I used uninstall.exe to uninstall steam and now my desktop icons are gone

[Blasticader]

I only wanted to reinstall steam so I used uninstall.exe found in the steam installation folder to uninstall steam and now my desktop icons are gone should I be worried about losing any files or am I just losing shortcuts to things that are still on my computer? And can this be undone? I made sure to backup the steamapps folder fist thing before anything.

[↑↑↓↓←→←→BASelect]

Using that will uninstall everything that is associated with steam including desktop icons for games and even the games themselves good thing you backed up your steamapps folder or you would of lost your games also. But you did lose saves and screenshots since you didn't back up the userdata folder as some games use that folder to save your game progress.

[Blasticader]

Publicado originalmente por ↑↑↓↓←→←→BASelect:

Using that will uninstall everything that is associated with steam including desktop icons for games and even the games themselves good thing you backed up your steamapps folder or you would of lost your games also. But you did lose saves and screenshots since you didn't back up the userdata folder as some games use that folder to save your game progress.

Steam cloud could restore those saves right? Is there anyway to restore the userdata folder?

[Muppet among Puppets]

You should keep steamapps, userdata, and steam exe. For safety you can store the other files as backup for the reinstall moment somewhere else.
Then simply run steam exe, that reinstalls.

The savegames in the cloud are still there.
What got deleted is gone.

[↑↑↓↓←→←→BASelect]

Publicado originalmente por Blasticader:

Publicado originalmente por ↑↑↓↓←→←→BASelect:

Using that will uninstall everything that is associated with steam including desktop icons for games and even the games themselves good thing you backed up your steamapps folder or you would of lost your games also. But you did lose saves and screenshots since you didn't back up the userdata folder as some games use that folder to save your game progress.

Steam cloud could restore those saves right? Is there anyway to restore the userdata folder?

Depends on if the game used steam cloud. If not them saved games are gone forever. You could try a file recovery program but if you have been using that drive then chances of recovery of them files is slim to none as they was probably overwritten by new files.

You can use this to backup all your game saves in all the locations that games will save their save data. This works better that the one program as that one program for backing up saves don't have every game listed to back up. What this one does is backup everything in the folders listed so yes that even means if you have say like music files in documents it will back up them also. It will also restore the files back to the locations after you back them up. This is a simple batch with copy commands. Very simple to use and all you have to press is a single number to start the backup.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1980117518

[Blasticader]

I found my userdata folder in the same location it was initially installed in the steam folder with it's folders and screenshots intact and most probably what ever saves are still in there. In the entire steam folder containing 5GB of data including the userdata folder is still there. I'm wondering if it even removed anything at all besides every shortcut on my desktop.

A thing to note my steam is installed on a hard drive separate from my C drive, a hard drive I use to boot from. I wanted to uninstall steam to reinstall it on my C drive but the registry is on the old hard drive I no longer boot from so I can't remove it via "add or remove programs/ uninstall or change program"

It is harder to find the other apps not related to steam because the "uninstall.exe" nuked the shortcuts off the desktop and they won't show up when I search them via the search bar next to the windows icon on the taskbar. Only text documents, folders, a windows powershell script file, the shortcut to PC and the recycling bin remains on the desktop. So if I want to use discord and OBS I have to manually navigate to where they're installed and start them via their respective executable files or have windows search them for in specific folders. I have to do this for every other program not related to steam including my browsers. Good thing some of those things are pinned on my task bar. It seems I'll have to replace the shortcuts to every program still on my computer unless I restore them via recuva or a similar program anyone knows about.

Is there anything I else I should back up before reinstalling steam?

Is there anything else steam's "uninstall.exe" might have removed besides the shortcuts mentioned?

Should I start steam up again to see If It still works the same way?

Is there another way to uninstall steam since I can't find it via "add or remove programs/ uninstall or change a program"

[Muppet among Puppets]

You dont need to uninstall steam to reinstall it again

It can be in installed programs though.

[Blasticader]

I ran steam.exe it runs like normal after it verifies installation as slow as it does and my games and saves even my workshop items are intact as if nothing happened. Even my non cloud saves are intact. "uninstall.exe" didn't do anything but remove my desktop shortcuts to various programs I use. What's the point of even having this file?

[Blasticader]

Can I just move the installation on to the other drive?

[Muppet among Puppets]

You can place steam on a new computer in the same location by copy paste.