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Uninstall Steam

How should I uninstall Steam?

Important:

This process will remove Steam and any installed game content from your machine. If reinstalling Steam and Steam games in the near future, please move the Steamapps folder (C:\Program Files\Steam\Steamapps) outside of the Steam directory to prevent your games from being deleted.  Additionally, backups of all game content can be created for reinstallation.

Warning:

The uninstallation process deletes the folder Steam was installed to to ensure it is fully uninstalled. If you accidentally installed Steam to a folder containing other data, for example C:\Program Files\ instead of C:\Program Files\Steam\, STOP! Do not run the uninstaller and instead carefully follow the instructions below for Manually Removing Steam, except only delete Steam-related files in step 3.

Please observe the following procedure to uninstall Steam and any game content from your machine:

  1. Exit Steam
  2. Move the Steamapps folder out of C:\Program Files\Steam to keep game installations
  3. Click the Windows Start button and select Control Panel
  4. Open the Add or Remove Programs dialog
  5. Select Steam from the list and click the Change/Remove button
  6. Select the Automatic option and click Next
  7. Click Finish to uninstall Steam

If the normal process to uninstall Steam does not work, you may have inadvertently damaged your Steam installation. To uninstall Steam, you may first be required to re-install Steam to repair the installation before it may be removed.

The latest Steam installer can be found on the Get Steam Now page.

If all of the above options fail to assist you in uninstalling Steam, you can still remove your Steam files and registry entries manually.

 

Manually Removing Steam

Warning:

Dealing with your registry requires extreme care. Do not delete anything in your Windows registry that you are unsure about. For this reason, we suggest you only use this option as a last resort.

  1. Exit Steam.
  2. Navigate to your Steam directory. (Typically C:\Program Files\Steam or C:\Program Files\Valve\Steam
    • If you wish to save your game files for a future installation of Steam, copy your steamapps folder outside of your Steam directory.
  3. Delete all of the contents of your Steam directory.
  4. Go to Start > Run and type in regedit.
  5. For 32-bit operating systems:
    In the left-hand column of your registry editor, navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Valve\. 

    Right-click on Valve and select Delete.

    For 64-bit operating systems:
    In the left-hand column of your registry editor, navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Valve\. 

    Right-click on Valve and select Delete.
  6. In the left-hand column of your registry editor, navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Valve\Steam.
  7. Right-click on Valve select Delete.
  8. Close your Registry Editor.

 

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