Running Steam from a LAN gives you several advantages:
1. Won't eat up you local disk space
2. You can run the same installation from multiple machines without having to install on each computer
3. You can reformat a machine, and easily get steam back without doing a full installation.
First thing you do is Plug in an external HDD or use a second system disk if you have one.
Create a folder called Steam on the drive ( take note of the drive letter) For example mine was F:
Next Map Folder from your WHS for example mine is: \\server\software\games\steam and assign it a drive letter e.g. Z:
You should now have 3 drives in your system
At this point DO NOT install any games, ONLY install Steam. And install it on the external drive in the steam folder
Again we install Steam (but no games) onto local drive F: After the install completes, shut down steam,
Now remap local drive F: to Z: , and LAN drive Z: to F:
Now copy (or move) the entire contents of the Steam installation from external drive Z: onto LAN drive F: , be sure to preserve the folders so the configuration does not change. It has to be the same folder structure
Once the copy (or move) is complete you can fire up Steam directly from the LAN drive, and from there you can safely install the games and run them.
I have tried this and it works...As a test I downloaded Lost Coast and played it fine however make sure your LAN Steam share has Read only Properties unchecked before you click on the steam.exe file to open steam and play games
Note: I have a Gigabit connection and would only suggest doing this if you have nice speeds to and from your server
If you like this thread then rate it
Cheers
easyrider
1. Won't eat up you local disk space
2. You can run the same installation from multiple machines without having to install on each computer
3. You can reformat a machine, and easily get steam back without doing a full installation.
First thing you do is Plug in an external HDD or use a second system disk if you have one.
Create a folder called Steam on the drive ( take note of the drive letter) For example mine was F:
Next Map Folder from your WHS for example mine is: \\server\software\games\steam and assign it a drive letter e.g. Z:
You should now have 3 drives in your system
At this point DO NOT install any games, ONLY install Steam. And install it on the external drive in the steam folder
Again we install Steam (but no games) onto local drive F: After the install completes, shut down steam,
Now remap local drive F: to Z: , and LAN drive Z: to F:
Now copy (or move) the entire contents of the Steam installation from external drive Z: onto LAN drive F: , be sure to preserve the folders so the configuration does not change. It has to be the same folder structure
Once the copy (or move) is complete you can fire up Steam directly from the LAN drive, and from there you can safely install the games and run them.
I have tried this and it works...As a test I downloaded Lost Coast and played it fine however make sure your LAN Steam share has Read only Properties unchecked before you click on the steam.exe file to open steam and play games
Note: I have a Gigabit connection and would only suggest doing this if you have nice speeds to and from your server
If you like this thread then rate it
Cheers
easyrider
Last edited:
