Playing a steam game without installing the game

[Owsow]

So I copied my games to my laptop from my PC and steam is downloading the game even though the copied files are updated. Also it is adding on programs list on my laptop computer and I want to avoid that. How?

[Ogami]

You need to also copy over the games "appmanifest" file from the steamapps folder.
Each Steam game has such a file with a different number at the end, and without it Steam does not recognize the game as installed even if you have the files so it starts downloading it from scratch.

Also you cant prevent the game getting added to your installed programs, that happens automatically if its installed on Steam. Steam games act like every other program you have installed.

[Shadowheartz | iksd]

Originally posted by Ogami:

You need to also copy over the games "appmanifest" file from the steamapps folder.
Each Steam game has such a file with a different number at the end, and without it Steam does not recognize the game as installed even if you have the files so it starts downloading it from scratch.

Also you cant prevent the game getting added to your installed programs, that happens automatically if its installed on Steam. Steam games act like every other program you have installed.

yep

[Owsow]

Originally posted by Ogami:

You need to also copy over the games "appmanifest" file from the steamapps folder.
Each Steam game has such a file with a different number at the end, and without it Steam does not recognize the game as installed even if you have the files so it starts downloading it from scratch.

Also you cant prevent the game getting added to your installed programs, that happens automatically if its installed on Steam. Steam games act like every other program you have installed.

on my pc i have games that I can play in steam but not listed in computer installed programs. i guess its because of the appmanifest.