While it will cost more money, the GOG release doesn't require Steam. Every other official release requires Steam.

You just need to run steamless on the main executable and the launcher.

For the launcher to work you'll also need to set a registry key

Re: How to install Steam Games on XP from disc without Steam

The above is assuming the game files are extracted, if not then you'll need an unpacker from cs.rin.ru, I can't remember the name of it.

Its likely easier to use the steam copy which is xp compatible as long as you remove the steam requirement.

Bethesda doesn't do much with their games after release so using an ancient version really isn't much of a thing.

The above is for the original version of Skyrim, the special edition requires Windows 7+.

Thanks for responding! Probably I'll wait till GOG has a sale on it and get it cheap. Not a total loss since it came with the manual in great shape.

buckeye wrote on 2024-06-17, 15:27:

Got all giddy grabbing this at a flea market for a few bucks but in my haste overlooked that Steam is required. This is the DVD […]
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Got all giddy grabbing this at a flea market for a few bucks but in my haste overlooked that Steam is required.
This is the DVD version if that matters.

Does anyone know if there are "work a rounds" like on HL2? I'll be trying to run this on a win11 system or XP
whichever is feasible.

dont bother with the dvd version i made that mistake years ago, i picked it up preowned, having been a console gamer for years i wasnt familiar with newer games on steam, after finishing skyrim and all the dlc on xbox 360, i was planning on converting my saves to pc to play some extra content, so i picked up the steam version on dvd and found a bunch of files on the disc but no installer, i then found i had to download steam to install the files off the disc?? after doing that i enter the product key to find that once its been used once it cant be used again, i paid money for a useless disc i couldn't play, i felt like i'd been had.

eventually i did find an installer that alowed me to install the files from the disc, i forget what it was called or where i found it, even if you manage to find it you will then need to find all the updates, so its not really worth it especially since the remasterd versions been released, GOG is probably your best option, or an offline steam version, DosFreak has done a thread on how to get these working, tho since you've bought a legit version you cant use i would say a repack is fair game.