I can't delete the steam folder

[kylegood1288]

I am trying to start over from scratch with Steam. I have uninstalled everything from steam, but the folders are still there. I cant delete the folders or anything because it says i dont have permission. I dont know what else to do.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Originally posted by Wing:

Originally posted by Jaqd_UP:

Hi, I just had the same issue with my girlfriend's computer when she was trying to remove and re-install. Turns out the solution for her was to go into the steam folder and delete any sub-folders within each folder. It is an annoying process, but that allowed her to delete the main Steam folder afterwards. Turns out that even though each of the folders were empty of files, because the folders CONTAINED folders (meaning they weren't empty) it would not allow her to delete even as an administrator. Hope this helps someone out in the event you can't perform a system recovery like the above guy.

Thanks man, saved me from resetting my computer.
Steam/ Windows 10 is so stupid

Has nothing to do with Steam or Win10; just install Steam to C:\Steam or similar and u won't have this issue. IDK why folks don't catch on to this, it's only been this way since Vista.

[Drizzly]

Originally posted by JeffreyGoo:

I had the same problem, in particular with Kerbal Space Program, and I found the following solution:

As it turned out for some reason the Intel graphics driver's runtime component had locked the directory. This never happened on another Windows 10 system that didn't have that driver on it for me. If you go download Process Explorer from MS and then use the find function, search for 'kerbal' and see if there is a process locking it. After I killed the process tree locking it I was able to move\delete folders.

I had this exact problem, and this worked perfectly, thank you so much! Downloading process explorer, killing the process tree and deleting the Steam files took 2 minutes.

[Mikhotep]

Having this issue on every computer in the house. Installing to non-system directory as is constantly suggested does NOT protect against this issue.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Originally posted by Mikhotep:

Having this issue on every computer in the house. Installing to non-system directory as is constantly suggested does NOT protect against this issue.

Steam service is running; set the Steam Windows Service to Manual and don't have Steam Client in OS Startup

[Celebrimbor]

I FOUND THE SOLUTION GUYS!!!!
Turn out to be works. there is some proccess need to be kill in Task Manager is windows 10.

the task name is ' IntelTechnologyAccessService.exe ',even its name sounds hit the bull's-eye.
but before I killed the task, I'd kill many proccess name begin with intel thing, then try to delete the steam folder. After that you only need to restart the pc because you might have killed important tasks for pc to works properly.

[eueu_ueue]

Originally posted by Jason:

In Windows 10, go to settings, recovery, advanced startup settings, restart the PC, when it boots up choose safe mode, now you can delete that folder without any problem.

Worked like a charm!!

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Like I said, safe mode... nothing runs in safe mode, so whatever was preventing you from doing so, should no longer be in your way.

[Land_Strider]

Originally posted by JeffreyGoo:

I had the same problem, in particular with Kerbal Space Program, and I found the following solution:

As it turned out for some reason the Intel graphics driver's runtime component had locked the directory. This never happened on another Windows 10 system that didn't have that driver on it for me. If you go download Process Explorer from MS and then use the find function, search for 'kerbal' and see if there is a process locking it. After I killed the process tree locking it I was able to move\delete folders.

Seems killing every process related to intel in the Task Manager does the trick, and i happen to come to this solution on other folders in system disk when this problem occurs. So no need to do a reset/recovery and reinstall Steam.

[Ben]

Originally posted by DucksGoQuack:

its igfem.exe or smthng

Nice work. This was the what I had to kill in Task Manger

[VelosterN]

Originally posted by DucksGoQuack:

its igfem.exe or smthng

Yeah, the intel graphics app executable. igfxem.exe. Killing that in Task Manager let's you delete the UserData folder.

Nice find.

[Land_Strider]

I wonder if anyone informed Intel about this, this has been a problem for a quite long time. And in case you find yourself looking at blank menus where should have been some text, killing more of those Intel processes causes texts on many applications including OS based ones such as Explorer and and Task Manager to disappear, leaving blank menus and tables.

[Seven7]

Problem with intel drivers, programs, and wifi\wiMAX\TPM known since 2015 (since W10 beta)
some process from igfx (Intel HD video driver) Intel WiFi\WiMAX, intel security - components of TPM + re-branded McAfee (it's now called Intel Security Assist - now it renamed, but still same bugged crapware)
they all make problem for steam and games, causes hang, lags, high load CPU, crashes + bug, when steamwebhelper.exe uses a lot of memory and CPU resources

The most terrible thing is that often bugs are caused by drivers forced through Windows Updates - the drivers from the official Intel site usually solve most problems.

[ValeCliff]

Originally posted by Jaqd_UP:

Hi, I just had the same issue with my girlfriend's computer when she was trying to remove and re-install. Turns out the solution for her was to go into the steam folder and delete any sub-folders within each folder. It is an annoying process, but that allowed her to delete the main Steam folder afterwards. Turns out that even though each of the folders were empty of files, because the folders CONTAINED folders (meaning they weren't empty) it would not allow her to delete even as an administrator. Hope this helps someone out in the event you can't perform a system recovery like the above guy.

Thank you so much. I was messing with permissions and downloading programs just to delete one folder. This is so easy and I cant thank you enough.

[???]

Originally posted by Jason:

In Windows 10, go to settings, recovery, advanced startup settings, restart the PC, when it boots up choose safe mode, now you can delete that folder without any problem.

Thanks!!!! It worked!!!!
(Guys use Safe Mode, it's easier)

[Desperadooo]

Originally posted by Jason:

In Windows 10, go to settings, recovery, advanced startup settings, restart the PC, when it boots up choose safe mode, now you can delete that folder without any problem.

Thanks, this solved it for me. You can access the safe mode boot settings even quicker if you hit the Windows-key, enter 'msconfig' and check 'safe mode' on the second tab. After reboot and you delete the folder do the same, uncheck that same box and you're done.