Terri218
Member
I only play one or two games once or twice a day and I'm wondering if there is any way to turn Steam off when I am not playing either of these, which is most of the time. I find Steam slows down my computer. I have removed it from the startup menu. I assume there is no way to play these games without going through the Steam ap but if anyone knows it will be you guys.
Thanks as always.
ChrisS
Administrator
See if your game will play in "Offline Mode"
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru
Hi Terri, as Chris says, you can play in offline mode. To access offline mode just click on the topmost link in the top left of the client where it says Steam. You'll get a drop down menu, with Go Offline... being the second option.
whether this will reduce the amount of resources used, I really don't know.
That said, depending on the game, some can be played directly from where it's installed within the Steam clients installed folders without Steam being on at all. Not all games can be played like this, but some can.
To find out where your game is installed right click on the game in your Steam library; then, from the drop down menu select Properties.
This opens a window see the image below:
Click on the local files in the left hand menu and you'll then see another window that looks like the one below.
From this select Browse. This then opens directly to the games open folder, showing you what's inside the folder e.g.
Make a note of the location of the game, or better still create a desktop shortcut by right clicking on the games executable. Turn off Steam, then see if you are able to play the game directly from the installed game via the shortcut you've just created.
Do this with every game you want to play without Steam. As I said above; not all games will work this way because they may be tied to the Steam client; if they are, you can still play them offline unless they are also linked to other clients such as many of the EA games that are linked to Origin, or games that were released by Ubisoft that are also linked to their client called uPlay.
for example, EA games recently released a whole bunch of their games that they had refused to allow on Steam for several years following a dispute of DLC. You can now buy those games on steam, but when you try to play them via the Steam client, you then have to boot up Origin, sign into your Origin account and then install it via Origin before you can play any of those games.
p.s.
If all your games are installed on the same drive, all you need to do after finding the first one is click on common that you can see at the top of the files listed in the game and it will step back to the folder where all of your games are installed to. e.g.
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru
Terri, if you read my comment above I do explain how to go into offline mode
i.e.
To access offline mode just click on the topmost link in the top left of the client where it says Steam. You'll get a drop down menu, with Go Offline... being the second option.
Though a better way would be to see if you can actually play any of your games without the Steam client on at all. I've also explained how to do this in my comment above. Playing in offline mode still requires Steam to be on; all it does is allow you to play the game with none of Steams usual additions such as saving your progress to the steam cloud, or show that you are online to other Steam friends you may have linked to.
Additionally, if your internet is down, if you are set to offline mode you can still play any of your games; whereas if you have lost your internet connection while Steam was in online mode you won't be able to access any of your games unless you can get it in the offline mode. Which I seem to remember the last time I tried wasn't possible unless it was already set to offline mode when the internet went down.
Thankfully it's rare for the internet to go down these days. :)Though this can also be accomplished by clicking on the third option along the top of the Steam client labelled friends. Click on it and you will see a drop down menu that will show you to be either Online, Away, Invisible or Offline. (see image below)
mikiem2
Moderator
You might also want to Google something like "steam client high cpu" &/or "steam slows pc" [both w/out quotes], Terri, since that's the actual issue. Both got plenty of hits, so you're far from the only one having problems. Or as you said, you can turn the steam process or processes off after you're done playing. Task Mgr. will work, but you could also check out something like AutoHotKey [autohotkey[.]com] to create a desktop shortcut to do the same thing without opening Task Mgr. etc.
Terri218
Member
Thank you all. Whiterabbit-uk it's weird that your post wasn't showing when I asked about how to go offline. I wish there was a way to turn off automatic updates completely. I bought the games I wanted to play and several times Steam has "improved" them to the point where they are unplayable. Thankfully they've reverted to the original format shortly thereafter.
delenn13
Dedicated Gamer
This site lists all the games on Steam with NO DRM. IOW you can install the game and move the folder to where ever you like and have no real need for the Steam launcher. Hopefully, the games you play ARE in this list.
https://steam.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_DRM-free_games#Lists_of_DRM-free_games_on_Steam
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru
Thanks for the link Delenn, it's always useful to know which games can be played without Steam on at all.
:)
p.s. I hope you've fully recovered from the injury you sustained from the fall the other week?
Stay safe.
You must log in to post.