hi, i have a question thats 'weird' ...

a while back i installed steam under old XP, i have PC with bootmenu allowing me to select between XP and win7
ofcourse i have all admin rights :D

If i have a game i bought at steam (at sales ofcourse) and i install it under win xp and the game needs steam to play be it in normal mode or 'offline' mode , would i be able to play the game while i am logged in my win7 64 bits?

Normally you would say: nope you cant run and play a game if the client was not installed under that OS you are currently playing with...

but apparently it can... and thats the weird part cause normally it should not run cause it would be missing some files needed to run cause normally these would reside somewhere on the win XP folders in sytem folders which apparently arent available when logged in win7 eventhough you are admin on win7 (user rights)

So maybe steam is doing funny things ......

let me explain:

i bought some very cheap games during sales and weeklong sales, normally the games that need steam wont run when i open these in win7 (steam not installed)

they would give messages that they need client dll xxxxx or give other messages....

but the funny thing is i have one game that had the nerve to try to acces the steam client dialog popped up saying it needed some stuff and the it wanted to start something and install something, since the internet connection was unplugged :D he was unable to phone home and download stuff, so thats why all these files must have something inside that when client is not available (actively installed) it will install some other 'shit' to make the game run.

99% of the games wont work but this one tried to pull a fast one on me:

alternativa (1.99 at sales)

a weird point and click game

could it be possible that it doesnt matter on what windows you install steam client, it will start some steam stuff anyway if needed ( on same pc).


edit:

i copied the game to any different folder ... then the game will give a error :D
so it seems as long as this game is inside the steam folder it starts offline mode

it will run Steam.exe Steamservice.exe steamwebhelper.exe
win7 dialog also pops up (uac) telling some programs wants to do something (steam is doing something)
ofcourse i canceld that, then after a few seconds the game runs....

This is the first game i have that acts like this, its weird and it shouldnt be able to start any service cause normally , normal programs wont run or run properly if they miss some registry info, (installed under xp so the info is in the xp registry) apparently steam does not need any registry info cause it launches anyway.


The game is also badly programmed, alt tab while sound is playing will crash the game, ouch thats some bad coding...
the game looks okay to me, it has a few nasty sounds like those idiot robots, but i turn down the volume to min. when they speak, i can turn off speech but that would turn off all speeches.
The bad thing is they used a .res file to store sounds , music and graphics, in the old days it was an editable wav or so, then i would open the file and change or remove the parts of the metallic voice of the robots and voila, a nice working game with no irritating voices( which add nothing to any game imho).

Anyway its a decent game with a few quirks.

Yes, so long as you set up a Steam Library in a specific DIR on BOTH OS's. I had assumed this wasn't possible myself until I did exactly what you ask (under the same 2 OS's -> Same setup basically).

In other words, if you have for example a S:\Games DIR and that drive is S on BOTH OS's, then you'd need to make a new Steam library under that DIR in XP and install some game there. Then reboot to Win7 and run Steam. Install another game to a new Steam library at the same location. Once that's done. Steam should realize by the data in the library there, that it has access to the other games you installed under XP (and this works vice-versa), and should show them as Installed.

TL;DR : Yes, just install them to the same drive and DIR combination Steam lib.

EDIT : Just read your bit on the registry part. That's because Steam stores it's own info in the registry and can get at the data it needs to setup a game, including pertinent registry entries. It'll create them if they don't exist.

Reminds me of Risk of Rain.
This thing used to work fine without going online.
One day it start to download update and once update download started I no longer was able to play it.

thanks for the replies, so i dont need to install the client on win7 cause it will 'work' anyhow?

my major concern was that steam would be polluting my win7 registry and messing up the windows systems folder C:\
with all the windows settings , profiles and more... but steam can snoop and spy anywhere on the pc ?

As for the folder, when i copy the game to another folder on another partition, the steam cant pull a fast one cause then the error dialog pops up, the funny thing is that the drive letters dont match on the partitions, under xp the names and letters are different then the onese on win7 when logged in.

So i assume steam is just looking into the installed folder locations and disregards any drive letter : its drive J under win7 and drive E under XP.

Anyway this proves that steam is related to E.T, and basically their client could or should be labeled as some form of 'spyware' cause it does things its not supposed to...

When i install a program under XP, or any other windows , that program should never be allowed to autoinstall some shits on my current windows , it should only nag and telling me to get the client, tell me to download it and then do a full install..., on my windows, like it should be , instead of being smart and silently installing/activating steam shits .

Ofcourse i assume the majority of the steam users dont care (13-18 years old )
cause they dont mind that everything goes so easy, they like it that way, well unfortunately i am not one of those, i like to be in control as much as possible :D Thats why i always zip/rar my exe files and dll files if possible as soon as i notice the game can run independendly of steam once its installed , but i always disable auto updates, auto start of steam while launching windows, i also copy the game to an external usb harddrive, and burn them on a dvd .

That would be a excellent solution, unfortunately i am not the person who blindly installs gazillions of software on my PC, as for begging :D i will never have to beg old Steam for anything, cause living in EU aquires me to click the agreement before i start the payment, they have it all covered up, by clicking you agree. bla bla bla bla .....
its the same on all games, even browsergames created and hosted in EU countries (germany) so thats why i stick at 10 cents to a max of 3 to 5 bucks per game, this way if it fails i will just stop buying games from that developer on Steam. I have almost all casualgames of a casual developer on steam, they are 3.99 to 4.99 a piece , they all run once installed, as soon as i notice that one game wont work its no cash for that dude.

Anyway, boose, sigarettes, dating, cinema, hobby's like sports or so all cost shiploads of cash, i dont have any so i can 'save' on a lot... so i can 'afford' a few tiny 'miss buys' at 99 cents once in a while :D.

No, you need to install on both OS's and make Steam Libs in the same location.

So i do need to install the game on win7 just like i did with XP back then?
so it would be impossible that the not active steam client on my partition E (winXP) and (J) on win7 could install the client or do other weird things?

I have 2 or three games now that try to run a certain 'setup' thing from the steamclient thats should not be able to work cause i installed it under XP, but i didnot installed it in a locked winxp folder, i installed it in a normal folder , so maybe thats why i tries to install some steam stuff.
I think this steam client is trying to be smarter then any client should be able to :D

To me it looks like Steam has some way to 'activate' a 'sleeping' file inside the client which was installed under xp , and should not be able to function or try to do sneaky things at all, it should only nag and tell me that i need to download the client from the site and install it it, it should try to be smart and do weird things.

Example: steam was installed under winxp (dont want to mess my win7 up with steam)
the steam path under XP log in is : E:\steam\SteamApps\common

Under win7 drive letters changed cause i have dual boot: J:\steam\SteamApps\common
I understand this makes no differnce to Steam.
The thing thats wrong is that Steam seems to be 'portable' or something like that: it seems to be able to repair/check for updates and god knows maybe even install some stuff from the steam files that were installed under xp, and thats 'fishy'.
A normal decent no 'spying' program should nag and tell me to get the client download and install it fresh under this windows and then show a dialog telling that, i would click ok the dialog closes .

As it is now this ET, is phoning home or tries to be smart and wants to install/update somethings which he shouldnt be allowed to be doing, so that steam has some nasty smart code inside, programs should no be able to be smart and have ways to install a fresh program using old file data.
Seen terminator movies? the terminator tries to access a recovery mode when he is badly damaged,
imho tools/programs/software should not be able to do that, funny thing is i cant find any info about the fact that some games seem to be able to install/reinstal/repair/update a client.

check the attachments:updating_dialog
This is the game called Myths Of Orion (hiddenobjects/casual game)


and connecting_to_acc for the game AlternativA

click the offline mode button, UAC will message that steam.exe wants to do something .....
cant show screenshot cause you cant take screenshots from UAC cause the printscreen doesnt work
but click on the button to abort/cancel the action, the game will start and show the game in the bar like in the screenshot.

This is all very weird, a game should either run on any pc after the installation under steam has done, or should not work at all and show a messgae telling that you need to have the client installed, it should never 'offer' to install the client cause it should not be able to cause the tool was installed on other windows.