Can I decline to install updates for Steam games?
Solution 1:
It is possible to disable automatic updating.
To do this for all games, you can choose to use Steam in offline mode.
For more specific games:
Right-click on the game in your library and go to
Properties
Then choose the Updates tab:
Change the dropdown from 'Always keep this game up to date' to:
It has been reported that this does not work for some, it seems to be patchy at best, as per comments on this Q/A.
I've never done any revert-to-pre-patch trials on games myself, but I did come up with a Sotpedia article on how it can be done.
Taken from that tutorial:
This method only works if you have a Windows Vista +. If you have a more recent system restore point, you just need to go to the folder where Skyrim is installed (C:/Program Files/The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim or C:/Program Files/Steam/Steamapps/Common/The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim), select TESV.exe, right click on the file, select properties, and then, in the new window, go to the Previous Versions tab.
Solution 2:
Is it possible to be selective about updates to Steam games?
No, you can't decide of what updates are going to be installed and which ones are not.
Most people will tell you to edit appmanifest.acf and set AutoUpdateBehavior to 1, but this will only disable the update until you try to launch the game.
The available options are to keep the game auto updated, update only when you want to play and update it before other ones, you can't play without the most recent version of the game except if you cut your internet connection.
If a recent update introduces crashes, performance degradation or other problems, can I go back?
Yes you can, and there's two ways to do it:
Beta Branches
Certain games like Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator have beta branches for old game versions. You can select one by going to your game properties, and selecting an available beta branch for your game:
Depots and the Console
This is mostly a copy/paste of my Steam Guide that shows how to downgrade GTA IV.
There's a more complicated way to play an older version of a game, that requires the use of the hidden Steam Console.
To open the Steam console, press Windows + R at the same time. You should see this window:
Write "steam://open/console" and press enter or click Accept (Aceptar).
If everything went OK, you should see an option called Console on the top side of the Steam window.
Now, you need to find your game ID. The easier way is to enable the navigation bar on the store. Please note that if you know the ID of your game you can skip this step.
Go to Steam > Settings and select the Interface tab. You should be able to enable an option called "Display Steam URL address bar when available".
Once you have enabled the address bar, go to your library and select your game. An option called "Store Page" should appear on the right side.
Once you have clicked it, the store page should open and the ID will appear on the address bar (in this case, is 236870). Remember this ID because is going to be used later.
Now, head down to SteamDB and search your game on the top left bar. You can write the ID from the previous step and press CTRL + ENTER to go directly to your game page.
Once the game page has loaded, go down a little bit and you should see some tabs on the left side. Select "Depots".
Now you should see the game Depots, search for one that says "Content", "Main Content" or "Base Game".
Once you have found the one that meets our criteria, remember the ID that has and click on it.
The information for that specific Depot will be shown, scroll a bit down and select "Manifests".
Manifests are our game versions (more like git commits). You should see that there is a "Relative Date" and a "ManifestID", try to match the dates with a game version that you remember.
Once you have found the Manifest ID that corresponds, go back to your steam console and write a command with the following format:
download_depot [Game ID] [Depot ID] [Manifest ID]
In this case, our command is:
download_depot 12210 12211 6345365364346988350
Write the command that corresponds and click enter, you should see a confirmation that is indeed downloading:
After the depot/game version has been downloaded you will see a message telling you where it was saved:
The next step will require you to reach the main game folder, you can do that by right clicking your game in Steam and selecting Properties (Propiedades):
Then select the Local Files tab (Archivos Locales) and click Browse Local Files (Ver Archivos Locales).
You will now see the game directory:
Delete or Rename the existing game folder (is safe to remove the existing one because we have another complete install).
Then, move the new game files from the depot into the game library:
Done! You now have downgraded the game version directly from Steam.
As an optional step, you can make the game "update only during launch". Prior to launching the game you can backup the folder and restore it afterwards.
Solution 3:
Steam removed the ability to disable automatic updates for some games, which is why it appears spotty- You have to rename the directory or else a game could update at any given time.
To rename a file on Windows,
- Highlight the file or folder.
- Click File at the top of the Window and select Rename from the list of available options.