u/FireCrow1013

I've always been passionate about game preservation. I'm a big supporter of PC storefronts like GOG and of individual developers/publishers that recognize the importance of DRM-free digital distribution, but I think we all know that there are companies that will unfortunately never fully embrace DRM-free game releases. Well, what if I told you that the Steam client itself and any games that use only it as DRM can be used forever across multiple PCs, and without having to worry about relying on servers being up or companies being in business, to boot?

This tutorial will demonstrate and walk you through downloading Steam games, getting them ready to be moved/backed up/archived, and getting them running on a completely separate, totally isolated and offline machine. I'd been wanting to put this together for quite some time now, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Let me know if you have any questions about the process, I love talking about this stuff.

Edition: Windows 11 Pro

Version: 25H2

Installed on: ‎10/‎31/‎2025

OS build: 26200.8246

Experience: Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.26100.297.0

When I right-click any files or folders and choose to scan them with Microsoft Defender, every scan says that it lasted 1 second, with 0 files scanned. I know it's an issue specifically with my machine, because the other PCs in my house don't act like this. I don't know when it started, but I recently tried and subsequently uninstalled BitDefender, which was the only time I'd used anything other than Microsoft Defender, so maybe that has something to do with it. I've tried resetting the Microsoft Defender app and doing an in-place Windows 11 installation/repair, but they don't seem to have worked. Any help would be greatly appreciated!