How to uninstall games while using -no-browser: use Big Picture Mode.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Some of you who don't like the new Steam Library UI may, like me, be using -no-browser as a launch parameter for Steam.

For reference: -no-browser means that Steam starts none of its steamwebhelper.exe processes. This means that anything that uses a browser-rendered process to display doesn't work -- the new Library is now blank, new Friends/Chat doesn't work, and you can't use Steam's built-in web browser.

However, most of these functions can be replaced, even if imperfectly. Small Mode access is (for now) still present in the Steam client, meaning we can still get to a list of games (and one that loads a lot faster than the new Library UI!). The old version of the Friends/Chat is launched if you go to your friends list. (Although mouse-overs pop-ups will not work anymore.) And you can still install and launch your games.

But...you can't uninstall games. For some reason, the new Steam UI forces an uninstall confirmation prompt to be displayed in the browser-rendered new Library UI. Since you can't click yes on it because the browser isn't running, you can't uninstall games while running in -no-browser mode.

And yes, I am talking about using Small Mode, and right-clicking on a game and clicking "Uninstall...". That doesn't work. You just get thrown to the main Steam window and it's still blank because -no-browser means no browser.

...but I just found a way around that.

Big Picture Mode (which for me still runs more smoothly than the new Library UI, by the way) has its own way uninstall games. And it doesn't need to go through the new Library UI!

So you can now uninstall games while running -no-browser (i.e. not have to restart Steam without said parameter just to uninstall games). It is a stupidly roundabout way to do it, but it is possible.



...well, until Valve "updates" (read: breaks) Big Picture Mode by turning THAT into browser-rendered nonsense too.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

BP forum ---> https://steamcommunity.com/groups/bigpicture/discussions/

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

BP forum ---> https://steamcommunity.com/groups/bigpicture/discussions/

:qr:

Thanks, but this is a general Steam help thing, not an issue or feature particular to Big Picture Mode -- if anything it's a feature that's missing from general Steam under -no-browser conditions and this is the way to get around that problem, which just happens to involve BP.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by Quint the Alligator Snapper:

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

BP forum ---> https://steamcommunity.com/groups/bigpicture/discussions/

Thanks, but this is a general Steam help thing, not an issue or feature particular to Big Picture Mode -- if anything it's a feature that's missing from general Steam under -no-browser conditions and this is the way to get around that problem, which just happens to involve BP.

Small mode has the issue with uninstalling games too.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Originally posted by Quint the Alligator Snapper:

Thanks, but this is a general Steam help thing, not an issue or feature particular to Big Picture Mode -- if anything it's a feature that's missing from general Steam under -no-browser conditions and this is the way to get around that problem, which just happens to involve BP.

Small mode has the issue with uninstalling games too.

:qr:

Indeed it does and that's what I was referring to. I've clarified my wording; thanks.

[Ketesi]

Thanks for this! -no-browser for me is a matter of necessity because steamwebhelper eats all of my RAM. Consider poking at the Steam Console, too - `steam -console -no-browser` in full, then navigate to the Library and it'll appear on the top navigation bar.
`app_` and `apps_` -prefixed commands allow basic app management, but *running* them appears to require other methods (for now)