If any of you have ever wanted to setup a Valve game server this is the guide for you! Guide from SRCDS.com and modified. This is for the Windows platform only.

First of all download hldsupdatetool from the VALVe webserver. We save it to a temporary location and run it.
Navigate through the wizard like you are used to, which means next most of the time. When it asks you about the destination folder, click browse. Type c:\srcds in the textfield and click on OK. Finish the wizard.

Now click on Start, Run and type cmd . Type in the commands mentioned here and end a line with the enter key.
Command(s)

:

The new version of HLDSUpdateTool will be downloaded now. As soon the cursor just blinks, press CTRL-C.

Now we have an account, we can start downloading the files. This can take a few hours depending on the connection the server uses.
Command(s):

Do not forget to replace the login values with your own. If you want to install a Half-Life 2 Deathmatch server, use “hl2mp” for the game switch. If you want to see what games are available type this below into the console:

Go get yourself a cup of coffee.

First edit (or create) c:\srcds\cstrike\cfg\server.cfg like you want it to be. Now we are ready to run the srcds.
Click Start, Run, type in the box there:
c:\srcds\srcds.exe -console -game cstrike +map de_dust -maxplayers 16 -autoupdate
and press enter.
Your srcds is now up and running. (-game hl2mp if it’s a HL2DM server ofcourse)
If you want to use the GUI mode, with the interface do not add any options to it. (just srcds.exe)

Update: We recommend the enhanced version of this batch script.

Batch files are little script files that tell Windows what to do. If srcds crashes, it will not restart like possible under Linux. (Linux uses a “Script” file too)
What we are going to do is make sure that as soon HLDS suddenly quits it will restart. First we open notepad. What we write in there is the following:
Command(s)

:

Replace the marked part with your own commandline and values. Save the file as C:\srcds\srcds.bat in notepad (NOT .txt) and next time click the srcds.bat file. If you need to close srcds, close the hlds window and press Y (depending on language) at the Terminate batch question. Please do note this does not work with crashes/errors that involve a Windows error box.

As you might have noticed my site looks and feels a little different. This is because I am now using WordPress to power my blog instead of Drupal. I will be adding more content in the coming weeks.

~Tim