You can skip CSGO’s main menu with this hidden command

By Nick Johnson

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Mar 5, 2021

Reading time: 3 min

Tired of loading into Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s main menu? There’s a command that lets players skip the menu entirely and loads them right into the map of their choice.

CSGO’s main menu sometimes feels like a roadblock to actually playing the game. Sitting at the main menu seems silly when most players’ first stop is a warmup map or a favorite surf server before their first match of the day. Luckily, there’s a little-known CSGO command that will put players directly into any map they want, all thanks to CSGO’s autoexec files. Players have to put “launch_warmup_map” in their autoexec, and suddenly they will have gotten rid of CSGO’s menu altogether.

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Choose your own startup map with CSGO’s ui_settings command

Since autoexec files are run automatically when CSGO starts, they’re a great place to save settings and the perfect place for the next part of this warmup command.

Don’t have an autoexec? WIN.gg has a guide on what autoexec files can do for CSGO players and a full step-by-step guide to setting one up

But “Launch_warmup_map” is only the second part of the two-part trick. Before that will work, players have to first enter “ui_playsettings_warmup_map_name” in the client. This can also go in an autoexec, but for the first time it’s nice to have a list of maps set at the player’s fingertips. The command is just a long way of telling CSGO what map the player wants loaded when “launch_warmup_map” is run. The cool thing is, the command isn’t limited to official Valve maps. It works for any and all maps that a player has downloaded. The command doesn’t even need the usual workshop ID needed when players launch a game by entering the “map MAPNAME” command.

Players can find a list of available maps by entering “maps *” into CSGO’s console.

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First, enable the console under the “Game” tab of CSGO’s “Settings” menu. After it’s enabled, players can press the “`” key to open up CSGO’s developer panel. Once it’s open, players can then enter “ui_playersettings_warmup_map_name MAPNAME” into the prompt without the quotes, replacing “MAPNAME” with the name of the map they’d like to start when CSGO launches. Here are some examples:

  • ui_playsettings_warmup_map_name de_mirage
  • ui_playsettings_warmup_map_name aim_botz
  • ui_playsettings_warmup_map_name kz_cargo
  • ui_playsettings_warmup_map_name yprac_inferno

Launch_warmup_map skips CSGO’s main menu

That will save the player’s preference inside the CSGO client, but the next step is to head over to a player’s autoexec and add this line to the bottom of the file: “launch_warmup_map”

We placed it after host_writeconfig, as there isn’t a good reason to continually write the map to the game’s configuration files.

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If players are having trouble finding a map, they can enter “map *” in the in-game console. The command will print out a list of all maps found on the player’s hard drive. It’s a simple way to get warmed up faster in CSGO, all with the use of two easy commands. If this keeps up, players won’t ever have to see a main menu ever again.

Looking for a way out of warmup instead of a quiker way in? Here are all of CSGO’s warmup commands in one handy spot.

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