How do I uninstall Steam games without logging in?

[FunkyBallOfTits]

My nephew installed Steam games on my dad's laptop and I need to uninstall them. However the Windows installer won't let me do that without logging into his account.

I do not want to simply delete the Steamapps folder. I want a proper uninstall to remove all traces of these games from the computer.
How do I proceed?

[wuddih]

delete the games folders in steamapps. an uninstall over steam does exactly the same.

[FunkyBallOfTits]

Originally posted by FunkyBallOfTits:

I do not want to simply delete the Steamapps folder. I want a proper uninstall to remove all traces of these games from the computer.

Originally posted by wuddih:

delete the games folders in steamapps. an uninstall over steam does exactly the same.

And no it's not the same. A proper uninstall will take care of the breadcrumbs left elsewhere on the computer. Deleting the folders from the Steamapps folder will not.

[Levi]

Originally posted by FunkyBallOfTits:

Originally posted by FunkyBallOfTits:

I do not want to simply delete the Steamapps folder. I want a proper uninstall to remove all traces of these games from the computer.

Originally posted by wuddih:

delete the games folders in steamapps. an uninstall over steam does exactly the same.

And no it's not the same. A proper uninstall will take care of the breadcrumbs left elsewhere on the computer. Deleting the folders from the Steamapps folder will not.

Your game files should be there and save-game files do appear in other places (in My Documents > Games) if the game doesn't support Steam Cloud.

This manual process is simple and intuitive.

The advice was to remove the games' folders; not the Steamapps folder itself.

[FunkyBallOfTits]

Originally posted by Robin3sk:

The advice was to remove the games' folders; not the Steamapps folder itself.
:yinyangflip:

Yeah but the intent was pretty clear that I don't want to just delete the game data, but wipe every trace of these games. Deleting the Steamapps folder or the folders inside is pretty much the same thing with regard to how it precisely does not do that.

I want to be clear.
This is a laptop I inherited from my dad who recently passed away.
I want to restore it to how it was before he passed, before my nephew installed a bunch of games on it. Then I want to image it to keep a copy of that state.

[wuddih]

Originally posted by FunkyBallOfTits:

Yeah but the intent was pretty clear that I don't want to just delete the game data, but wipe every trace of these games.

then Steam uninstall function will not help you anyway. most games have their save/config games somwhere else and Steam does not delete them.
it is no "proper" uninstall process, as Steams install process is also not "proper". no install/uninstall process removes every trace.

this you will have to do manually.

[Levi]

Originally posted by FunkyBallOfTits:

Originally posted by Robin3sk:

The advice was to remove the games' folders; not the Steamapps folder itself.

Yeah but the intent was pretty clear that I don't want to just delete the game data, but wipe every trace of these games. Deleting the Steamapps folder or the folders inside is pretty much the same thing with regard to how it precisely does not do that.

I want to be clear.
This is a laptop I inherited from my dad who recently passed away.
I want to restore it to how it was before he passed, before my nephew installed a bunch of games on it. Then I want to image it to keep a copy of that state.

You can try to do a system restore using that function within Windows to a preferred time-frame.

Other than that, the manual process is the only precise way - as has been stated.

[The Giving One]

If you only remove the game folder in the common folder, and leave the .acf file for that game in the steamapps folder, pretty sure Steam will see the game as "needing to be redownloaded" or "updated" and try to reinstall the game once you log in.

You have to remove the .acf file for that game also. I would suggest you just keep them in a safe location for later, to be simply restored, so you don't have to redownload that game.