Thanks for the advice. Even though I much prefer GOG where running games DRM-free is officially supported, I am not against finding out ways how to make my Steam games Steam- and DRM-free.

However, I kinda missed the point: why should this proposed process be followed, instead of the earlier "just copy your Steam game to another PC, and run it there without Steam client"? Does this new way make more Steam games work without re-authentication, or is it only because some people prefer running their Steam games using the Steam client (even if it is in a permanent offline mode)? I personally would prefer running all my DRM-free games without a client, so are these instructions useless to me?

Wasn't it so already earlier that Steam games without CEG and 3rd party DRM should be fully portable, ie, just copy the game directory to another PC, and run it there (without the client)?

Also I didn't get the point that moving the games from one Windows version to another may require going online with Steam. That sounds like an odd restriction to me, for a supposedly "DRM-free" game. The earlier way (ie. copy only the game directory, not the whole Steam folder) doesn't have this restriction, right?

About time someone highlighted the distinction between Steamworks and CEG! In other words Valve actually has two seperate sets of DRM?

Most Steam games actually can't just be copied to other machines and played; the links I provided in the first post just list the Steam games that are inherently DRM-free and that only use Steam as a delivery service. Most games on Steam, however, like The Evil Within, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, all the Resident Evil games, all the Sonic The Hedgehog games, etc., require the client to be running and to be logged into an account that purchased those games. Any games NOT on that list of DRM-free Steam games will require the client in order to even launch the games at all. This tutorial is here to help you run those games, the Steam titles that absolutely require the use of the client.

As far as the upgraded Windows version goes, that restriction is simply so Steam can actually run in an updated environment. If you download the necessary files that Steam prompts you to download, then you never have to do it again from any PC-to-PC transfer. There were just some incompatibilities between Windows 7 and Windows 8 that Valve needed to fix to have an existing Steam setup function properly.


That's exactly right. There's the regular Steam DRM, which just requires a game to launch while the Steam client is running, and there's CEG, which actually generates system-specific files that have to be redownloaded on each machine that runs the game. CEG games can't be copied and pasted and expected to work, because even though you still have all your license files, the actual program files will be different on every PC.

Steamworks just means that a game utilizes the Steam system's features, like achievements, online multiplayer, leaderboards, and possibly Workshop support, and as games like Super Meat Boy have shown us, you don't need to require the Steam client in order to implement all the Steamworks features that the platform offers.

depends on your definition of DRM....

Steamworks is not DRM, unless you count dependencies as DRM. In which case, using Direct X, or requiring Windows is DRM also.

CEG is the only DRM Steam uses, as...umm.... Digital Rights Management software in its own right.

Thanks pedrovay2003
I really needed this tutorial!

Interesting thought, with this definition, everything that needs a DRMed operating system has DRM,
the more reason for GoG to go Linux full monty.

uhm, Steamworks verifies that you have a license to run the game. That is to me the very definition of Digital Rights Management.
If you want to split hairs, you could say that CEG is actually just an additional protection layer of the actual DRM mechanism.

Actually, you are wrong. CEG verifies the license, not Steamworks. All other Steamworks component can run without CEG verifying the license. You c oil you stress it to the point that CEG is a part of Steamworks, but it do not change the fact that you can have a game that make use of, for example achivments, but not CEG.

hmm, i was pretty sure, that as soon as a game calls into steam_api.dll, that the dll then verifies via the steam client, that you are actually allowed to run the game. And that regardless of whether CEG is used or not.
But i am too lazy to look that up now(KSP is waiting), so maybe i am remembering it wrong.

Sorry, I've been having trouble with GOG telling me someone quoted me in a forum post :/

Yes, I've been able to keep Steam 100% offline on an external device and launch the client and all of my games on a freshly-built, also-offline desktop. The OS was the same version, and it gave me no issues at all, no online requirements in the slightest.

Thank you, I must try it out sometimes.

Thank you! Very useful info.

Thank you pedrovay and +1. Very useful for games that are not available on GOG at all - and only for them! I don't really understand those negative postings. Everybody here in this forum obviously prefers GOG otherwise he or she wouldn't be here in the first place. But there are some games GOG probably will never get their hands on so some people would buy them on Steam and now are depending on Steam which is a bad feeling. This way the feeling might get a bit better. For me this is not Steam advertisement - it's more like "if you already used Steam and are feeling bad because you now need Steam to be online there is no need no need to feel bad". I, too bought several games on GOG again which I already owned on Steam as they weren't available on GOG before. I will always support GOG and I would never buy any game from Steam if there was an alternative - but sometimes there simply isn't. If you never have used Steam and never want to and you prefer to not have some games at all then this tutorial is simply not meant for you. This is just my opinion and of course nobody has to agree. In my perfect world all games would be available on GOG and GOG wouild be bigger than Steam - but unfortunately this is not the case ... yet ;)

A lot of thanks for your guide. It takes away a lot of my anxiety of having to play my Steam games just in case Steam disappears. With that anxiety gone, I'll be able to shift my attention to all the wonderful GOG games that are still on my backlog.

I have one question: does this method also work, if I make a zip-file of the Steam folder containing just the client and re-install games from backups using the backup function in the Steam app itself?

I got most games backup as folders created this way, with just a selection csd and csm archive files instead of zip-files of complete installations. I think it's tidier that way. Can the backupped games be re-installed from those backups in offline modus?

It's unfortunate, but I don't think this will work. When you use the Steam client's built-in backup feature, it leaves a few key files out, forcing you to log in and restore the backup while connected to the Internet and download the missing files. The only real way to get a full backup us to copy/paste or zip the game's installation folder manually.