It’s not uncommon for users to see something called Steamworks Common Redestributables in their Steam library. Now while you may not think much of it at first, it’s actually a rather important aspect of Steam being able to optimise and run games on your PC.
In this article, we’re going over the Steamworks Common Redistributable and whether you need it to have it installed on your system.
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What is Steamworks common Redistrubutables?
Simply put, Steamworks is a suite of files and tools that developers can use in their games on Steam. In addition, the suite optimises a game’s settings to run on different Windows computers with varying configurations.
As part of the redistributable, you get the following tools.
- Visual C++ (2010,2013 and 2015)
- .NET Framework
- DirectX Redistributable
- OpenAL
- Nvidia PhysX
The entire collection is often bundled up and deployed as an update to your system. If you check your Steam game updates frequently, you must have seen Steamworks Common Redistributable being updated occasionally or when you download and install a game from the platform.
Since the tools included in the package are used by many games, this saves you time and space having to download the dependencies for each game repeatedly. Furthermore, if two or more games share the same dependencies, they can use the files with this package.
Should I delete Steamworks Common Redistributables?
The short answer is no. Not only the package saves you time and HDD/SSD space, but it also will be downloaded again regardless if you try to launch a game.
If you find seeing the package in your Steam library off-putting, you can hide it from plain view and let it take care of things in the background.
Step 1: Open Steam and head over to your Library.
Step 2: Right-click Steamworks Common Redistributable, head over to Manage and click Hide this game.
The package will not be hidden from your library but will still be installed and work as usual. You can find all your hidden games in the Hidden section of the library.
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