What happened to Steam?? It's GONE

[Alendryal]

I went to log in a few minutes ago, clicked on my shortcut, and no Steam. It is completely gone from my hard drive, the only things left are the task bar shortcut and the start menu shortcut.
I am completely flabbergasted. Has this ever happened to anyone else? Maybe the Almighty Microsoft has deemed that I shall no longer spend time in Steam. Can I scream now?

[Bee🐝]

That’s truly odd without you doing anything. Hard drive issue, maybe? It’s baffling.

Well, easy enough to solve, just reinstall the client.

[crunchyfrog]

Check your antivirus suite to see if it's been quarantined. Sometimes Steam stuff gets wrongly noted as malicious.

[Alendryal]

Not quarantined. Totally uninstalled, so something else is going on. After my post I discovered my LOTRO, which I play from the site, not through Steam, has also been uninstalled. Still checking to see if any other programs are missing. There is NOTHING that should have changed on my computer in the last couple of days. Starting to think Microsoft did it, as there are verified reports of Microsoft doing that to other people.

[Bee🐝]

Originally posted by Alendryal:

Not quarantined. Totally uninstalled, so something else is going on. After my post I discovered my LOTRO, which I play from the site, not through Steam, has also been uninstalled. Still checking to see if any other programs are missing. There is NOTHING that should have changed on my computer in the last couple of days. Starting to think Microsoft did it, as there are verified reports of Microsoft doing that to other people.

It’s not Microsoft. You’re “situation” is far too isolated; if it was them, it would be far more wide spread. The conspiracy theories aren’t necessary.

Something on your system triggered this and Crunchyfrog makes a good point about a third party app. Do you have some kind of file optimiser that auto runs?

[davidb11]

This is very weird. I've never heard of this before.
I hope you can get this solved.

As for Microsoft, I don't know how or why they'd randomly remove programs from a random person's computer.

I wonder if hard drive failure could somehow cause this?
Like, something screwed up the data involving the files there.

[Alendryal]

Originally posted by Bee:

[1. The conspiracy theories aren’t necessary.

2. Do you have some kind of file optimiser that auto runs?

1. It's not a conspiracy theory. It's verified random problem with Windows 10. Something about "missing keys" when Windows has a major update. If Windows can't find the proper key, or if it deems a program incompatible, it deletes it. Only solution I've found is to re-install the deleted programs.

2. Don't believe so, unless it's part of my anti-virus which I've had for over a decade with no problem.


So far, every other program I've checked seems to be okay. Just Steam Client and LOTRO which have been totally uninstalled.

[davidb11]

I've never heard of this, and it's not happened to me on Windows 10.

[Kenpoleon Bonaparte]

Not happened to me either, and never heard of it until today, but it seems to be true. Here's two links, including one from Microsoft itself.

https://www.howtogeek.com/243581/windows-10-may-delete-your-programs-without-asking/#:~:text=To%20start%3A%20Windows%20won%E2%80%99t%20just%20remove%20programs%20at,%E2%80%9Cbuilds%2C%E2%80%9D%20are%20treated%20differently%20from%20normal%20Windows%20updates.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/random-programs-get-deleted-from-my-pc/0c0ad6a4-67fd-4dfb-948f-c8d7df832e9a

[PopinFRESH]

Originally posted by Kenpoleon:

Not happened to me either, and never heard of it until today, but it seems to be true. Here's two links, including one from Microsoft itself.

That isn't from "Microsoft itself". That is not a Microsoft employee that is responding to that post.

It is an Independent Advisor.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/page/faq#faqWhosWho1

Originally posted by Microsoft:

Independent Advisors are freelancers in the community who use their proven skills and experience to answer technical questions in defined categories.

@OP check in the Security section of the control panel. On Windows 10/11 Windows Defender will also "disable" applications that it thinks are malicious which will quarantine the files.

I have seen it also remove a program after an update due to compatibility like what is noted in those posts, however, I've only seen that occur with old 32bit only applications that are dependent upon old frameworks that have been removed from Windows 10/11.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

What I think could happen and just a guess on my part.

- windows version rollback that deleted things.

- 3rd party software using that alter, moved, or deleted your Steam folder.

- Build update, which Steam folder be under the windows.old folder.

- If had setup dual boot, and forgot it install on the other partition drive.

[Alendryal]

Originally posted by PopinFRESH:

@OP check in the Security section of the control panel. On Windows 10/11 Windows Defender will also "disable" applications that it thinks are malicious which will quarantine the files.

I've always had Defender turned off, as I use a 3rd-party anti-virus. Just checked, and Defender is still listed as being off. And all my files from Steam Client and LOTRO have not been quarantined. They've been deleted. Almost two hundred gigs of data is just gone from my harddrive. A harddrive search earlier for "Steam" and "LOTRO" only turned up 3 hits.
1. The (now nonworking) shortcut I used to launch Steam.
2. The (now nonworking) shortcut I used to launch LOTRO.
3. A folder with some screenshots from Steam.

At this point, I deleted the 2 nonworking shortcuts and got a fresh install of both Steam Client and LOTRO. Both seem to be working fine. Any saved games that were on my harddrive are the only things I can't get back. Will have to start those games over as if it's my first time playing.

[Alendryal]

Originally posted by Dr.Shadowds 🐉:

What I think could happen and just a guess on my part.

1. windows version rollback that deleted things.

2. 3rd party software using that alter, moved, or deleted your Steam folder.

3. Build update, which Steam folder be under the windows.old folder.

4. If had setup dual boot, and forgot it install on the other partition drive.

1. Nope. Running Windows 10 Pro, version 21H2, and last updates to it was 05/11/22. I had Windows check a few things, and Windows can't find anything wrong with my system.

2. Possible. You're the 2nd person to suggest that, but I've no idea which software could have done it, though. Or even what could've caused a 3rd-party software to just suddenly go rogue and start deleting stuff from my harddrive. Almost two hundred gigs of data was definitely deleted, not altered or moved.

3. Nope. Data is gone, not moved. My harddrive went from only about 90 gigs of free space to 283 gigs of free space.

4. Nope. Don't have that setup.

[Iceira]

You surre this is not the Famous steam crash with either lack of rights on system and multilib not in the new "RooT" steam install folder , to explan this better is hard then it dont work there anymore in the system, that is another lost disk with content and the its falled as lost and look like uninstall.

and maybe next reboot system with disk is added again, ( but now user think its steam that did it. ( any here can tell you then disk flip/flop on the chain ( the bus or cable it will be seen as uninstalled ) and multi lib dont add themself again.

man i hope you get this, or maybe CF can explan it better with other english right term. if you ask him nicely,

steam dont remove content if there was not a system crash or lost on the chain to the system bus.

ps.
do have plenty of free room before that crash and , thats is 200gb atleast so steam update have plenty of temporay work space, man forget that little detail today.

the 200gb is 10% on a 2TB disk , and learn as warning and lost performance then disk is near full.


multi lib ? internal disk or external and note on the defaulth install is
Program Files (x86)
all other steam multi lib now use
#\SteamLibrary

[davidb11]

Well, my only suggestion is maybe hard drive failure.

[Iceira]

Its possible , but lets assume its not , pretty sure then disk do burnout that a dead give away. lol
and why steam do have flagged as lost and content is gone for good.

also why you have that lets say grey area, then disk is back or just another odd steam crash most user dont get, or disk full and why app crash then user or app simple cant update no free room, thwere is alot of them grey area. ( only OP, have the fact here or will learn later with disk maybe go burnout most of the time its seen as a warning ) problem is also seen disk not burnout after such. so its not that simple you need to be skill and seen alot of things with steam and diffrent hardware over many years and learn from this.