Steam in offline mode

[zespri]

Hello all,

I know, that if I just googled it I'd probably find an answer or two... But since you guys might have had some hand on experience.

Sometimes I play games on my workplace. With impulse I didn't have problems. I would just download a game and play it.

However with Steam I can't do this at all as it apparently uses non-standard ports blocked by corporate firewall. When I install steam the first thing that it tries to do (the same as Impulse) is to update itself and it can't (Impulse works flawlessly, in additions there is Impulse Anywhere).

So. Is there a way to install steam games if you are behind a corporate firewall that you don't have control over?

[Cyborg]

If I were you, I would not do such a thing as it will probably get you fired. But if you are hell-bent on playing games at work, I would take a laptop and try this:

1) setup your steam account on the new machine and add it to the steam guard
2) move your steam folder to the new computer

[Echo35]

All you need to do is connect to Steam once to download your information. After that, all you need to do is disable your network connection (ie, unplug your network cable or disable it temporarily in the Control Panel). Then, try connecting to Steam. In theory, it'll sense that there's no internet connection and ask you to sign in to Offline Mode. I know people have had issues with Offline Mode, but it always works for me.

[zespri]

If I were you, I would not do such a thing as it will probably get you fired.

Lol, why would you say that? I don't want to be rude, but you can't know my situation as well as myself and you simply do not have information as to what can get me fired and what is not. There are so many unknowns here that you can't know. For example one can simply not care if they are fired. Why do you think you can judge this better then me?

1) setup your steam account on the new machine and add it to the steam guard

Can you explain what you mean by this please? First of all what is steam guard? I certainly can copy some folders from another machine, but I'm almost sure steam won't ran without updating first and it can't update. Also what folders do you mean? Folders with game? folders with Steam? Are there any setting folders that also need to be copied or something?

Thank you in advance.

[zespri]

All you need to do is connect to Steam once to download your information.

And this is where my problem is. I wonder if it would be possible to do this on one machine which has full internet access and then copy something to a different machine that does not as Cyborg suggested and then set it in the off-line mode.

[Cyborg]

If I were you, I would not do such a thing as it will probably get you fired.

For example one can simply not care if they are fired. Why do you think you can judge this better then me?

I fail to see how we disagree. I suggested that you would get fired for circumventing the firewall and playing games on the job, and you concurred with a wisecrack claiming that you really don't care. That's great for you. now go ahead and copy your steam folder over to the other computer, proceed with the advice you have been given, and realize your dream of unemployment!

[zespri]

Cyborg,

I'd like to start with saying that I've read a lot of you post on this forum and that you usually come across as reasonable person with mature opinions and I respect that.
Now, I think that in case of this particular conversation, there has been misunderstanding. You certainly read in something in my comments that I didn't mean in the slightest when I was writing them. (For example I never said that I don't really care) Of course, I too could very likely have misunderstood you. In addition, English is not my first language, so this could have affected the whole thing too (the "wisecrack" thing that certainly was not intended), and I apologize for that.

On the other hand I don't feel that further discussion of this particular topic is positive in any way unless we just agree to forget the whole incident altogether, no hard feelings. It just does not matter that much.

[arcee]

try this:
install steam on your home computer
run it, launch any games you want to run, etc. - make sure everything is updated
copy the _entire_ steam folder (usually 'c:\program files\Steam' or 'c:\program files(x86)\Steam') onto a portable drive
install steam onto the work computer
copy the portable steam folder onto the work computer, overwriting the existing steam folder
you can tell steam to go offline from the main menu, once you've done that it stays that way (asks if you want to go back to online when you start)

[zespri]

Yep, good idea, I'll try that. May be I even try going to offline mode before copying in case it keeps this setting somewhere in the steam folder. What about the games? Are the all installed inside the steam folder too?

[arcee]

yep, your games are all in ...\steam\steamapps\common or ...\steam\steamapps\yourusername (perhaps just valve games there)

[Nalgas]

May be I even try going to offline mode before copying in case it keeps this setting somewhere in the steam folder. What about the games? Are the all installed inside the steam folder too?

The vast majority of Steam-related things are kept inside the Steam folder at this point, including pretty much all of Steam's files, all of the games/trailers/tools/etc. it installs, and most of its config info and the local cache of your account/client/profile settings and stuff like that (e.g. your game list and what categories you have things sorted into, which was handy when a beta Steam client corrupted mine and I was able to fix it manually and then sign it with a more recent timestamp than the cloud version, heh).  The games themselves can and do install or save stuff to various other locations, but that's a very individual thing, and they all tend to sort themselves out and reinstall what they need if you copy them over and try to run them and they don't think they're actually installed (e.g. don't have their proper registry entries and whatnot).

Speaking of the registry, something I don't know is to what extent Steam uses that these days and if there's anything it might care about in there if you just try to copy the files over or if Steam Guard has any affect on any of that...

[Echo35]

May be I even try going to offline mode before copying in case it keeps this setting somewhere in the steam folder. What about the games? Are the all installed inside the steam folder too?

The vast majority of Steam-related things are kept inside the Steam folder at this point, including pretty much all of Steam's files, all of the games/trailers/tools/etc. it installs, and most of its config info and the local cache of your account/client/profile settings and stuff like that (e.g. your game list and what categories you have things sorted into, which was handy when a beta Steam client corrupted mine and I was able to fix it manually and then sign it with a more recent timestamp than the cloud version, heh).  The games themselves can and do install or save stuff to various other locations, but that's a very individual thing, and they all tend to sort themselves out and reinstall what they need if you copy them over and try to run them and they don't think they're actually installed (e.g. don't have their proper registry entries and whatnot).

Speaking of the registry, something I don't know is to what extent Steam uses that these days and if there's anything it might care about in there if you just try to copy the files over or if Steam Guard has any affect on any of that...

Steam Guard affects what machines you can log in to, and is easy to simply turn off. As far as files go, you are correct. Everything saves inside the Steam folder so simply copying over the whole directory will work. Only issue is that (sometimes) you need to try running the game while it's online in order to pull down whatever random other things you need (Registry keys, additional folders, etc). SImply copying the files over doesn't always work, particularly when Valve games are involved.