Steam Free Game Deal

If and when I see a game free on Steam for a few hours, I download it. These games can be played for a few hours, then they will cost the original price. There is one loophole in this though: The game files stay on your PC. This makes it very easy to run the games after the limit is up.

PLEASE NOTE: If the limit has expired, then you might need to look up the command to run your game online.

Here is how to do it: (On Windows 7, Windows 8 will be similar but nothing is guaranteed)

1. Open Steam, and after you have downloaded the game you want to play, click the play button. [Pic 1]
2. When the game has loaded (Don't do anything in the game), press the Windows Start button (or your preferred method of getting back to the Windows desktop without interrupting the game)
3. Open Windows Task Manager (right-click the taskbar > Start Task Manager)
4. Go to the processes tab, then click on View > Select Columns... [Pic 2]
5. Scroll down to the bottom of the list, check 'Command Line', then click OK [Pic 3]
6. Go to the Applications tab, right-click on your game and select 'Go To Process'. Notice that this takes you to the 'Processes' Tab. [Pic 4]
7. Have a look at the command line (you may have to scroll to the right to see) of the highlighted process. Right-click it and select 'Open File Location'. This will take you to where the program is stored, i.e. in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\<game folder\any extra folders>" [Pic 5]

NOTE: All Steam games, if you installed Steam to the default directory, and your game is downloaded to the C: drive, will be in "C:/Program Files[' (x86)' if on Win64-bit]/Steam/SteamApps/common"

This is where it can get confusing, depending on where you put your Batch file (the file that you run to open the game), so I will list the different options:

1. The Batch file will be in the "Steam\SteamApps\common" Folder.
2. The Batch file will be in the "Steam\SteamApps\common\<game folder>" Folder.
3. The Batch file can be placed ANYWHERE and it will work (except on another PC)

The advantage that Option 1 and Option 2 have is that they can be copied, with the game, to someone Else's PC, or that they can be copied/moved with the game to another location on your PC without modification of the code, and the code will act the same.
The advantage of Option 3 is that you can put the Batch file ANYWHERE on your PC, but this means that if you want to copy the game to someone else's PC they will either have to put the game in EXACTLY the same location as where it was on your PC, or edit the code, which is what you would have to do if you move the game files on your own PC as well.
Personally, I use Option 1, it allows for a much neater list than Option 2 (even though you could make shortcuts in a folder on your desktop e.t.c) of your games, and if someone copies the files they don't have to worry about changing the code as in Option 3 (I have the "Steam\SteamApps\common" directory shared on my network so anyone can copy any of my Steam games without having to get me to give it to them).
This is how the batch files would look if you want to run TF2:
Option 1:

cd Team Fortress 2

hl2.exe -steam -game tf

Option 2:

hl2.exe -steam -game tf

Option 3:

cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Team Fortress 2

hl2.exe -steam -game tf

NOTE: Spaces play a HUGE role in how your code looks and works. On the first line that starts with 'cd' (BTW that command is used for changing the directory that CMD looks for commands in), spaces don't matter, so if you say Team Fortress 2 instead of "Team Fortress 2" it doesn't matter. But on the second line, if the executables' name had spaces, e.g. Team Fortress 2.exe, the whole line would have to look like:

Start "" "Team Fortress 2.exe" -steam -game tf

instead. Note the first pair of double quotation marks are necessary, they define the initial name for the window. Seeing as TF2 doesn't show the windows' name, this is irrelevant (even if it did, most programs set their Window name automatically when they launch).