Launch Steam, hibernate after 1 hour, time in seconds start 'steam://' Launch Steam, shutdown after 1 hour, time in seconds start 'steam://' Here is an overview of possible scripts to toy with: (Ab)Using the Task System and Steam's convenience of continuing downloads after launching it, you can handle this with some effort. The time parameter is in seconds here too. This would launch Steam and kill it after 1 hour. However, if you want to keep your computer on and only want to kill Steam to make sure it stops downloading, there is another way: start steam:// This would assure that all downloads are stopped. The time value is in seconds, so 3600 is 1 hour. So assuming the script starts at midnight and the hours would go until 6 o'clock, you would need to change 3600 to 21600, which is 6 hours. However, I suggest to set it to the exact time your ISP has unrated hours. Now, there is no way we can know beforehand when it will be done. We only want it to shut down after we are done downloading though. This line will force your computer to shut down. Remember the script we just made? Go back to it. It is important to leave your computer on and not shut it down when you go to bed and want Steam to download while you are in dreamland with Xena. Make sure 'Start a program' is selected and then click 'Browse' and navigate to the script you just made.Ĭlick on the 'Conditions' Tab and make sure 'Wake Computer to run this Task' is set. Next, click on the actions tab and select 'New'. In your case, you would probably set it to 'one time' and adjust to the date whenever you need it again.

Set it to one time, daily or weekly, however you want it. If your ISP's free time starts at midnight, choose 0:05 for example. Then choose the time when it should begin. Right-click on the left pane on 'Task Scheduler Library' and create a Task. The TaskĪssuming Windows 7 or later, go to the Start Menu, type 'Task' and launch the Task Scheduler. We will get to the other command after the next step.

It will then automatically continue downloading your games.

Then paste the following text into it: start 'steam://' txt, the icon should change to a window with cogs instead of the text file icon when you renamed it. The Shell ScriptĬreate a text file on your desktop or any other folder and name it steam_download.cmd. The initial download of the file list is normally just a few kilobytes. Start installing all those games you want to download during the night.

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