Copying Steam files

[Xecuter]

Title states it, a friend has a steam account but no disks, and i have 256kbps DSL - too slow to download steam files - is it possible for me to copy my files to his computer and sign on to his username without having to download the game all over again?

 

[shortylickens]

I think so. When I had to reinstall windows on my C drive I left all the games intact on my G drive.
Several of the games recreated the registry entries the first time I ran them.
My HL2 collectors edition did as well. All the games. I just had to "call home" to Steam one time and it was all good.

Thats one of the few good things about Steam, even though I'm still not happy its required to use.

 

[Trevelyan]

Yes, do this:

1) Install Steam on the computer, run it once, login to the account, and then close it down.
2) Copy the files from your other computer. The ones you need are: C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\*.gcf
(All the *.gcf files hold the game content.)
3) Put them on the computer you just installed Steam on, in the same directory.
4) Run Steam again and the games will work.