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This is a bit of a weird question and situation, but I manage an after-school computer lab and I want to have a bunch of games automatically download updates. I have the computers set up to automatically start in the mornings to download Windows updates, and I'd like to have it download Steam games at the same time.

I have tried using the -login launch option to launch an account I've created for the purpose up updating, but I don't seem to be able to actually update the games from my account on that one. Is there a setting I can change or something?

To be clear, I'm not trying to run games on an account that doesn't own them, I'm trying to get an account to auto-login and download updates so people who own the games can login as themselves and just play an updated game.

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Note: I'm not sure if this will work, but I think it might.

Steam has a Family Sharing system that allows you to share access to games with your family. I have personally not yet used this system, but essentially, you log in with the other accounts and tell them to "authorize this computer". You only mark the designated updater account as authorized. Then, you can install most games owned by the other party. You configure the Steam client as you've done to login using the proper account and it should update those games automatically.

Note that the publisher actually has to allow sharing for this to work, so it won't work for EVERY game, most notably subscription based games.

This guide explains how to enable steam sharing: http://www.cnet.com/uk/how-to/how-to-share-your-steam-gaming-library-with-friends-and-family/

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  • I'll give this a shot, but the ten-computer limit might be a bit of a problem. Thanks!
    – bbcisdabomb
    Feb 8, 2016 at 19:50
  • @bbcisdabomb I think you should be able to handle that by assigning fixed or semi-fixed seating. You are authorizing computers, not accounts to access a library, so if your users are seated at the same computer every time, they should only have to authorize once.
    – Nzall
    Feb 8, 2016 at 20:17

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