Prevent Steam Form Auto Updating Games

Not everyone has broadband (25Mbps according to FCC) Internet to not care about automatic downloads of huge amounts of data in the background. So most people try to limit their unnecessary usage as much as possible. For this reason it came as a surprise for me when I saw that Steam client, as soon as it’s opened, started updating games in my library.

While I can understand the reasons behind this setting (security, subpar performance, etc.), I think it would be better if there was a simple confirmation dialog  before the start of update.

Here is how you can prevent the Steam Client from this unpleasant (!) behaviour.

1- Go to your Game Library.

2- Right click a game and click its properties.

3- Go to Updates tab and then from “Automatic Updates” choose “Only update…”

4- Another setting you change is under View / Settings / Downloads;

4a- There go to “Downloads” part, and set a restriction on the right side by choosing a time you would be very unlikely online.