Valve has recently posted an announcement about their new beta for the Steam client, which will introduce a host of new updates. One such update is a new option for downloading a game in the background while playing another game simultaneously. However, this feature must be enabled for each game you wish to play while downloads are occurring.

In the past, you had to manually resume a download when playing a game by hitting "alt-tab" to go to the steam client.

Here's a full list of new additions coming for the beta:

General

• Add ability to limit what time of day Steam is allowed to automatically update apps
• Add option to let other games download while a game is running (this is a per-game setting)
• Add download regions for Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Ottawa in Canada
• Add 'Copy all text to clipboard' context menu option in the System Information dialog.

Steam client UI

• Improve downloading status text at the bottom of the main window

Big Picture

• Added ability to opt into game betas and edit launch options
• Added Inbox item under Linux if your machine requires a reboot due to OS level updates
• Fix infinite loop of Cloud sync error dialogs on game launch
• Fixed mouse cursor being visible during startup animation even if it hadn't moved

Linux

• Fix paste pasting stale text.
• Fix Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V in client-hosted web page text controls.
• Fix incorrect foregrounding of a blank window in some -silent startup cases.