How to Run Skyrim Special Edition Without Steam

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Skyrim without Steam?

• Thread starter TeeJayHoward
• Start date Nov 16, 2011

• #1

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Feb 8, 2005

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11,139

I'm seeing reports on the internet that the main Skyrim executable will function without going through Steam. Is it possible to run it without having Steam installed at all? I know there are... *ahem* various methods *cough* online to do it, but is there a way for someone who's interested in picking up a legitimate copy at a local store?

• #2

Joined

Sep 28, 2007

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19,376

I'm seeing reports on the internet that the main Skyrim executable will function without going through Steam. Is it possible to run it without having Steam installed at all? I know there are... *ahem* various methods *cough* online to do it, but is there a way for someone who's interested in picking up a legitimate copy at a local store?

Yup. All I'm doing is I made a shortcut of the TESV.exe and Steam isn't necessary at all.

• #3

Joined

Aug 19, 2005

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1,062

In general, you need Steam when you run the game for the first time. From that point on, it can be played in offline mode, or without Steam period, I assume.

• #4

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Feb 8, 2005

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11,139

Yup. All I'm doing is I made a shortcut of the TESV.exe and Steam isn't necessary at all.

Would you mind explaining to me how you did this? Is there a way to install Skyrim without installing Steam?

• #5

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Aug 2, 2005

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Would you mind explaining to me how you did this? Is there a way to install Skyrim without installing Steam?

Not legally no, well I guess if you bought the retail. But it registers on Steam.

• #6

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Feb 19, 2008

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18,428

You would still need to activate it to your Steam account. Try installing the game with Steam, then copying the Skyrim folder out of Steam into it's own directory. Uninstall Steam, then try and see if the game will launch by just running the exe. You could also try what the one person recommended and just make a shortcut directly to the Skyrim exe and run that, leaving it in the Steam directory. That way you have the benefit of running launching steam to grab updates, but you can run the game without having Steam start up in the mean times.

• #7

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Sep 28, 2007

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Would you mind explaining to me how you did this? Is there a way to install Skyrim without installing Steam?

LOL, sorry, that's not what I meant.

You have to have Steam to install it.

• #8

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Aug 7, 2005

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Yup. All I'm doing is I made a shortcut of the TESV.exe and Steam isn't necessary at all.

Is Steam still running in tha background? I thought Steamworks games always authenticate to Steam before running (unless you are in offline mode), even if you don't launch them through Steam.

• #9

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Aug 27, 2004

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5,649

You will need Steam to install and do the initial verification, after that you can run it without Steam.

You will need to add a shortcut to the TESV.exe, not the launcher to run the game though. I can open the game with Steam closed and no processes running for it in the back ground.

I usually do not bother turning Steam off however.

• #10

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Feb 9, 2006

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What do you really need the launcher for? If you want to turn mods on/off etc.?

• #11

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Aug 27, 2004

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What do you really need the launcher for? If you want to turn mods on/off etc.?

Pretty much. Run it once to get your settings and what-not and then just bypass it.

Once the Skyrim mod manager is live it will not be necessary at all.

• #12

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Jun 27, 2007

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Is Steam still running in tha background? I thought Steamworks games always authenticate to Steam before running (unless you are in offline mode), even if you don't launch them through Steam.

steam installed is not the same as steamworks supported, this involves specific features like cloud storage, community, mp, etc. that are actually using the steam network. many devs use steam only as distro/update/activation that doesn't actually need the client to run, it's really up to them when/if they want to implement the client checks. you'd be surprised at how many of your steam games you could simply drag and drop out of the default install (or upload to the internets) and still work as normal.

• #13

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Aug 7, 2005

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steam installed is not the same as steamworks supported, this involves specific features like cloud storage, community, mp, etc. that are actually using the steam network. many devs use steam only as distro/update/activation that doesn't actually need the client to run, it's really up to them when/if they want to implement the client checks. you'd be surprised at how many of your steam games you could simply drag and drop out of the default install (or upload to the internets) and still work as normal.

But Skyrim is a Steamworks game, which is why I assumed Steam had to be running.

• #14

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Aug 27, 2004

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But Skyrim is a Steamworks game, which is why I assumed Steam had to be running.

It doesn't. I even confirmed it last night before I started playing. Logged out of Steam, closed it, double checked active processes no Steam. Started Skyrim via the TESv.exe let the game load, ALT-TAB'd out and checked the task manager, still no Steam.

The only reason to run the game though Steam would be to use the overlay, or to get achievements. I think both are worthless in a single player RPG.

• #15

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Sep 28, 2007

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The only reason to run the game though Steam would be to use the overlay, or to get achievements. I think both are worthless in a single player RPG.

It's actually kind of satisfying and cool to be playing and going along and suddenly you see that little dialog box pop in the lower right corner. I've gotten a few of them already.

But like you and others have said: Not mandatory to use Steam to play after the install is complete.

• #16

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Jan 28, 2011

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Great. Just tested by running it with my RadeonPro launcher and no Steam needed. Steam has a few games that will run without Steam loaded. Saves a bit on resources and less time to get it running anyway.

• #17

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Jun 27, 2007

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1,230

But Skyrim is a Steamworks game, which is why I assumed Steam had to be running.

yea I would assume you need it for steam achieves to be triggered, but I guess they didn't worry about keeping it connected otherwise. could also be that the game just updates your stats whenever it connects, so not a big deal if you don't care about achievements.

• #18

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Aug 31, 2008

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Steam is the devil according to some people. Evil malware/spyware program. Beware of the Steam!

• #19

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Aug 2, 2005

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Steam is the devil according to some people. Evil malware/spyware program. Beware of the Steam!

Well since this is a SP game, and i've never had much luck with steam in offline mode I am extremely happy that you can launch this without steam.

• #20

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Jan 15, 2010

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Yup. All I'm doing is I made a shortcut of the TESV.exe and Steam isn't necessary at all.

Really? I did the same thing and every time I launch it Steam launches too.

• #21

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Aug 27, 2004

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Really? I did the same thing and every time I launch it Steam launches too.

Are your sure you linked the TESV.exe and not the launcher?

Also is your Steam Cloud setting turned on? It'd guess that if your saved games are in cloud storage it would have to launch Steam to access them.

• #22

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Nov 21, 2011

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I joined this forum just to comment this thread.

Out of the box or initially TESV.exe would launch Skyrim whether Steam was active or not. I've been playing for a week without Steam since I first noticed that it worked (and it really, *really* saves program load time).

This morning I logged into Steam and even though I'd set Skyrim not to auto-update, it updated TESV.exe and now it launches Steam when double-clicked (and also launches SkyrimLauncher.exe).

For your info, I'll let you know that I was able to right-click TESV.exe and go to Properties > Previous Versions to recover a copy of the previous version. The file size of the original was 18.2 MB and the changed one is 18.6 MB. I renamed the new one in the game folder and put the recovered old one back in. Voila - I can run the game directly without Steam again.

However, there are further patches coming for this game, and I expect they will re-patch TESV.exe so that the old file will no longer be compatible with the game at all. So I don't know how long we'll be able to keep enjoying Steam-free Skyrim. For myself, I like it mostly because the load time for the game is so, so, so short. Alt-tabbing doesn't work in fullscreen mode, so it's nice to be able to quit and return to the game quickly and cleanly ... though there is a borderless window mod on skyrimnexus which would let me run it in faux-fullscreen to allow alt-tabbing.

• #23

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Jun 27, 2007

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yea recent patch just fully integrated steam drm into the executable, you can get around this by reverting to the old version for now and copying it over to somewhere else. kind of dickish move by them considering the cracked version has been out since before they even launched, why even bother if there's no other changes, they could have at least waited to roll it in with their future updates.

• #24

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Aug 7, 2005

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Alt-tabbing doesn't work in fullscreen mode, so it's nice to be able to quit and return to the game quickly and cleanly ... though there is a borderless window mod on skyrimnexus which would let me run it in faux-fullscreen to allow alt-tabbing.

I've found that if I alt-tab back into Skyrim twice, it works the second time. First time you get the blank screen, then alt-tab back out, and then back in and presto, working.

• #25

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Dec 26, 2002

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I've found that if I alt-tab back into Skyrim twice, it works the second time. First time you get the blank screen, then alt-tab back out, and then back in and presto, working.

I've noticed the exact same behavior. You know you've played too much skyrim when the first time you try to alt+tab back into a different game results in you automatically hitting it twice

• #26

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Jul 17, 2009

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I've found that if I alt-tab back into Skyrim twice, it works the second time. First time you get the blank screen, then alt-tab back out, and then back in and presto, working.

I figured this out quickly as well, lol. I just continue to alt-tab until the Skyrim app is selected again.

• #27

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Nov 21, 2011

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• #28

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Jul 21, 2007

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I saw this thread last night and when I returned home from work checked it out. I started my PC and since I do not have Steam autorun and I also have it set to not keep my login info it had no chance to auto-update. I do have the game set to not auto update but someone above said it did it anyway to them. I was able to successfully launch TESV.exe without steam running. I played all night that way.

I also made a copy of the .exe and stored it on my NAS box for future reference. I plan to let the game auto update eventually as patches come out but I can always revert to this gem.

• #29

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Oct 6, 2003

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Newest patch kills this. No more running TESV.exe w/o STEAM.

• #30

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Dec 27, 2006

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Newest patch kills this. No more running TESV.exe w/o STEAM.

While I love Steam, and always launch through it, but of all the things to fix why mess with this?

• #31

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Sep 28, 2007

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19,376

While I love Steam, and always launch through it, but of all the things to fix why mess with this?

Because the game should have shipped that way in the first place. It was very unusual to see a new game come out these days with Steam integration and have that loophole.

Now what shouldn't have happened and I still can't figure out why is a very supposedly simple little patch wrecked a bunch of people's games including mine regardless of whether they used LAA or not.

• #32

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Feb 9, 2006

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This is not a big deal but can see it being annoying. People will just download a modified EXE to get around the problem. Many are already doing such to get a game with >2GB memory awareness.

• #33

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May 6, 2009

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Just for the record I have the steam version of the game and neither executable in the game install directory work without first launching steam.

Maybe it's different for retail? I'm thinking probably not though...

• #34

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Jan 8, 2008

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Just for the record I have the steam version of the game and neither executable in the game install directory work without first launching steam.

Maybe it's different for retail? I'm thinking probably not though...

The retail version is just the physical equivalent of what is downloaded with a few minor changes. Backing up a DVD with any Steam installer looks almost like a Steam game backup. I don't think there's any difference once its installed.

• #35

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Feb 8, 2005

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Just for the record I have the steam version of the game and neither executable in the game install directory work without first launching steam.

Maybe it's different for retail? I'm thinking probably not though...

The game was updated earlier today or yesterday. Launching TESV by itself no longer works.

• #36

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Aug 15, 2011

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Yes and the new update has made things wrose....

• #37

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Jan 28, 2011

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This morning I logged into Steam and even though I'd set Skyrim not to auto-update, it updated TESV.exe and now it launches Steam when double-clicked (and also launches SkyrimLauncher.exe).

A game publisher has the option to override that setting if they choose to, which is what they have done here.

• #38

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May 10, 2010

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Just for the record I have the steam version of the game and neither executable in the game install directory work without first launching steam.

Maybe it's different for retail? I'm thinking probably not though...

There is no retail or Steam or whatever version of the game. Skyrim is a steamworks game, it is same regardless of where or how you buy it.

Allowing the game to be run without Steam running was a mistake, likely from Steam's side (as even DRM free games set by the publisher/developer still require Steam to be running), and was "fixed" (albeit to the detriment of those using it) in a "silent" update.

• #39

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Nov 21, 2011

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7

Okay guys, has anyone installed Skyrim patch 1.2 on PC? If you have, can you tell me (and the rest of us) whether the game really is incompatible with the original TESV.exe for Steam-free play, or does it still -against all odds- work? Thanks in advance!

• #40

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Jan 28, 2011

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Wasn't Gabe bragging about how he is anti DRM just the other day? Hypo-fucking-crite.

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How to Run Skyrim Special Edition Without Steam

Source: https://hardforum.com/threads/skyrim-without-steam.1652020/

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