What is GamePinned?

The deletion problem on shared gaming PCs has been solved badly for as long as the category has existed. Reboot-to-restore tools block deletion but revert legitimate updates along with it. Standard user accounts do not stop the elevated background services that ship with every modern game launcher. Hiding launcher menus breaks the moment a customer opens File Explorer. Daily reimaging cleans the slate at night and does nothing during the session in which deletion actually happens. Operators have been choosing between bad options, or accepting the cost of lost sessions, for years.

GamePinned takes a different position. It blocks deletion at the Windows file system level and leaves the rest of the operating system alone. Protected game folders cannot be removed by customer accounts; launchers still install patches, run integrity checks, and launch games normally; nothing reverts on reboot, and nothing freezes. The cafe owner controls protection through a password-gated admin app and can lift it at any time. The result is a game library that stays installed across sessions and patch days without the trade-offs that defined the previous generation of tools.

GamePinned has been in production since early 2026 and is scanned clean by independent services¹. This paper is its canonical reference. It documents the deletion problem in operational and economic terms, surveys the approaches that came before, presents the GamePinned design and capabilities, covers the security and reliability model, and walks through the business case, deployment, and roadmap. References are numbered throughout and consolidated in Section 17.

2.1Who this paper is for

This paper is written for the person responsible for buying or running shared-PC gaming infrastructure. That includes cafe owners, PC bang operators, esports venue managers, university IT staff, LAN event organizers, and anyone evaluating game protection software for a fleet of Windows PCs. It also covers the home use case, where the protection model is the same but the scale is smaller.

2.2What you will learn

You will learn what GamePinned does, why we built it the way we did, how it compares to other approaches you might have considered (reboot-to-restore, standard user accounts, reimaging), what running it looks like day to day, and what it costs. Every claim that includes a number has a reference in Section 17.

2.3How this paper is organized

Sections 3 to 5 cover the problem and why current solutions fall short. Sections 6 to 11 describe GamePinned: what it is, how it works at a level useful for evaluation, what it supports, and where it is reliable. Section 12 is the business case with concrete numbers. Sections 13 to 15 cover deployment, the roadmap, and who built it. Section 16 is the conclusion and Section 17 is the full reference list. Two appendices follow: a long-form FAQ and a glossary.

3.1The shared-PC gaming market

Gaming cafes, PC bangs, and internet centers operate worldwide. Indonesia is estimated to have several thousand active internet cafes². The Philippines has around 7,000 establishments tracked under the comshop banner³. South Korea pioneered the PC bang model in the late 1990s following the launch of StarCraft; the segment grew from around 100 to roughly 25,000 PC bangs between 1997 and the early 2010s². Even in markets where home gaming PCs are common, esports arenas, tournament venues, and LAN centers run shared Windows infrastructure across many stations.

The terminology differs by country: cafes, internet centers, PC bangs, warnets (Indonesia), comshops (Philippines), netcafes (Japan), cyber cafes (Pakistan, India), gaming centers (United States and Europe). The underlying setup is the same: a row of Windows PCs, a shared game library, customers who pay by the hour, and an operator responsible for keeping every PC ready for the next session.

3.2The bandwidth and storage reality

Modern multiplayer games are large. Counter-Strike 2 takes around 35 GB of disk space. Valorant is 55 GB or more. Fortnite is over 100 GB for the base install. Dota 2 is 50 GB or more. GTA V requires over 125 GB. League of Legends is 30 GB or more⁴. A typical cafe library covers 5 to 15 active titles plus seasonal additions. Total disk usage per PC ranges from 200 GB to over 1 TB.

Bandwidth varies widely by cafe. The math is what it is: a 35 GB CS2 redownload takes around 47 minutes on a 100 Mbps connection, and about 8 hours on a 10 Mbps connection⁵. Whatever the cafe's speed, that window is time the affected PC earns nothing, and other customers sharing the same connection see their own traffic slow down because the download saturates the line.

3.3Why deletion happens

Customer deletion of games happens for predictable reasons: a customer wants to install a different game and the disk is full, a customer clicks the wrong button in Steam, a banned customer takes one last swipe at the shop before leaving, or a customer thinks they are being clever and erasing their session history. The motive does not really matter. What matters is that the next paying customer cannot use the PC.

4.1The session economics

A single uninstall incident has a measurable cost. The PC sits offline until the game is reinstalled, and during that window it earns nothing. Staff time is also pulled in to notice the issue, log in, restart the download, and verify the install. Section 12 walks through the math with real hourly rates from cafes GamePinned works with.

Patch days multiply the problem. When a major title releases an update, every PC in the shop needs to download it. A 5 GB patch across 30 PCs is 150 GB of total bandwidth pulled through one ISP connection. The exact hours of saturated network depend on the cafe's link speed. If a customer also deletes a game and triggers a full 35 GB redownload on top of the patch traffic, the situation worsens. Without protection, every patch day is a balancing act.

4.2Real operator voices

Reimaging works for browser history, customer files, and Windows settings. It does not stop deletion during a session. A customer who logs in at 3 PM and deletes CS2 at 4 PM has already broken the PC for the rest of the day. Most gaming cafes also run 24 hours a day, so the “nightly reimage” window many tools assume does not really exist. Anyone who arrives an hour later finds an offline machine.

4.3What customers actually do

The uninstall path is not hidden. In Steam, a customer right-clicks the game in the library, picks Uninstall, confirms a dialog. Done. In Epic Games, the same flow exists in the library. In Riot Games, the customer opens Windows Add or Remove Programs, finds Valorant or League of Legends, clicks Uninstall. None of these flows require admin rights, because each launcher runs a background service that performs the deletion on behalf of the user. The customer never needs to elevate. The customer never sees a UAC prompt. The deletion just happens.

Even a customer who does not use the launcher UI can open File Explorer and delete the game folder directly. That works too, unless something at the file system level says no.

Cafe operators have tried four general approaches before GamePinned. Each addresses part of the problem and fails on another part.

5.1Reboot-to-restore tools

Deep Freeze, Reboot Restore Rx, Shadow Defender, and similar products work by reverting the entire disk to a clean snapshot on every reboot. Customer deleted CS2? Reboot, and CS2 is back. The category is well-established and widely deployed.

The trade-off is that the snapshot reverts everything, including game updates. When a 5 GB CS2 patch downloads and applies on Monday, then the PC reboots overnight, the patch is gone Tuesday morning. The shop has to thaw protection on every PC, apply updates, refreeze. That overhead grows linearly with the number of titles and PCs.

5.2Standard user accounts

One common assumption is that customers running under a non-admin account cannot delete software. That assumption breaks at every major launcher, for different reasons. Steam runs a background service (Steam Client Service) with full system-level privileges that performs the deletion on the customer's behalf. Riot Games installs a deep system component (Riot Vanguard) that operates at the OS level, below what most software can reach. Epic Games typically installs games to folders the customer's own account can write to, so the launcher does not need elevated services at all; it just deletes the folder as the user. In every case, locking the customer to a standard Windows account does not prevent the uninstall. Standard user accounts block many things; they do not block game uninstalls.

5.3Hiding the uninstall button

Some cafe management tools suppress parts of the Steam interface so customers cannot reach the Uninstall menu. This works on customers who only know how to use the launcher UI. It fails for any customer who opens File Explorer, navigates to the game folder, and presses Delete.

5.4Daily reimaging

Restoring the Windows image every night handles a lot of cafe maintenance well: customer files cleared, browsers reset, settings normalized. It does not help with in-session deletion. The window between when a game is deleted and when the next reimage runs is exactly the window a paying customer cannot use that PC.

5.5Manual monitoring

Some operators check libraries at the end of each shift and reinstall whatever is missing. It works at small scale. It does not scale beyond a handful of PCs, and it pushes all the cost onto staff time during exactly the hours when the shop is busiest.

5.6Summary

6.1A different starting position

Reboot-to-restore tools couple deletion and updates into one problem and revert both. Reimaging tries to fix the result after the fact, when the damage to the session has already been done. GamePinned starts from a different position: deletion and updates are separate problems that should be solved separately. Block one, leave the other alone. The rest of the operating system is not the product's concern. Every feature in the rest of this paper follows from that commitment to narrow scope.

6.2Design principles

The product follows a small set of rules that every feature has to fit within:

• Block deletion, allow everything else. Customers can play. Launchers can update. Patches can install. Only removal is blocked.
• Admin override is always available. The owner can unlock any game at any time with the admin password.
• Survives reboots, power loss, and crashes. Protection is persistent on disk. The PC can power-cycle a hundred times and the protection is still there on boot 101.
• No reimaging, no virtualization, no kernel drivers. GamePinned does not freeze Windows, does not run a hypervisor, does not require a special boot partition.
• Standard users cannot disable it. The background service runs in a way that ordinary customer accounts cannot stop it through Task Manager or the Services panel.

6.3What GamePinned is not

To set expectations clearly, GamePinned is not:

• Antivirus. It does not scan for malware. Run any antivirus you like alongside it.
• A backup tool. It does not copy your game files anywhere. If a disk fails, the games are gone, the same as on any other system.
• A system freeze. The rest of Windows works normally. Customers can change settings, install browsers, save files. Only protected game folders are locked from deletion.
• A kiosk shell. GamePinned does not replace the desktop or restrict app launches.
• A cafe management or POS system. It coexists with Senet, Antamedia, GGLeap, ICafeCloud, and similar tools. It does not replace them.

7.1The mechanism in one paragraph

GamePinned marks the protected game folders as undeletable for specific Windows accounts on the PC. When one of those accounts tries to uninstall a protected game (through a launcher, through Add or Remove Programs, or through File Explorer), Windows refuses the operation at the file system level. The launcher returns to its library, the customer sees no progress or an error, and the game stays exactly where it was. The protection lives in standard Windows security; GamePinned does not run a kernel driver, does not hook other processes, and does not virtualize the disk. The how it works covers the mechanism from an operator setup perspective.

7.2What protection looks like on each launcher

Steam.The customer right-clicks a protected game and picks Uninstall. Steam briefly closes and reopens, the library refreshes, and the game is still there. From the customer's perspective, the Uninstall click did nothing visible. The cafe owner sees a corresponding block entry in the GamePinned activity log.

Epic Games. The customer hits Uninstall on a protected Epic title. The Epic launcher shows an error message and the game remains installed. The customer can play it again immediately.

Riot Games. Uninstall attempts for protected Riot titles fail through the Riot Client, through Windows Add or Remove Programs, and through direct folder deletion in File Explorer. The game stays on disk.

7.3It runs in the background

GamePinned installs as a Windows background service. It starts with Windows, restarts itself if it crashes, and is configured so that standard customer accounts cannot stop it from Task Manager or the Services panel. The cafe owner can stop it with admin rights and the GamePinned password, which is the same gate that unlocks games.

7.4The admin interface

A separate GamePinned application sits in the system tray. Anyone can open it to see what is protected, but changing settings (locking or unlocking games, adding or removing blocked customers, toggling maintenance mode) requires the admin password. Read-only access without the password is intentional: it lets staff verify state without giving them the keys.

7.5New games are detected automatically

When a customer installs a new game on a protected platform, GamePinned notices within seconds. On paid tiers, new games are locked automatically as soon as they finish installing. On the free tier, new games appear in the GamePinned interface but stay unlocked until the owner picks them.

7.6Updates and patches work normally

Game updates write to disk, modify existing files, and add new files. They do not delete the game itself. Because GamePinned only blocks deletion, patches, hotfixes, and DLC installs proceed normally. There is no thaw cycle, no protection toggle on patch days. The library can grow and stay current under protection.

7.7One license, one PC

Each paid license is bound to the specific PC during activation. Copying the GamePinned program file to another PC does not give that PC paid features; the second PC will see a license mismatch and run as the free tier. The owner can deactivate and move a license between PCs by raising a ticket at gamepinned.com/support or emailing support@gamepinned.com, which makes hardware upgrades and replacements straightforward.

8.1Multi-platform protection

Steam, Epic Games, and Riot Games are supported with feature parity. The cafe owner installs GamePinned once per PC; the software detects which launchers are installed and offers their libraries for protection.

8.2Auto-lock for new installs

When a new game finishes installing on a protected platform, GamePinned can lock it automatically. This eliminates a manual step on busy days when staff are bringing new titles online across the floor.

8.3Maintenance mode

A single switch in the admin app temporarily lifts all locks across all platforms. The owner uses it for legitimate uninstalls (retiring a game from the lineup), hard cleanups (full library refresh), or bulk maintenance windows. Toggling it back on re-applies all protection. See the maintenance mode for the full workflow.

8.4Per-user blocking

The owner can block all standard Windows accounts (the default), or restrict the block list to specific named accounts. Cafes that run customer sessions under a dedicated CAFE account, for example, can block just that account and leave the staff or admin account untouched.

8.5Update and patch compatibility

Steam, Epic, and Riot patches install normally under protection. No thaw cycle, no protection toggle. Section 7.6 covers the reason in detail.

8.6GPU Pinned

GPU Pinned saves NVIDIA Control Panel 3D settings and the full Windows display configuration as named profiles. The cafe owner snapshots the desired graphics state once, picks it as the active profile, and the PC restores those settings on every reboot. Customers can change settings during their session; the next reboot resets them to the cafe's preferred baseline. Full setup steps are in the GPU Pinned.

8.7Session Clear

A one-click action that logs out the customer from Steam, Epic, and Riot launchers, wipes auth cookies, and clears the per-customer launcher state. Used between sessions when the next customer arrives. Game installs are untouched; only login state and cached auth are removed. See the Session Clear for exactly what gets wiped on each platform.

8.8Admin app on every PC

Each PC has its own admin interface. The owner can lock, unlock, view logs, trigger maintenance mode, and check protection status without leaving the PC.

8.9Silent auto-update

Paid tiers receive silent updates in the background. Updates verify the installer file against a published hash before they run, and a tampered update is rejected. Full details are in the updating.

8.10Health reporting

GamePinned reports basic health back to the owner's account: which PCs are online, which version they are running, which launchers are protected. Game files, user accounts, passwords, and gameplay data are never sent. Section 10.6 covers data handling in full.

9.1Current support

Steam, Epic Games, and Riot Games are all supported in production. Each runs through the same protection model and offers comparable behavior.

9.2Coming next

GOG Galaxy, Battle.net, Ubisoft Connect, and EA App are on the roadmap. Each is being added on the same protection model used for Steam, Epic, and Riot. Section 14 covers timing.

9.3Per-platform behavior detail

Per-platform setup notes, install path detection, and behavior under common edge cases live in the platform documentation.

10.1Standard users cannot turn it off

A customer logged in as a standard Windows user cannot stop GamePinned from Task Manager, cannot stop it from the Windows Services panel, and cannot uninstall it without admin rights and the GamePinned admin password. The customer can see that it is running. They cannot interact with it.

10.2Tied to the PC it was installed on

Each paid license is bound to the specific PC during activation. Copying the program file to a different PC does not transfer the paid features. The second PC will report a license mismatch and behave as the free tier. This stops a single license from quietly powering an entire shop. The owner moves licenses between PCs by raising a ticket at gamepinned.com/support or emailing support@gamepinned.com, which is the supported path for hardware swaps.

10.3Survives reboots, power loss, and crashes

Protection is persistent on disk. The PC can lose power mid-session, reboot, hard-crash, or freeze, and protection is still there when Windows comes back up. The background service starts with Windows and restarts itself if it ever exits unexpectedly.

10.4Maintenance mode is the sanctioned bypass

The only supported way to remove protection temporarily is the maintenance mode toggle in the admin app. It is single-click, password-gated, and reversible. There is no command-line bypass, no registry hack, no hidden override. If a future feature ever needs to lift protection, it goes through the same toggle. Technical details on all security measures are in the security.

10.5Independently verified clean

The GamePinned installer is scanned by VirusTotal on every release¹. The current scan results and SHA256 hash live on the Verified page; every new build is re-scanned before publication.

10.6What we collect and what we never collect

GamePinned sends back: a hardware identifier for license binding, the software version, and which launchers are installed on the PC.

GamePinned never sends: game files, your customers' Windows accounts, gameplay data, browser history, saved passwords, configuration files, or any personal data from the customer side of the PC. The full privacy policy lives at /privacy-policy.

10.7Updates are verified before install

Every silent update downloads the installer and checks it against a published hash before running it. A modified or tampered installer is rejected and the existing install is left untouched.

11.1Gaming cafe (10 to 50 PCs, mixed library)

The primary use case. A neighborhood cafe with a mix of competitive titles (CS2, Valorant, Dota 2, League of Legends), single-player favorites, and seasonal additions. Each PC needs a stable library across customer sessions. The owner installs GamePinned per PC, picks the games to protect, and turns auto-lock on for new installs. Day-to-day intervention is close to zero.

11.2PC bang (high-volume, scheduled patches, fast turnover)

A larger venue with strict patch windows, dedicated staff, and customer turnover every hour or two. The owner pairs GamePinned with their cafe management software for session billing, and uses Session Clear between customers to wipe launcher logins. Maintenance mode is used briefly during the scheduled patch window for any games being retired.

11.3Esports arena and tournament venue

A fixed library of tournament titles. The library should not change during an event. GamePinned locks every supported title and the protection runs in the background through the tournament. No customer can accidentally or intentionally remove a competitive title mid-event. Between events, the operator unlocks games to refresh the lineup, then re-locks.

11.4University gaming lab and classroom

A university lab where students share PCs across the day. The IT admin sets the protection list, blocks the student accounts from deleting protected titles, and uses maintenance mode during quarterly software refreshes. Faculty admin accounts remain unrestricted.

11.5LAN center hosting events

A LAN venue that hosts weekend tournaments and weekday open play. The fixed game library is protected. Event-specific titles can be added before each tournament without touching the rest of the library.

11.6Shared home PC

A household where siblings, kids, roommates, or guests share a gaming PC. The free tier covers one protected game forever. Households with several games to protect can use the trial or paid tier. Same protection model, smaller scale.

12.1Cost of a single uninstall incident

Hourly rates vary widely by market. In Pakistan, a gaming cafe PC commonly earns around 350 PKR per hour (around $1.25 at May 2026 exchange rates). In the United Arab Emirates, the rate is closer to 50 AED per hour (around $13.50). Rates in other markets sit between or beyond these two anchors.

Worked example using the Pakistan rate: a customer deletes CS2 (35 GB) at 4 PM on a Saturday. The redownload time depends on the cafe's connection (Section 3.2 has the per-bandwidth math). Each hour the PC sits offline is 350 PKR lost in direct revenue at the Pakistan rate, or 50 AED at the UAE rate. Staff time to log in, restart the download, and verify the install costs additional labor wherever staff is paid hourly.

The figure above counts only the direct hourly revenue lost on the offline PC. Other costs are situational and depend on each cafe's setup. Cafes on metered or capped connections pay for the repeat traffic. Cafes that share one internet pipe across the floor see other customers slow down while the download runs. Cafes that pay staff hourly absorb labor cost for the triage time. None of these are universal; some cafes will see them all and some none. The figure in this section represents the minimum quantifiable loss per incident, not a full cost accounting.

12.2Bandwidth savings

Every incident prevented is one full game redownload avoided. Across a month, the cafe avoids gigabytes to hundreds of gigabytes of unnecessary traffic. On metered or capped connections, the bandwidth savings alone can pay for GamePinned several times over.

12.3Staff time savings

Staff stop having to monitor libraries, restart downloads, and reassure customers about wait times. The hours reclaimed translate directly to other work: helping customers, running the floor, handling new signups.

12.4Payback at different cafe sizes

GamePinned's monthly subscription starts at $1.99 per PC, with volume discounts at 10 and 30 PCs⁶. A 10-PC cafe pays around $15 per month after the 25% volume discount. A 30-PC cafe pays around $39 per month after the 35% volume discount. A 50-PC cafe pays around $65 per month at the same rate.

Whether the subscription pays back on direct revenue alone depends on hourly rate, incident frequency, and library size. In higher-rate markets like the UAE, a small number of prevented incidents per month covers the subscription many times over. In lower-rate markets like Pakistan, the hourly revenue math is closer to break-even, and the savings on metered bandwidth, staff time, and customer retention often matter more than the direct revenue figure. The ROI calculator on the homepage lets you plug in your own hourly rate and PC count.

12.5Pricing tiers

Pricing details and volume discount math are on the pricing page. The headline tiers:

• Free. Protect 1 game per PC. No expiry. No credit card required.
• Trial. Full features for 30 days. Single PC.
• PRO (subscription). From $1.99 per PC per month. Volume discounts at 10 and 30 PCs.
• ELITE (one-time). From $699. One-time purchase, no renewal. Up to 30 PCs or unlimited PCs.

Billing, payment methods, and subscription management are covered in the payment.

12.6Comparison to alternative spend

Deep Freeze Standard runs around $46 per PC perpetual plus annual maintenance⁷. Across 25 PCs, that is over $1,150 in licensing alone, before staff overhead for thaw cycles on patch days. Daily reimaging requires hardware (a sync server, drive snapshots) and ongoing staff time. Manual monitoring scales with payroll. GamePinned at $1.99 per PC per month is in a different price tier than tools that solve a different problem.

13.1System requirements

Windows 10 (1809 or later) or Windows 11, 64-bit only. Around 300 MB of disk space for the application itself. Administrator account required for installation and operation. No specific GPU required for the core protection feature. NVIDIA Control Panel features (GPU Pinned) require an NVIDIA GPU and the standard NVIDIA driver. Internet access is required for license activation and updates; once activated, GamePinned protects games even when the PC is offline.

13.2Installation

Download the installer from gamepinned.com. Run the installer with admin rights. The installer sets up the background service and the admin app, and starts protection in read-only mode (nothing locked yet). Total time: around 2 minutes on a typical PC.

13.3Initial configuration

Open the admin app. Set the admin password. Activate your license key if you have one (skip to use the free tier). Browse the games detected on each platform. Click Lock on the ones you want protected. Optionally enable auto-lock for new installs. Optionally set which Windows accounts are blocked (the default covers all standard users). The complete step-by-step setup guide is at getting started.

13.4First-protection time

Under 5 minutes from download to the first protected game on a typical PC. Locking a larger pre-existing library and configuring user blocking adds time roughly proportional to library size; in practice, around 10 to 15 minutes total for a fully populated cafe machine. On PCs where games are still downloading, protection applies once the games finish installing.

13.5Fleet deployment

For multi-PC deployments, the same installer runs on every PC. Each PC needs its own activation; the GamePinned account holds the seats and shows which PCs are active. Common deployment workflows (image-based provisioning, scripted install, manual round) all work, since the installer is a standard Windows MSI-style executable.

13.6Maintenance workflow

Day-to-day operation requires no maintenance. When the owner wants to retire a game, they unlock it in the admin app, uninstall it normally, and remove it from the list. When a new game is installed, auto-lock handles it. When a patch arrives, no intervention is needed: the protection lets updates through.

13.7Uninstalling GamePinned cleanly

Uninstalling GamePinned removes all protection from all games and removes the application itself. After uninstall, the PC behaves exactly as it did before GamePinned was installed. The uninstall path is documented in the uninstall docs.

14.1Shipped

Steam, Epic Games, and Riot Games protection. GPU Pinned. Session Clear. Maintenance mode. Per-user blocking. Auto-detection and auto-lock. Hardware-bound licensing. Silent auto-update on paid tiers. Current released version: 2.0.4.

14.2Near-term

Additional launcher support: GOG Galaxy, Battle.net, Ubisoft Connect, and EA App. Each will use the same protection model already proven on Steam, Epic, and Riot. These are in active development; release dates land on the changelog as each one ships.

14.3Future

A web dashboard for multi-PC fleet management. The dashboard will give cafe owners a single browser view of every PC running GamePinned: protection status, recent block activity, license assignments, and remote configuration. This is the largest planned feature and is scheduled to come online at portal.gamepinned.com.

14.4Versioning and update cadence

Released versions follow semantic versioning. The release notes and changelog are maintained on the changelog page. Paid tiers receive updates silently in the background. Free tier users see an update prompt when a new version is available.

GamePinned launched in March 2026 because a gaming cafe owner asked for it. The full origin is on the story page: a cafe owner running Deep Freeze was tired of choosing between blocked deletions and blocked patches, and asked for a tool that would let games update while making deletions impossible. The product took two months to build from scratch and went live in March 2026.

Every edge case found in early deployments shaped how GamePinned works today. The product is under active development with regular shipped updates.

For support, contact support@gamepinned.com. For documentation, see /docs.

About the author

Osama Siddiqui

Founder and lead engineer, GamePinned

Osama built GamePinned in early 2026 after a gaming cafe owner asked for a way to stop customers from uninstalling games without breaking the rest of the system. The product has been in active development with regular shipped releases since launch.

Read more about Osama →Read the full origin story →

The shared-PC gaming market loses real money to customer game deletion. Reboot-to-restore tools solve part of the problem but break game updates. Standard user accounts and UI hiding solve neither. Reimaging cleans the slate at night but does nothing during the session that matters.

GamePinned takes a narrow approach: block deletion at the Windows level, let everything else through. The result is a cafe library that stays installed across sessions, reboots, and patch days, without forcing the owner to choose between protection and updates.

Three suggested next steps:

1. Start the 30-day free trial. Full features for 30 days. Card required. Cancel before day 30 and you won't be charged.
2. Read the getting-started guide. Step-by-step setup for a single PC and for fleet deployments.
3. Email support for fleet deployments. If you are evaluating GamePinned for 10 or more PCs and want help with rollout, we are happy to walk through it.

1. 1
   Current scan results for the GamePinned installer: gamepinned.com/verified. Each release is re-scanned by VirusTotal across 70+ antivirus engines, with the SHA256 hash published alongside the result.↑
2. 2
   Indonesia internet cafe count: composite figure from regional industry reporting, 2023 onward. Exact totals vary by source. South Korea PC bang growth from 1997 to the early 2010s: Wikipedia, “PC bang”, citing Korean industry data on the post-1997 economic crisis growth period.↑
3. 3
   Philippines comshop estimate: industry directory listings (Rentech Digital and similar) tracking around 6,900 internet cafe establishments, retrieved May 2026. The number of unlisted establishments raises the total estimate above 7,000.↑
4. 4
   Game install sizes: Steam store and Epic Games store listings; community-tracked install sizes from skin.land, GameBoost, PartitionWizard, and PCGameBenchmark, retrieved May 2026. Sizes vary by region, language pack, optional high-resolution texture packs, and recent updates.↑
5. 5
   Redownload time at 10 Mbps for a 35 GB game: 35,000 MB ÷ (10 Mbps × 0.125 MB per Mbps) ≈ 7.8 hours. At 100 Mbps: 47 minutes.↑
6. 6
   Current pricing and volume discount details: gamepinned.com/pricing. Discount tiers shown are the published rates as of May 2026.↑
7. 7
   Deep Freeze Standard pricing reference: CDW reseller listing, 2025. Pricing varies by region, volume, and educational discount.↑

A.1Is GamePinned a Windows service or a regular app?

Both. A background service handles the actual protection and runs continuously, even when no one is logged in. A separate admin app sits in the system tray and is the interface the owner uses to lock games, change settings, and view activity.

A.2Can a customer kill GamePinned through Task Manager?

No. Standard customer accounts do not have permission to stop the GamePinned background service. They can see it in the Services list and in Task Manager, but the Stop action is blocked.

A.3What happens if the PC loses power mid-session?

Nothing breaks. Protection is persistent on disk. When the PC powers back on, the service starts with Windows and the games are still locked. There is no recovery step needed.

A.4Does it work offline?

Yes, after activation. The license is checked against the GamePinned account during activation. After that, the PC can run fully offline. The service does not require network access to keep games protected. Updates, license refreshes, and health reporting need a connection when they run, but protection itself does not.

A.5Does it affect game performance or frame rate?

No. GamePinned does not run during gameplay. The background service handles uninstall attempts when they happen and is idle otherwise. There is no overlay, no hook, no per-frame intervention.

A.6How does it handle Steam Family Sharing?

Family Sharing is a Steam-side feature for sharing your library with other accounts. GamePinned operates at the file system level on a specific PC and is independent of Family Sharing. Shared games install and run normally; only uninstall attempts on the PC where GamePinned is installed are affected.

A.7What if I want to delete a protected game permanently?

Toggle maintenance mode on in the admin app, uninstall the game through Steam, Epic, or Riot as you normally would, and toggle maintenance mode off when done. Or unlock just that one game in the admin app, uninstall it, and the protection list updates automatically.

A.8Does GamePinned support Linux or Mac?

Not currently. GamePinned is Windows-only. Windows 10 (1809 or later) and Windows 11 are supported. There are no plans for Linux or Mac support in the near term, because cafe and PC bang infrastructure is overwhelmingly Windows.

A.9How do I deploy across 50 PCs?

The same installer runs on every PC. Each PC needs its own activation, which the GamePinned account handles. Common image-based provisioning, scripted install, or per-PC manual install all work. For deployments of 10 PCs or more, contact support and we will walk through it.

A.10Can two cafes share one license?

No. Each license is bound to the PC it was activated on. Cafe owners with multiple locations can manage all seats under a single GamePinned account, which is the supported multi-location pattern.

A.11What happens when my subscription expires?

The PC downgrades to the free tier. One game stays protected; all others are unlocked immediately. The owner can renew at any time to restore full coverage. Auto-update and a few paid-only features stop functioning until the subscription is renewed. For renewal steps, see troubleshooting.

A.12Is GamePinned open source?

No. GamePinned is closed-source commercial software. The installer is published openly and is scanned clean by independent services (see Section 10.5).

A.13How is my data handled?

Section 10.6 covers this in detail. In short: GamePinned reports back the hardware identifier, version, and which launchers are installed. It never reports back game files, user accounts, gameplay data, browser history, or any personal data from the customer side. Full privacy policy at /privacy-policy.

A.14What languages is the admin app available in?

Currently English. Additional language support is on the roadmap based on cafe deployment requests.

A.15How do I cancel?

Subscriptions cancel through the customer portal at any time. The PC continues to receive paid features until the end of the current billing period, then downgrades to the free tier. There is no cancellation fee and no minimum term.

Protected game

A game the cafe owner has locked through the admin app. Customers cannot uninstall a protected game.

Blocked user

A Windows account that GamePinned prevents from deleting protected games. By default this covers all standard customer accounts; the owner can narrow it to specific named accounts.

Maintenance mode

A toggle in the admin app that temporarily lifts all protection. Used for legitimate uninstalls and bulk maintenance.

Free tier

The no-cost version of GamePinned. Covers one protected game per PC. No expiry, no credit card required.

Trial

A 30-day free trial of the paid features. One trial per email and per PC.

PRO (subscription)

The recurring paid tier. From $1.99 per PC per month with volume discounts.

ELITE (perpetual)

The one-time paid tier. From $699 for up to 30 PCs, with an unlimited option.

Library path

The folder where a launcher installs its games. Steam, Epic, and Riot each have their own library paths, which GamePinned detects automatically.

Game launcher

The application a customer uses to launch a game. Steam, Epic Games, and Riot Games are the launchers GamePinned currently protects.

GPU profile

A saved snapshot of NVIDIA Control Panel 3D settings and Windows display configuration. GamePinned restores the active profile on every reboot.

Admin password

The password the cafe owner sets to gate changes in the admin app. Without it, the admin app is read-only.

Background service

A Windows service that runs continuously and enforces game protection. Standard customer accounts cannot stop it.

License activation

The one-time step that binds a paid license to a specific PC. Activation requires an internet connection; once activated, the PC works offline.