Using Steam in a Computer Lab

[RobotRevolution]

Is there a way to prevent steam from installing additional games on a computer regardless of which account is logged in?

I'm helping students start CSGO and LOL teams at the school I teach at. The IT guy is nervous about putting Steam on the lab computers without some sort of restriction in place. I could use parental controls, but that would require creating generic lab accounts on each machine instead of letting students use their personal accounts (which contain all their shiny digital bling and everyone knows you shoot straighter in CSGO with skins on).

Any help is appreciated! Thank you!

[gosling pillow talk]

As far as I know, no that is not possible. Steam cloud is a possibility if you disable it but other than that, no.
But dang you seem like an awesome teacher!

Edit: scratch the cloud idea I misread your post a bit. But could you please clarify what your question is so I can get an actual thought on what you're asking?

[RobotRevolution]

If students log in on their personal accounts, they could install other games on the machines, which is something I'd like to prevent (to prevent school-inappropriate content and stability issues). The only solution I know of would require they log in using generic lab computer accounts, which means they wouldn't have access to their skins and gamer ranks.

[gosling pillow talk]

Originally posted by RobotRevolution:

If students log in on their personal accounts, they could install other games on the machines, which is something I'd like to prevent (to prevent school-inappropriate content and stability issues). The only solution I know of would require they log in using generic lab computer accounts, which means they wouldn't have access to their skins and gamer ranks.

Well, skins shouldn't matter much to them anyway but the only option would have to be use the generic accounts. Sorry.

[Dr. Fronkensteen]

Is it possible to create disk partitions for each individual student with only enough room for the games in question?

[gosling pillow talk]

Originally posted by Barf the Mawg:

Is it possible to create disk partitions for each individual student with only enough room for the games in question?

Not a bad idea

[wdf.Ghost Assassin]

You can try using Deep Freeze software. Basically, you can set a default configuration of the OS with installed software. A user can install any software or modify the system depending on how it is configured (you can restrict users from modifying the system), but once the computer is restarted, the changes made by user are returned to the default configuration. You can install steam with the choosen games also installed. If a user tries to install other games, those modifications will remain there until the computer is restarted. For example, you log into your account and install CSGO. Logout and save that particular snapshot of the OS with the game already downloaded/installed. So when a user goes to log into their account, the game CSGO will appear to be installed since it is actually installed already. If they installed or modifiy other games, those changes will remain in that particular session of using the computer, but will revert to the default configuration once the computer is restarted.

[RobotRevolution]

Originally posted by wdf.Ghost Assassin:

You can try using Deep Freeze software.

This is already in use in the lab - I should have mentioned it originally. Sorry! The problem with this solution is that CSGO and other games like that receive updates more frequently than the machines are re-imaged by the IT guy, meaning that the players would have to download/install updates every time they log in. This is the problem we originally ran into with League of Legends (for a while we ran it off USB sticks, but eventually I got permission to install it on the secondary, non-Deep Freeze drives).

This may still be the best solution if I can't convince him to install it on the secondary drive. Thanks for the advice!

Edit to add: we were forced off USB sticks for LoL because I don't have $ in the budget to buy 16GB sticks and Riot added a gig and a half to the game around patch 6.5 or so, meaning the budget 8GB sticks I had didn't work any longer. AFAIK, CSGO can't run off memory sticks.

[RobotRevolution]

Originally posted by Barf the Mawg:

Is it possible to create disk partitions for each individual student with only enough room for the games in question?

It would be a lot of extra work for the IT guy, which I'm trying to avoid.... but he's already re-imaging computers in two sets because I was able to get a grant last year to upgrade some of the machines with video cards and more RAM (helps with gaming as well as photoshop, premiere, after effects, etc., plus the rendering for the 3D printing unit), so maybe it could work. I'll ask him about it next week. Thanks for the idea!

[Washell]

Set the steamapps\common folder to read only user rights, and the CSGO/LoL folders to read and write. Any attempt to install other games, which requires writing in that folder, should throw up an error, while the games should run fine.

Edit: the partition idea will screw you over as soon as the games update.
Edit2: You can block the steamapps\downloading too this way to stop them from downloading in the first place, but (probably) does require logging in with an elevated account to deal with updates.

[Tev]

Originally posted by Washell:

Set the steamapps\common folder to read only user rights, and the CSGO/LoL folders to read and write. Any attempt to install other games, which requires writing in that folder, should throw up an error, while the games should run fine.

Edit: the partition idea will screw you over as soon as the games update.

Might be a smart idea to turn libraryfolders.vdf into a read only file too.

[wuddih]

for steam, preventing write access to the steamapps/common folder but leaving write access to csgo folder intact should just generate diskwrite errors if someone tries to install something else.

[RobotRevolution]

Originally posted by Washell:

Set the steamapps\common folder to read only user rights, and the CSGO/LoL folders to read and write. Any attempt to install other games, which requires writing in that folder, should throw up an error, while the games should run fine.

Edit: the partition idea will screw you over as soon as the games update.
Edit2: You can block the steamapps\downloading too this way to stop them from downloading in the first place, but (probably) does require logging in with an elevated account to deal with updates.

Originally posted by wuddih:

for steam, preventing write access to the steamapps/common folder but leaving write access to csgo folder intact should just generate diskwrite errors if someone tries to install something else.

This is a clever idea! Will definitely ask if this is doable. Thank you!

[CheezWiz]

I know I am reviving an older thread here but I am faced with the same situation with a lab that will be getting VR headsets soon. Wondering what you figured out?

Originally posted by RobotRevolution:

Is there a way to prevent steam from installing additional games on a computer regardless of which account is logged in?

I'm helping students start CSGO and LOL teams at the school I teach at. The IT guy is nervous about putting Steam on the lab computers without some sort of restriction in place. I could use parental controls, but that would require creating generic lab accounts on each machine instead of letting students use their personal accounts (which contain all their shiny digital bling and everyone knows you shoot straighter in CSGO with skins on).

Any help is appreciated! Thank you!

[RobotRevolution]

Originally posted by CheezWiz:

I know I am reviving an older thread here but I am faced with the same situation with a lab that will be getting VR headsets soon. Wondering what you figured out?

I just kept an eye on it to make sure they didn't install additional games. The club wasn't too large so it worked out well.

[thremon]

i totaly dislike steam lab its there a way to block it ? I mean the offers in shop:)