1. Sadly Steam does not have a scheduler built in, so you either have to set an alarm for the middle of the night (and apologise to the missus in the morning!) or use a little craftyness to schedule a download.
2. Steam already allows you to configure updates to run at certain times, why it does not allow the same for game downloads, I don't know. This guide will help you set up a workaround using Windows Task Scheduler to handle your downloads.

How can I purchase Steam Gifts for a different Steam user? Button to schedule the gift to be sent automatically on a future date. When that time comes, we'll automatically send the gift to your friend and also send you an email letting you know your gift has been delivered. If you do not already have Steam, download and install Steam.

Our Satellite internet provider gives us 'unlimited browsing' between 11pm and 7pm. As we have a very limited bandwidth in the day and the download is reasonably large, other than staying up late is there any way I could schedule the download as to only start at 11pm? I was thinking a PowerShell command might be possible (but I have no idea how to achieve this) or maybe a GUI alternative.

I have tried Windows Task Scheduler but although I could get the browser to open I didn't know how I could make the download start itself.

I am running Windows 8.1

4 Answers

I think any decent download manager has this feature... Googling it, the second result I found is free download manager, free and open source, and the feature list mentions 'powerful scheduler', so I guess that would do.

Download Latest Version Of Steam

I would use a scheduled task. If you must, you can type it into a powershell window, but it will also work from cmd.exe console.

or try it's GUI.

taskschd.msc.

Downloader.ps1

Here is how I would do it:

• Create the download in your download manager.
• While it is still downloading, exit it, don't pause.
• Schedule it to start after 11pm using scheduled task or any third party software.

You already know how to run the browser when you want (just make sure the browser is pointing at the downloading file, not the web page!)

I suggest you use FireFox as you can set it to automatically save files and not be prompted:

How To Schedule A Download On Steam Account

For IE, there are a few options listed here on SU

Steam Downloads Disabled

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