On this page we will cover the installtion process of Counter-Strike: Source on the Windows XP operating system. First, you will need to download and install the windows hldsupdatetool (local download). The default install path is C:Program FilesValveHLServer which is fine in most cases. Your drive letter may differ than above. Be sure you run the hldsupdatetool installer with administrator privileges. Once you've installed the hldsupdatetool, continue reading.

Installing Counter-Strike: Source (SRCDS)

On Windows, click start, then select run and type cmd then, in the DOS window type: Now, lets update and install Counter-Strike: Source, run the following command:

Note the period after -dir - Make sure not to leave it out.

Installation will take around 30-60 minutes (~800MB). After the "HLDS installation up to date" message, setup is now complete and you are ready to start the server.

Starting the server

There are two ways to start the server, either by using the fancy Steam GUI or the Console:

Console on left, Steam GUI on right

Which method you choose to start the server depend on the type of server. If it will be a temporary server then use the GUI for easy setup, otherwise, stick with the console, it uses less resources. Select one of the two options:

1. Starting CS Source Server via GUI
If you want to use the Steam GUI browse to C:Program FilesValveHLServer find and double click srcds.exe, a menu will open and everything else should be self explanatory. If you choose the Steam GUI there is no need to read any further, you have successfully installed Steam, simply select your server start-up options using the GUI tabs. To start the server using the console method, continue reading.

2. Starting CS Source Server via Console
Browse to C:Program FilesValveHLServer find and right click srcds.exe and select Create Shortcut. Now you should have a shortcut icon of srcds.exe. Right click that newly created shortcut and select Properties

By now, You should be in the shortcut properties window.

Shortcut properties

Counter-Strike command line options

Below are a list of commands you can enter in the target field to start the server.

-console
Initializes console mode

-autoupdate
Automatically update the server when Steam updates are released

-game <game name>
The HLDS mod you want to run

+maxplayers <number of players>
Amount of players to allow

+map <map name>
The map to start the server with

+port <port number>
The port number the server should run on. Can be left out if you plan on using the default port (27015).

Under the shortcut target field is where you will need to enter some options. See above for current -flags you can use, we want to start our server with a limit of 20 players and on cs_italy so our shortcut target field will look like this:

Note the quotes around the path, they are required if the path contains a space.

Now we click OK on the Shortcut window. To start the server we simply double click the shortcut we created and the server will start up with the options we added to the target area. Our server is now running:

Source Dedicated Server running

You can also start the server without creating a shortcut: Click on Start, Run, then type cmd now in the DOS prompt window, type: then type: However, we recommend creating the shortcut so you do not have to type the commands each and every time you want start the server.

Eventually, you will want to alter the server hostname, and other cvars for the server. To do this, use our SRCDS cfgmaker, It can generate a configuration file, even if you have very little knowledge.

Part 3.

On the next page, we will guide you step-by-step on installing Counter-Strike 1.6. The steps are almost identical as installing Counter-Strike: Source, with the exception of the -game prefix and a few other changes.