Settings

Settings

Three ways to change things, in order of convenience:

1. Quick Menu — the handful you actually change from the sofa.
2. Settings editor — Ctrl+Alt+Shift+S. Everything, by category, controller-drivable.
3. The INI file — hand-edit, then Ctrl+Alt+Shift+R to reload.

The editor is the right answer almost always. It validates what you type, greys out rows that another setting has made irrelevant, and stages every change so a failed save cannot leave you with a half-written settings file.

Choosing how SteamShell runs

[Features] ReplaceWindowsShell decides whether SteamShell replaces the Windows shell or runs alongside Explorer. It is read once at startup, and editing it by hand does not move the shell registry value on its own.

Use Advanced & Logging → "Switch to Shell Mode…" (or "Switch to Alongside Mode…") to change both together. See Shell & Alongside modes.

Where the file lives

SteamShellSettings.ini beside the executable, or in the data directory chosen at setup. The companion uses SteamShell-XFE.ini.

The authoritative list of every setting is the sample file, with a comment on each: SteamShellSettings_SAMPLE.ini · SteamShell-XFE_SAMPLE.ini

This page describes what the sections are for. It deliberately does not restate every key, because a copied list goes stale and a generated one already exists.

Sections

Section	Covers
[SteamShell]	Schema version and install identity. Managed for you.
[Setup]	What Setup Assistant installed and where. Managed for you.
[Paths]	Steam, RTSS, mpv locations
[Steam]	How Steam is launched and observed
[BPM]	Big Picture window identification
[Features]	The master on/off switches
[Timing]	Poll intervals and cooldowns
[WindowManagement]	Centring, maximising, exclusions
[GameForegroundAssist]	The focus scorer — weights and thresholds
[AlwaysFocus]	Executables that win over Steam
[LauncherCleanup]	Closing launchers after a game
[Controller]	Backend, deadzone, cursor speed, poll rate
[ControllerMap]	Button mappings
[QuickMenu]	Quick Menu layout, accent, behaviour
[RTSS]	Frame cap and overlay
[MousePark]	Where the cursor goes when it gets out of the way
[Splash]	Startup video
[StartupPrograms]	Things launched with the shell
[Logging]	Verbosity and rotation — see Debugging

Upgrading between versions

Your settings file is synchronised with the built-in schema on every start:

• Missing options are added with defaults.
• Existing values are kept — including deliberately blank ones.
• Retired options are removed, after their value is carried to whatever replaced them.
• A versioned backup is written first, e.g. SteamShellSettings.ini.pre-schema-22.bak.
• Migrations are staged in a copy and replace the live file only if every change succeeds.

You do not need to do anything when upgrading. 2.0.0 is schema 23.

The one change worth knowing about in 2.0.0

ControllerMouseSpeed changed unit — it is now pixels per second, where it used to be pixels per poll tick.

Every stored value is converted, not just the default, because leaving a customised 150 alone would have produced a cursor that barely moves. The conversion preserves the speed you were already used to. ControllerPollIntervalMs of exactly 16 also becomes 15; a value you chose deliberately is left alone.

Editing by hand

• ; starts a comment. A # only does at the start of a value — so a window title like Portal #2 survives, which it did not before 2.0.0.
• Blank means blank. It is not replaced with a default.
• Ctrl+Alt+Shift+R reloads without a restart.
• Keep the backup files until you are happy.

Resetting

Settings → Advanced offers Restore Category Defaults for one page and Reset All Settings for everything, both with confirmation. There is also export and import if you want to move a configuration between machines.