source so others could benefit from it as well. I'm sharing it here in case anyone else finds it useful too. While it may not be as advanced as some alternatives, it works well for my needs.

Description
Steam Idler is a lightweight (under 200 KB) tray application that helps you idle Steam games or apps to accumulate playtime or collect trading cards. It starts automatically with Windows and runs quietly in the system tray, offering a simple and effective way to idle without manually launching games or apps.

Project Page
https://github.com/Jaex/SteamIdler

Download
https://github.com/Jaex/SteamIdler/releases/tag/v1.0.0

Requirements
Windows 11, 10, 8.1, 7
.NET Framework 4.8

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!

View attached image.
10 hours ago*

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Why manually having to enter the appid?

I am still very content with idlemaster.

9 hours ago
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I wanted to keep it very simple, coding wise.

9 hours ago
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Thank you, it's a very useful application

9 hours ago
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It may be a stupid question, but: Does the idled game have to be installed?

8 hours ago
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You can idle any game in your library without having it installed.

8 hours ago
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Ah, that's very nice, thank you! Is there a limit how many games can idle simultaneously?

8 hours ago
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its better than idle_master_extended?
What you program can do

8 hours ago
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I would like it if there was an indication that it running properly on the app itself. Maybe a general one of adding a description that it's "running" but preferably even on each app id, maybe change the color of the text? But I don't know if something like that would increase the footprint of the app?

8 hours ago
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When it is running, it shows "Stop Idling" button at here: https://jaex.getsharex.com/2025/07/explorer_hgFl1Ts8qpOT.png

7 hours ago
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does it support multiple Steam accounts

7 hours ago
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It is using current Steam instance to idle games.

7 hours ago
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Here's a basic steam idler in less than 10 lines of Python code :)

import sys
import os
from ctypes import CDLL

app_id = sys.argv[1]
os.environ["SteamAppId"] = app_id
steam_api = CDLL("steam_api.dll")
steam_api.SteamAPI_Init()
input(f"Idling {app_id}, press ENTER to exit...")
6 hours ago
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