Steam – way to add free DLC so that it’s queued and downloaded without starting the game

steam

To download my Steam games and their updates/DLC, I queue them up on my laptop which downloads them to portable HDDs. When I want them on my gaming PC, I copy the games from the portable HDDs (I am working on scripts to automate the process).
Generally, I buy the games and DLC using the browser, either on my laptop or on a different computer altogether (like at work).

When Borderlands 2: Commander Lilith and the Fight for Sanctuary was released for free, I went to get it, since I have all the other Borderlands 2 DLC, and wanted to get it ready for whenever I would have the chance to play Borderlands 2 while waiting for my new system, as my PC at that time was not able to run it.

As I have never been able to add free DLC to the cart via the browser, I booted up the client and added it through that. However, after it had downloaded, Borderland 2 tried to boot up on my struggling laptop, but I was able to terminate the process.

I'm not sure if this was a one-off with Borderlands 2 or not, but I would like to be able to get free DLC similar to how I get paid DLC: by adding it to the cart and letting it either trigger as an "update" able to be downloaded, or let it download only when I get around to downloading the base game.

So: is there a way to add free DLC to a game on Steam so that it's queued and/or downloaded, but not let it start the game directly after?

While this question is almost the same, the issue I'm having is that I already follow the procedure mentioned there for paid DLC. Free DLC, unlike what that answer indicates, does not get registered:

Hovering over the first button shows a Steam app URL which won't work on a system that doesn't have Steam installed, and the second button goes to this About page.

Also, the URL the Download button here links to is different from what is presented in that answer:

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Related Solutions

Steam – way to transfer a free game downloaded on one Steam account to another

If you want to play on the same PC:

Yes. Steam should recognise that the game is already installed. Failing that (which definitely works on games newer to Steam, but I'm unsure about older games like TF2), copy the contents of your SteamApps folder to his. (see the SteamApps\username instructions below)

If you want to play on seperate PCs:

Yes. Open your SteamApps folder. This will be depend on your operating system and be:

C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps

for 32 bit (older) Windows systems,

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps

for 64 bit (newer) Windows systems, and

/Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps

for Mac OS X systems.

You will need to copy all files who's name begins with "source" or "team fortress 2" from that folder on your PC to the folder on your brother's PC. There is also a file called winui.gcf which you will need to copy in there also.

Then follow the instructions in the below heading.

SteamApps\username folder instructions

You will also need to copy the <your steam username>\team fortress 2 folder inside your SteamApps folder to SteamApps\<your brothers steam username>\team fortress 2. If there are any folders beginning with source or winui in there as well, you should copy those also. Apart from required files for the game itself, these folders contain configuration and downloaded maps.

Notes

If you miss any individual files then they will be downloaded when Steam launches the game.

These instructions will not work for Windows to Mac, or Mac to Windows.

Steam – Why is the Steam Client acting so slow

The fix I've found is to Clear the Steam application's Web Browser Cache.

I had this issue for a very long time. A previous workaround was to opt in to (or out of) the Steam client Beta. Only recently did I figure out the more targeted fix of clearing the cache.

Take note, this process and the fix I'm using may not work for everyone - and the batch script I made applies to Windows only. This is certainly adaptable to other systems, though I've never had this issue on macOS or Linux.

Manual in-app temporary fix

This will help confirm whether or not this is the cause of the slowness. It does of course require some patience:

From the tray icon: Right-click -> Settings; OR in the main client window menus: Steam -> Settings
In the Settings window that pops up, choose "Web Browser", usually toward the bottom left.
On that page, click the [ DELETE WEB BROWSER CACHE ] button.

The automated workaround:

For my desktop, I have replaced Steam's autostart with a task-scheduled batch script for two reasons:

The script clears the cache before launching Steam (this problem)
Task Scheduler allows you to delay tasks until after Network is operational (less chance of network/logon issues)

Script content. Notes below:

@echo off
TITLE CLEAR STEAM WEB CACHE BEFORE LAUNCHING
rmdir /s /q "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Steam\htmlcache"
mkdir "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Steam\htmlcache"

start C:\Steam\Steam.exe -nobigpicture

You can adjust the path appropriately depending on where Steam is installed
Other answers and articles mention other System paths - but I have confirmed via Process Monitor (from SysInternals) that the path I'm deleting is the only one that Steam itself clears. If someone has evidence otherwise, please let me know so I can add paths as appropriate.
I launch with the -nobigpicture parameter because, without it, Steam sometimes launches in "Big Picture" mode just because I have a controller attached. This parameter is optional.

Note that I have given up on finding a "proper" fix for this bug. Rather than clearing out the cache I now use a ramdisk for the affected folders.

In case these clues help another person trying to figure it out, best I can tell this is a bug in the browser back-end:

There is no obvious reason for the slowness. There is no CPU spike. There is no network latency. There is no disk I/O.
The browser backend (steamwebhelper.exe) is CEF (Chrome Embedded Framework), a sub-project of the Chromium Project.
When clearing the cache, rather than just immediately clearing the cache, steamwebhelper.exe is restarted as well.