Library, downloads and installing

Library

The Library page shows every game on your server.

• Search by title, and pick a single library if your server has several.
• Filters: genre, developer, publisher, theme, feature, perspective, keyword, platform and rating. Tags on a game's page are clickable and filter by that value.
• Sort by title, last played, playtime or size.
• Cover size: small, medium or large.

Click a game for its details: description, playtime, release, developer, photos and trailers.

Downloads

Press Download on a game. With more than one games folder, you choose where it goes and see the free space on each.

• Zip and tar downloads are unpacked while they arrive, so a game needs only its own size in free space. 7z, rar and other archives are unpacked as soon as the download finishes.
• Pause keeps what has arrived and Resume carries on from there, also after quitting the app. A failed download resumes the same way with Retry download. This needs a server that can resume downloads; with one that cannot, the download starts over.
• A setup program or disc image is saved as it is and waits for Install.
• Speed limit: set one on the Downloads page. It is off by default.
• Cancel stops a download and deletes what has arrived; Delete download removes a finished one.
• Progress shows on the taskbar or dock icon, and a notification tells you when a game is ready.

Settings, Library, Automation:

• Extract automatically (on by default): unpack archives as soon as they download.
  • Delete the archive after extracting (on by default).
  • Archive password: tried on encrypted archives.
• Install automatically when a download finishes: Inno Setup and NSIS installers run silently. A game with patches or DLC installs the game, then the patches, then the DLC. It waits for you when no setup is clearly the game, or the game's setup has no silent mode. Setups without a silent mode are left for you in Installed.
• Delete the download after installing: the starting choice in the install dialog, off while a setup program is left out.
• Inno Setup options (default /VERYSILENT /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES /NORESTART) and NSIS options (default /S), used by automatic installs and by Install silently. Empty restores the default.
• Never offer these executables.

Installing

Gameyfin looks at what was downloaded and handles it:

Download	What happens
Archive (zip, 7z, rar, tar)	Unpacked into Gameyfin/Installations. Encrypted archives use the password from Settings, Library, Automation. On Linux, rar needs unar installed.
Setup program	Run for you, on Linux inside the game's prefix. Common installer types are told where to install, so the game ends up where Gameyfin can find it. The row shows how much it has written.
Game files	Moved into place as they are.

When you install by hand, the dialog shows each way to install as its own card with its own button, such as running the setup programs or moving the files into place. They are alternatives, so pick one. Recommended marks the one to choose when unsure.

Setup options are flags passed to the setup program and remembered for the game. A silent flag such as /VERYSILENT lets it install without asking questions.

Games with patches and DLC

A download can hold several setup programs. Gameyfin sorts them by name into Game, Patch and DLC, and runs the ones you tick one after another in that order.

• Update programs count too, such as PATCH.exe or Game.Update.v1.2.exe, in any subfolder of the download.
• Patches run oldest first, by the version in their file or folder name. One the game installer already includes is marked and unticked.
• A disc menu such as autorun.exe shows as Other and is not ticked.
• Other programs in the download lists every other .exe and .msi, folded away and unticked. A ticked one joins the list above, where it can be moved into place.
• Drag a row by its handle, or use its arrows, to change the order they run in.
• Install silently passes the silent flags, so no wizard asks where to install.
• A failed patch or DLC does not stop the rest. A failed game setup does.
• A patch or DLC that finishes without changing anything in the game's folder is reported as not applied, with whatever it printed.
• A 32-bit setup program that closes before its window opens, for want of a 32-bit graphics driver, is run again with WOW64. The game's own options, such as WOW64, apply to its setup programs too.

Setups you skipped stay in the game's options in Installed, under Setup programs, marked installed or not.

Choosing the executable

Gameyfin picks the file to launch and asks when it is not sure. It looks through the game's folder and up to eight levels of subfolders, preferring files near the top and named after the game. You can change it any time in Installed with Choose an executable, and pick any file in the game's folder.

Crash handlers, redistributables and uninstallers are never offered. Edit that list in Settings, Library, Automation, Never offer these executables.

Installed games

The Installed page lists what is on this PC, with the install path, the running game and per-game options: launch options, Proton settings, the compatibility prefix, shortcuts and setup options. See Playing games.

Uninstall looks for the game's own uninstaller and runs it, or lets you choose one. Without one, only the game's files are removed. Uninstalling does not delete your stored saves.

On Linux, a Windows game's prefix is kept unless you tick Also delete the compatibility prefix. Saves the game kept inside it go too, unless they were backed up.

Games folders

Settings, Library, Games folders lists every folder Gameyfin uses, with free space. Add one on another drive, pick the default, or stop using one. A missing folder, such as an unplugged drive, is flagged and its games return once it is back.

Rescan folders finds games already in a games folder, for example after reinstalling Gameyfin.

Folders Gameyfin does not manage, such as a game copied in by hand or one the server no longer has, are listed at the bottom of Installed and Downloads under Not linked to a game. When there are any, a button next to Open folder says how many and jumps to the list. Assign to a game renames the folder after a game and adopts it. Delete removes it.