I view to client to be the devil. Done lol XD

This is where all the steam hate comes from. GOG isn't my favorite exactly. It is a nice tool box. If steam didn't make people use a client I think GOG wouldn't exist now.

I think I should stop responding in this thread. I'm upsetting people...."looks at Marko" lol XD

Okay, I've updated the list completely. Thanks for the information, guys! Also, I'd like to make a request: Please list the OS you're testing the games on so each OS can be updated accordingly.

Just confirming that this indeed doesn't work without Steam before I remove the listing.

I don't know about the language choice, but the graphics options shouldn't give you a problem, since all the config files are stored in the game folder itself and not in the Steam cloud folder. I've adjusted the options in both Half-Life 2 and Portal outside of Steam, and my settings always remain unchanged, even without Steam running.

I've tested all games on Win7 64bit. I've updated my post accordingly.

SteamCMD. Skip the full client, download your games.

Additional question: What about Galaxy? Is Galaxy the work of the devil or not?

I am not upset and I really can understand how someone could hate Steam - I am not a fan of them either. It is just hard for me to understand that someone could not get the simple reason why this thread even exists - and this is how I interpreted your posts with the many metaphors. I have absolutely no problem if you say you understand it but you still don't like Sream and you still wouldn't buy something from them because of their terms - no arguing here. But for many people who already HAVE bought Steam games or WANT games exlusively on Steam but don't want to use the Steam-Client in the future this is really helpful. I will never be upset if someone has another opinion than me but in this case the theme of the thread is not subjective. A game has some sort of copy protection in it or it has not. Here are the games you can get from Steam which still aren't copy protected (at least they can be played without the Steam-Client - to make sure they really aren't protected at all you'd have to transfer the game on a totally different PC). There is no reason to argue about it. Another thread would be if someone should buy anything from Steam because their SSA, support and everything else is bad as hell.
I remember some of the graphics setting which were saved but at least the resolution wasn't. I'll check this again. As far I have backuped those games to my Steam_with_DRM folder :(

Edit: I tried it again (with portal). You cannot change resolution above the desktop resolution (I have 720p Desktop resolution and can change this ingame to 1080p but after restart it's back to 720p) and you cannot chose any other language than english. Not with startparameters, console parameters or even through the menus. No problem doing any of these things when Steam is running. Keybindings and other graphical settings as well as savegames do work.

Good point. I mean for those people who HAVE used steam, it makes sense to want to know how to get their stuff.

That program perhaps and the un-protected games = a possible compromise =D

For anyone who was interested in what I was saying about CEG earlier in this thread, another more reliable way to tell if a game has Valve CEG in it is to open the game's corresponding .acf file (located in the SteamApps folder) in Notepad. If it has an entry that starts with CheckGuid, it has CEG. ProtectionID can actually miss Valve CEG during a scan even if a game has it; this new trick is a way of verifying it.

This is actually a really good discovery, though. The Steam DB website (https://steamdb.info/) lists a bunch of information about Steam game files, including if the CheckGuid thing is involved; just go to a game's page and click the Configuration tab (for example: https://steamdb.info/app/35110/config/ for the Just Cause 2 demo information). Since they log pretty much everything, determining whether or not a Steam game has CEG in it before purchase isn't necessarily a crapshoot anymore, since you can just check the website. This MAY only be reliable for Windows game, though, as some games have CEG in Windows and they don't in other OSes (the Linux version of BioShock Infinite, for example, doesn't even have the CheckGuid text in its .acf file) and Steam DB reports that it does have CEG; it doesn't make an OS distinction.

HOLY CRAP, the Microsoft-published Ori and the Blind Forest is DRM-free. Adding it to the list now. I'm so happy. :D

I hate to be the one to play stupid here but exactly what parameters are we looking for in the configuration tab?
I have opened a number of games in the DB and the info is meaningless to me. :/

Would that mean that every game which has not this CheckGuid in the steamdb can be copied (at least to another directory) freely and run without steam?

All my games was tested on Win 8.1, forgot to mention that.

Thanks for the confirmation. I will buy it now at full price instead of waiting for a price cut.

Edit: About Ori. Bought the game. It's indeed DRM-free, but I had to remove steam_api.dll to make it run without Steam.

Just look for the CheckGuid line. In my link for the Just Cause 2 demo page, if you click Configuration, there's CheckGuid information. Just having that line means that it has CEG, or, in rare cases, had it, but it's removed now. There's no way to tell about that last part.
Essentially, yes, I think so. Hell, the games that don't have CheckGuid work if you copy/paste them to entirely different machines, in my experience.
Huh, I didn't have to delete anything to get it to run, but whatever works.

Got it, thanks. ;)

Running With Rifles seems to be DRM free according to the developer: http://steamcommunity.com/app/270150/discussions/0/35219681575668572/