How Thorough Is Steam Game Uninstaller?

[dresoccer4]

One of m big PC pet peeves is when uninstalling some software and it leaves files and folders littered across my hard drive. Such as in Documents, or AppData, or Roaming folders, etc. I use revo uninstaller because of this and it helps; cleans up leftover files and registry items.

So my question is, does anyone know how thorough the built-in Steam game uninstaller is? It's very convenient and quick, but does anyone know if it also leaves files spread across the wasteland of the hard drive?

Thanks!

[J4MESOX4D]

Steam will remove the installation files and maybe some others generated but sometimes save files, agreements and other general material may be left behind. These can be located in either the main SteamApps directory or in your Documents folder and the files can be removed by hand.

[ElvisDeadly]

Worth pointing out that only files Steam installed get uninstalled.

So, for example, if you uninstall Skyrim and you have 20GB of mods in your Skyrim folder they will not be removed by uninstalling the game.

[dresoccer4]

Originally posted by J4MESOX4D:

Steam will remove the installation files and maybe some others generated but sometimes save files, agreements and other general material may be left behind. These can be located in either the main SteamApps directory or in your Documents folder and the files can be removed by hand.

hmm ok thats what I was worried about. Having to go on a file-hunt every time you uninstall a game is pretty frusterating. And you never know if you got everything or if a file is still lingering around somewhere hidden.

Does anyone know a better way to uninstall steam games that thoroughly removes EVERYTHING?

[kitt]

Originally posted by dresoccer4:

Originally posted by J4MESOX4D:

Steam will remove the installation files and maybe some others generated but sometimes save files, agreements and other general material may be left behind. These can be located in either the main SteamApps directory or in your Documents folder and the files can be removed by hand.

Does anyone know a better way to uninstall steam games that thoroughly removes EVERYTHING?

format you Drive otherwise you will have to delete remaining Files manually.

[nullable]

Originally posted by dresoccer4:

Originally posted by J4MESOX4D:

Steam will remove the installation files and maybe some others generated but sometimes save files, agreements and other general material may be left behind. These can be located in either the main SteamApps directory or in your Documents folder and the files can be removed by hand.

hmm ok thats what I was worried about. Having to go on a file-hunt every time you uninstall a game is pretty frusterating. And you never know if you got everything or if a file is still lingering around somewhere hidden.

Does anyone know a better way to uninstall steam games that thoroughly removes EVERYTHING?

I guess I'm not clear, what's your concern is?

I mean most games are installed entirely within the library folder. With only save games, and sometimes configuration being stored in My Documents or AppData. And we're talking a fairly small amount of space there. In those scenarios it's pretty easy for the uninstaller to just delete the library folder. Any exceptions with a few KB's of files are hardly hurting anything and you can always just remove those files if you ever find them..

The thoroughness or perfection you're imagining has no value, unless you have some OCD.

[Muppet among Puppets]

I use a tool that removes leftovers from uninstalling.

Sometimes a few things stay after uninstall done by steam. But byte size is low.
You have some items left, but it wont affect you.

If i dont use the programm, i check the install folder if all is gone.

Firewall rules or registry keys might stay as well.

[dresoccer4]

yeah it's not about hdd space, it's more on the ocd level of organization. I extremely dislike having leftover files scattered across expanse of a hard drive. I was hoping Steam would be smart enough to actually uninstall everything.

plus having unused rogue files scattered across many folders just doesn't leave a good feeling sitting in your stomach. I'm sure there are others out there like me

(y'all should see my apartment lol)

[Muppet among Puppets]

Then get an "uninstaller" programm. Read about it on a computer magazine page.
Maybe there are free ones.

Not sure if they find all. But sometimes some.

[dresoccer4]

Originally posted by Muppet among Puppets:

Then get an "uninstaller" programm. Read about it on a computer magazine page.
Maybe there are free ones.

Not sure if they find all. But sometimes some.

I did say in OP I use RevoUninstaller, but I was unsure if it was compatible with Steam (since steam games are sort of software within software).

[Muppet among Puppets]

Originally posted by dresoccer4:

Originally posted by Muppet among Puppets:

Then get an "uninstaller" programm. Read about it on a computer magazine page.
Maybe there are free ones.

Not sure if they find all. But sometimes some.

I did say in OP I use RevoUninstaller, but I was unsure if it was compatible with Steam (since steam games are sort of software within software).

You choose the game, click uninstall in revo.
Use steam pop up for normal uninstall (might be behind the window).
When that is done,
use revo to look again.

[Nx Machina]

Steam will only uninstall the game and any dlc. It will not uninstall mods, workshop items located in the game folder or others installed in other locations such as my documents which are created by the game. You have to manually remove these.

[Big Bad Brownie]

Originally posted by Muppet among Puppets:

Originally posted by dresoccer4:

I did say in OP I use RevoUninstaller, but I was unsure if it was compatible with Steam (since steam games are sort of software within software).

You choose the game, click uninstall in revo.
Use steam pop up for normal uninstall (might be behind the window).
When that is done,
use revo to look again.

Just a tip if anyone reads this and can't find their game in the Revo list.
I just tried to uninstall Oxenfree II with Revo and it didn't appear in the program list.
However, I just used Revo's "Forced Uninstall" and manually pointed out Oxenfree2.exe from the Steam folder, then it worked just fine.