Can anyone tell me how to start Skyrim without Steam automatically updating it?.

I would like to remain on the 1.3 patch as its been incredibly stable for me and dont want to risk 1.4 messing everything up.

Is the only way to do this to kill my internet connection before launching steam and selecting offline mode, or is it actually possible to launch steam straight into the offline mode even if internet is connected?.

There is 1000% no fathomable reason at all not to update to 1.4 and gets its amazing performance increase, there is no drawbacks what so ever, i would be much more afraid of staying with 1.3

Ok, try this:
Backup your Skyrim folder and your saves, patch to 1.4, test it.
If it's stable keep it, otherwise, set Steam to "Do not auto-update" and copy your backup back.
Steam should keep it at 1.3 unless you verify the integrity or another patch comes out.

Actually you don't need to backup the entire Skyrim folder, but I'm not sure which files have been updated from 1.3 to 1.4, so you are safer this way.

Unfortunately the 'do not update' aspect of Steam is broken, even if you select do not update, it ends up jumping straight back to 'update automatically' but hmm, could certainly try copying the entire folder as a backup and trying the new patch.

@Boreilx , my 100% reason for not wanting to jump is I have no crashes and performance is a-ok with 1.3, why risk breaking something thats not already broken?. Some real nasty 1.4 horror stories on this board, including those like me who were ok on 1.3 but now experiencing big crashes with 1.4. Not to mention all the NEW quest bugs and other issues 1.4 has brought in...

Because 1.4 will not break your game ?



Side note i have never had a crash since day 1 and have always updated on day 1, to each his own though.

Didn't hear about new quest bugs with 1.4. Actually it should fix a few and the performance gains are great.
Of course, you can never be sure that it might cause problems with your pc.
Personally I'm pretty satisfied with the 1.4 update.
Really though, do a backup, let Steam patch it and see for yourself.

My experience with Steams auto-update is that if it has updated and you revert to an older version through a backup, it will stay this version until the next update comes out. If you have a backup you should anyway be safe.