Does Red Dead Redemption 2 run its installscript.vdf every time?

Hey y'all, hopefully I can find a direction to go in here.

I've been trying to troubleshoot an odd "issue" I've been having that is mostly benign but still perplexes me. I've recently started playing Red Dead Redemption 2, but any time I start the game, I receive a UAC prompt to allow Steam to make changes to my computer. It is specifically targeting the installscript.vdf file in the installation folder for Red Dead Redemption 2.

This file only contains a registry key target and the Vulkan Runtime installer. Running said installer does not change the behavior. I can manually delete the installscript.vdf file to prevent the pop-up, but if the game's files are verified or the game is restarted, the issue persists.

I'm not sure how to mitigate this, as it seems like the only game in my library causing the issue. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated! I would also like a "this happens to me too" just to know I'm not alone.

Relevant(?) Technical Specs:

• Windows 11 25H2
• EVGA RTX 3090 FTW3
• R7 9800X3D
• 32GB DDR5 RAM
• Windows install is from September 2025
• Steam is installed in the default directory, my games are on a separate NVMe drive