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Here at the Library I have 7 computers for patrons to play games on. I have a Steam PC Cafe setup, with caching server. Of course we also have Epic Games, for Fortnite, as well as Roblox and Minecraft. Computers are protected with Deep Freeze.
Every Tuesday morning I log into each computer individually, thaw it, update the games, then freeze it again.
Man I would like to have a script do this for me. The big problem is that both Steam and Epic require you to login before you can update games. As these computers are open to the public, I can’t leave credentials on the computers, or the accounts will get abused and locked out.
I’ve been slamming my face into a pole on getting SteamCMD to work.
Anyone else deal with this?

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Unless you’re willing to hardcode the login info into the script (do not recommend) I’m thinking there will always be a manual process here…

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I don’t mind responding to a prompt to login. BTW, With SteamCMD, when you login, your credentials are saved to a local file for future use. So you have to automate deleting that file as well.

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I don’t think there’s an acceptable strategy here, then, because either the logins will be abused and locked out, or you’d have to hardcode them into the script, that will then be taken apart, abused and locked out…

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I would first check you’re not going against any T&Cs here.

Do you have a cafe or gaming license for this, if so then there may be better ways to automate this, if you’re using personal licenses, you could get yourself and the library in to liabilities.

PC Café Requirements and Sign Up Instructions (Steamworks Documentation)

If you own a business license, you can use Steam PC Café

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OP states that they’re running with a Cafe setup. I can only assume that meant they purchased the corresponding license(s) to go with that.

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Then there should be a managed account that can pull the updates, the downloads can come from a central store too.

Updating Your Game - Best Practices (Steamworks Documentation)

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Great find @Rod-IT!

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That’s the update procedure for people who are updating the game they put up on Steam, not for people playing games on Steam.
And, yes, I have commercial licenses for the PC Cafe that I signed up with Steam to create. I’m confident of my legality. (BTW, commercial licenses never go on sale.)

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You can still use a central store to download Steam games then use the clients to download them from your storage using the managed account i mentioned.

I can’t find the exact page at the moment, but this may help you find it.

As far as licensing, just covering all aspects, so many people on here forget about licensing, so good you’re on it.

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So many times, we’re busy helping someone solve a problem, we forget to ask if their legally licensed to use the ‘fix’ we recommended!

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Thats why sometimes I use the term “piracy” as very often, that someone you are helping chooses not to answer or reply on licensing questions ?

So it is very comforting that we still see some OPs answering to that…

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But do you need to “thaw” ? Unless you want to make it like “start from fresh” (but from previous freeze) ?

We have a few gaming PCs in out staff lounge…I asked my guys and this is how they set it up…

  1. The PCs boot up with Autologin using a local user account. The games are installed but not logged in. There is a scheduled task to delete games config files upon reboots.

  2. Admins login (after PC boots up, logout and login using local admin account). The games then have AutoUpdate and admins also run Windows Update etc.

  3. The admins use Veeam Agent for Windows “full backup” (VAW) but they did copy the first full backup as a BMR image if required. The PCs are set in BIOS to boot up at 5am, backup to a NAS, then VAW will shut down the PC when backup completes.

I was told that this is not 100% foolproof as most games would update when users login to the games account. Some updates may require admin creds while some games do not need admin creds (as windows is logged in as a user).

But it still requires some manual steps like logging out of the autologin and login as admin and/or start the games consoles etc

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I think the big difference is that your game computers are for staff. Mine are for the general public, teenagers in particular. I suspect your staff is not nearly so destructive. :slight_smile: I also have to have the BIOS password protected, or the kids will do it for me.
I would love to just let the games update, in fact, I install them on a separate drive and don’t keep that drive frozen, so if they do update, it will stick. But as far as I can tell, both Steam and Epic require “someone” to login to their portal to initiate the backup process. I can’t leave an account logged in, as I assume it will just get banned when the kids abuse it.
Finally, while Epic updates as soon as you login, the Steam games choose random times to update if you don’t open that particular game.

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