Every PC gamer should add all of their non-steam games to their steam games list. Really, it's pretty handy. At first I didn't think there was a point to it, as I had shortcuts to all the games in a folder on my desktop, but it's really cool. If you do add your non-steam games to your steam games list, and then just use steam to open the games, you can access the steam in-game menu by pressing shift+tab like you can with Steam games. For those of you who don't have steam, you could compare the in-game menu to the XBOX-Live or Windows-Live in-game dashboard menu. By doing this, you can stay logged in to steam, and you can access all your steam settings, your friends list, (including all the steam friends chat functions) the entire steam community, (including all group chat functions) and if you recieve any messages, the little Steam alert window still pops up in the corner even on non-steam games.
TL;DR version: Opening your non-steam games through steam allows you to access the steam in-game menu to use the steam community and your friends list and all steam chat functions no matter what game you're playing.
Example, right now I was playing Oblivion while using the steam dashboard to chat with someone.
TL;DR version: Opening your non-steam games through steam allows you to access the steam in-game menu to use the steam community and your friends list and all steam chat functions no matter what game you're playing.
Example, right now I was playing Oblivion while using the steam dashboard to chat with someone.