Idle Tutorial Using .bat
Idle Tutorial Using .bat
Basic Idling
Basic Requirements
-A decent computer: If you can't run a single instance of TF2 with low settings properly then this isn't for you. Just for reference I can idle with 7 accounts at the same time while playing other games like Resident Evil 5 or WoW with high settings on my 4GB RAM, GTX260 and Core2Quad Q9300 PC (before upgrade).
-2 or more (premium) TF2 accounts.
-The most important part: A trial or full version of Sandboxie. Warning: The trial only allows 1 sandbox. 1 sandbox+main=max 2 accounts at the same time.
Setting Up
1.Download and install Sandboxie.
2.Delete the default sandbox and create a new one. Name it as you wish.
3.Right-click the sandbox and go to settings.
-Restrictions->Drop rights->Drop rights from Administrators and Power User groups must be unchecked.
-Resource Access->File Access->Full Access and add the HDD Steam is installed on or add specific Steam folder. <--VERY important step.
4.Right-click on your sandbox and Run Sandboxed->Run Windows Explorer and navigate to Steam and log on to your alt.
5.Apply your idling settings and run TF2. Then run Steam normally and idle with you main. If you get an error you have to wait until the first instance of TF2 finished loading.
2.Delete the default sandbox and create a new one. Name it as you wish.
3.Right-click the sandbox and go to settings.
-Restrictions->Drop rights->Drop rights from Administrators and Power User groups must be unchecked.
-Resource Access->File Access->Full Access and add the HDD Steam is installed on or add specific Steam folder. <--VERY important step.
4.Right-click on your sandbox and Run Sandboxed->Run Windows Explorer and navigate to Steam and log on to your alt.
5.Apply your idling settings and run TF2. Then run Steam normally and idle with you main. If you get an error you have to wait until the first instance of TF2 finished loading.
Congratulations. You are now idling with 2 accounts simultaneously. If you want to trade between accounts just remove the idle settings and run TF2 normally add your idle account as friend and use the Steam trading feature. It lets you trade more than 8 items at once.
Advanced Idling
Now this one may take a bit of time. Be patient because a lot of copy, editing and pasting is involved.
Advanced Requirements
-A good computer with at least 4GB RAM
-A full version of Sandboxie because the trial version only allows 1 sandbox.
Here is the "tricky" part.
Step 1
Make a copy of Steam without the steamapps folder for each account.
a.Decide your main steamapps folder. Generally it should be the one with most games.
b.If you want, you can move the steamapps folder somewhere else and rename it (mine is D:\Games\Steam for example).
c.Remove all the other steamapps folders.
d.Open cmd.exe as an administrator.
e.You should know how to use change directory if your doing it the advanced way.
f.Navigate into each Steam folder without steamapps and run the following:
g.A shortcut should appear, named steamapps. Double-clicking it should show you the contents of the main steamapps folder.
You should now have one main steamapps folder and one shortcut to it for each alt. Now you can run all the idle accounts while only maintaining a single steamapps folder, using alot less space on your HDD
a.Decide your main steamapps folder. Generally it should be the one with most games.
b.If you want, you can move the steamapps folder somewhere else and rename it (mine is D:\Games\Steam for example).
c.Remove all the other steamapps folders.
d.Open cmd.exe as an administrator.
e.You should know how to use change directory if your doing it the advanced way.
f.Navigate into each Steam folder without steamapps and run the following:
This
mklink /D steamapps <main steamapps path>
Example
cd C:\"Program Files (x86)"\Steam
mklink /D steamapps "D:\Games\Steam"
mklink /D steamapps "D:\Games\Steam"
Didnt Move steamapps
cd C:\Idle\Steam1
mklink /D steamapps "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps"
mklink /D steamapps "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps"
g.A shortcut should appear, named steamapps. Double-clicking it should show you the contents of the main steamapps folder.
You should now have one main steamapps folder and one shortcut to it for each alt. Now you can run all the idle accounts while only maintaining a single steamapps folder, using alot less space on your HDD
Step 2
2.Create a sandbox for each account, name them after the account it belongs to and apply the settings mentioned above to every sandbox.
Step 3
Using batch files for easy startup: We need 2 batch files per account. Idle and Login.
-Create a .txt file with
and make it a .bat file. This will will be needed later for launching TF2 for a specific account directly in idle mode.
-Create a .txt file with
This
start /low H:\"STEAMFOLDER"\Steam.exe -login ACCOUNT YOURPASSWORD -applaunch 440 -textmode -novid -nosound -noipx -nojoy -nopreload -sw -width 640 -height 480 +map itemtest
and make it a .bat file. This will will be needed later for launching TF2 for a specific account directly in idle mode.
Step 4
Create a .txt file with
and make it a .bat file again. This will be needed for trading and everything besides idling.
This
start /low H:\"YOURSTEAMFOLDER"\Steam.exe -login ACCOUNT PASSWORD
and make it a .bat file again. This will be needed for trading and everything besides idling.
Step 5
Create a batch file with
This will run the idle batch files we made before in their respective sandboxes. It should like this whe it's done:http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/8828/unled2kp.jpg
This
start C:\"Program Files"\Sandboxie\Start.exe /box:BOXNAME "H:\batch\ACCOUNTIDLE.bat"
This will run the idle batch files we made before in their respective sandboxes. It should like this whe it's done:http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/8828/unled2kp.jpg
Step 6
Make another batch with the Login Batches.
This
C:\"Program Files"\Sandboxie\Start.exe /box:BOXNAME "H:\batch\ACCOUNTLOGIN.bat"
Of course you have to replace the placeholders with you own names and directories.
If you run Idle.bat from step 5 it will launch TF2 instances in idle mode for every account you made batches for. It takes 14 minutes for me until all 8 accounts are fully loaded and idling. You may get freezes or slowdowns if your computer is too weak. The Login.bat from step 6 logs on your accounts and lets you start TF2 in normal mode for trading or whatever you want.
You are now set for advanced TF2 idling. Tweak around the batches and settings to get used to it and make your own modifications and/or improvements. I recommend using an idle config even with textmode because it lowers memory use even further. add +exec idle.cfg to every copy of step 3. That is when/if you get one
FAQ
Q: One of my accounts lost connection while idling (NO STEAM LOGON). Do I have to restart the whole thing?
A: No. Right-click on the sandbox with the disconnected account and terminate programs. Open the Idle.bat and copy the line with the disconnected account. Paste the line into a new .bat file and run it.
Q: How can I idle or login to specific accounts?
A: Look above.
Q: What can I do about instance/blob error?
A: Make a copy of your Steam+TF2 files and run the copy in the sandbox.
Q: Is this bannable?
A: No.
Q: How can I tell if it's working?
A: By checking if it says X connected.
Q: I don't get any items. What's wrong?
A: Learn some patience. In most cases you're just unlucky or Valve item servers are down (most likely after updates). But just to be sure check your internet and Steam connection. Maybe you are drop capped. (Item drop system - Official TF2 Wiki | Official Team Fortress Wiki)
Q: Does Steam block my IP if I run it multiple times?
A: Hell no. Why should it? I run 8 accounts from the same IP without problems. And what if your brother/sister/dog next door wants to play Steam games at the same time? Blocking IPs is a stupid thing to do for Steam.
Q: How can I prevent random people from joining my server?
A: Use a password by adding +sv_password xxx to the batches from step 3.
Q: Why does Steam validate/verify my files all the time?
A: If you use the mklink method only update TF2 with one account or you enter an endless update cycle. If you get this all the time even when running Steam normally consider redownloading.
Q: I get "Could not connect to Steam network" while login / "File is too large to copy into sandbox". What's wrong?
A: Check your resource access rights from step 3.
Q: TF2 updated and now HL2.exe crashes all the time. Any help?
A: Delete following bin folders: Steam/steamapps/ACCOUNT/team fortress 2/bin and Steam/steamapps/ACCOUNT/team fortress 2/tf/bin .
Q: "Failed to update item schema". What does this mean?
A: Nothing. Ignore it . It doesn't affect drops in any way.
DeltaEcho 2.11
http://i.imgur.com/gAVU8.jpg
This is an interface made for the batch files. If you followed this tutorial corretly you should have it all up and working. If you want you can try this, it does make things a lot easier. I will make a tutorial on it soon if you have no idea what to do
VIRUS SCAN
https://www.virustotal.com/file/2669...is/1343708374/
I did the whole sandboxie a few days ago. Where you make a sandbox and it launches steam then you get to tf2 from there I got that stuff already down. But where I get totally lost at is when "Advance Idling" step come into play. You should really make a in depth tutorial with screenshots or even a video(yeah I know blah blah blah I stupid I don't know sh*t about pcs whatever) just saying because I got lost.
Approved, nice tutorial.
I think is easier to use this program: http://www.mpgh.net/forum/426-team-f...jiou_kote.html
@IssoeDoido It may be, but this way you can play the game and idle on your other account(s). Maybe if you read the tutorial you might comprehend what is written.
@suicideking15 i said this isnt my tutorial, i only added a few things that weren't in it and if you want a video i found one the other day on how to do it using the DeltaEcho program that i use, here it is :
@suicideking15 i said this isnt my tutorial, i only added a few things that weren't in it and if you want a video i found one the other day on how to do it using the DeltaEcho program that i use, here it is :
Thanks for the help
i'll try, thanks for your work.
Np nameless
@Nico
Close this thread? Its dead xD
Close this thread? Its dead xD
