Steam - more responsive client, faster launching games & free up some space!

CaptainRAVE · 27 Jan 2013 at 10:15

I really need to give this a try when I get some free time!

HangTime · 27 Jan 2013 at 11:04

Might look into this but I normally only get this problem the first time I launch a game. One thing that does concern me is the risk of game updates trying to download it all again (I have a low bandwidth connection that is metered at peak times).

Broken Hope · 27 Jan 2013 at 11:18

There's a tool that will do this for you and show which games have which redists etc.

http://steamcleaner.tikione.fr/en/

Destination · 27 Jan 2013 at 11:21

Omaeka said:
The Witcher 2, Batman Arkham City, Dead Rising 2, Grand Theft Auto IV, Street Fighter IV. Those are the games that for me, every time I launched them it would come up:

Step 1 of 3: Installing XNA

Step 2 of 3: Installing .Net Framework

Step 3 of 3: Installing DirectX

How odd, I do not get this, I only ever get this once, when I first launch after the game has been installed.
Strange that you get it every time.
i wonder if something is set incorrectly within your windows or steam setup.

PhillyDee · 27 Jan 2013 at 11:24

NealR said:
I'm a lazy gamer. No doubt, if I was running out of space on my HDD, then I might consider it, but like I said in a post above, I would probably just delete a game I don't play, and recover more than the space taken by the installers

With a lot of people using SSD's and me trying to save space to install the CM Mod for HL2 (Took 20+Gb) trying to free up a GB or 2 here and there really does help.

I have since deleted it though. I also noticed when I installed bioshock 1&2 last week it asked me which drive to install it to. Do all games do this?

I installed it to Drive X: (A network drive from my home server) takes a few seconds longer to load up a level, but works very well!

mysticsniper · 27 Jan 2013 at 11:26

CaptainRAVE said:
I really need to give this a try when I get some free time!

Agreed

CaptainRAVE · 27 Jan 2013 at 11:27

Broken Hope said:
There's a tool that will do this for you and show which games have which redists etc.

http://steamcleaner.tikione.fr/en/

Nice find!

kmetek · 27 Jan 2013 at 12:25

i'll try this program, thanks broken hope :d

Darujhistan · 27 Jan 2013 at 12:58

Nice, they did launch quicker, but with so few games right now, didn't save much, great tip for the future though. I can see my 128GB SSD is not going to be big enough longer term, and it will help down the line.

Darujhistan · 27 Jan 2013 at 13:18

CaptainRAVE said:
Nice find!

Cracking little tool!

2 good programs on this thread actually.

yashiro · 27 Jan 2013 at 13:22

It's a shame it needs Java.

One thing to remember about deleting setup files. If the game gets patched Steam will re-download everything you deleted for that particular game.

Broken Hope · 27 Jan 2013 at 13:32

You can clean it using CCleaner if you make your own entry.

Make a Winapp2.ini file if you don't already have one in your CCleaner folder, or edit the one that's there if you do then add the following to it.

Code:

[Steam Installers*]
LangSecRef=3021
Detect=HKCU\Software\Valve\Steam
Warning=Only run this entry AFTER you have launched all of your steam games at least once, as they will not be able to properly load for the first time without these files. After the first launch, however, these files become useless.
Default=False
FileKey1=%ProgramFiles%\Steam\steamapps\*\*\Dependencies|*.*|RECURSE
FileKey2=%ProgramFiles%\Steam\steamapps\*\*\Prerequisites|*.*|RECURSE
FileKey3=%ProgramFiles%\Steam\steamapps\*\*\directx|*.*|RECURSE
FileKey4=%ProgramFiles%\Steam\steamapps\*\*\Install|*.*|RECURSE
FileKey5=%ProgramFiles%\Steam\steamapps\*\*\Installs|*.*|RECURSE
FileKey6=%ProgramFiles%\Steam\Steamapps\*\*\redist|*.*|RECURSE
FileKey7=%ProgramFiles%\Steam\Steamapps\*\*\vcredist|*.*|RECURSE
FileKey8=%ProgramFiles%\Steam\Steamapps\*\*\installers|*.*|RECURSE

Obviously change the path if your Steam isn't installed into ProgramFiles.

yashiro · 27 Jan 2013 at 13:38

Neat idea.

Supernaut91 · 27 Jan 2013 at 14:53

Seriously, that DX installer isn't there just to annoy you. Many games perform on various versions of direct X. Performance/stability and efficiency in a game for me is worth waiting those 5-15 seconds.

yashiro · 27 Jan 2013 at 15:13

Assuming you never remove any DX libs manually there's no need to re-run old DX installers.

Omaeka · 27 Jan 2013 at 15:24

Supernaut91 said:
Seriously, that DX installer isn't there just to annoy you. Many games perform on various versions of direct X. Performance/stability and efficiency in a game for me is worth waiting those 5-15 seconds.

Once you first launch a game, and the DX step for that game has completed the installers are rendered completely useless. To think that said installers have any impact on game performance is funny.

Destination · 27 Jan 2013 at 15:45

Yes but why do they try to run more than once on your pc, but not on most peoples?
Seems to be some issue there.

Omaeka · 27 Jan 2013 at 15:51

Hikari Kisugi said:
Yes but why do they try to run more than once on your pc, but not on most peoples?
Seems to be some issue there.

It depends on the game, only a few do it, all of which a quick Google search will show I'm far from the only one.

trickycurve · 27 Jan 2013 at 16:03

Although I've never had these issues when launching games after the initial 'first-time setup' thing, I was amazed at how much space was being taken up by seemingly useless Redist and DirectX folders and subsequently deleted them. Hopefully it won't mess anything up.