How will it work excactly when I get my DvD version of Skyrim? I went and checked the sticky on these forums and read up on it, went to the website community link provided in the sticky and DL it. When I started installing, I chose to install it in my Programsx86 folder (recommended)? and after installing it, I had to make a account and password, all that good stuff. I also notice that it stays running via the system tray menu, any way to turn this off or not have it running when not playing Skyrim? Sorry for the noobish questions, but I have never used Steam before, never heard of it before until couple months ago. Is it a simple matter of just getting the game and installing it now or what will happen? Finally, any patches or updates that come out for Skyrim, can these be gotten through the Steam client or will that be downloaded from the main Bethesda website,? I understand that there is already a patch coming out on the first day of release, sorry but no link to that info, just remember reading it few days ago.

I just want to be prepared for Friday without any delays, I just find it weird that I have to be connected to this client/account to play a single player game.

Thanks

Check settings, you can turn off/on auto run for steam on reboot. Other info should be topic'd

It does have to run though, but you can put yourself into offline mode.

Edit edit.
Steam has a feature to automatically update when your offline. You wont directly download these, they will start if set automatically

When you pop the disc in it will autolaunch whatever is needed, its basically just the same as any normal game installation.

You can set individual settings for each game, and it will auto-update your games by default(you can disable this) if youre not in offline mode. And personally I suggest turning off "Cloud" saving for everything - unless you need it.

One thing to note, Steam installs all games on the same drive as the Steam client under the same directory. As far as I know you can't change where a Steam controlled game is installed.

So this would mean that if you have a larger secondary drive you are probably better off uninstalling it from the C: drive and installing the Steam client on the larger drive.

Well, Steam doesn't have to just be running all the time. You can remove it from the "automatically run at startup" list, and then only run it when you want to play one of your Steam games and/or check out the shop for the day's specials. And then quit the program when you're done playing.

(I do this with Steam.... most of my games aren't part of Steam, so I don't need to have it running all the time. )

Something I noticed with steam, I can copy the entire directory as a backup, and If i format, just dump folder where I want an launch/direct steam to load from there and most my games will be fine on start up, maybe a few bits of checking data for issues but good.

You can - you have to make a hardlink with the Windows Shell.

Can you make steam use two drives with a hardlink? My G drive (where steam is located) is 1TB but it's about full of steam games, and I've got another 1TB drive just sitting in the computer almost empty, is there some way to make steam use both physical drives?

Ok thanks for the speedy replys guys, goodluck in Skyrim !