After playing games on Steam for over ten years, I've collected quite a few games.
Unfortunately, my computer doesn't have a ton of space (150 GB hard drive.) I'm constantly swapping out (uninstalling) games, so I have space for the latest and great games.
That's what I love about Steam, though, I never lose the games I buy since they're permanently tied to my account.
This step-by-step guide will show you how to uninstall Steam games so you can save space on your computer, get rid of a horrible game (I'll admit, they're not all awesome games), or get rid of it regardless of your reasons!
Note: If you don't want to use Steam anymore, I recommend completely uninstalling Steam instead of removing individual games.
Alright, let's get started!
There are two ways to uninstall a game from Steam. You can do it through 'Add or Remove Programs' or by using Steam's uninstaller. I recommend the latter because if you uninstall through 'Add or Remove' programs since it'll open Steam anyway. You will have to know your Steam password, so make sure you have it handy before moving ahead. To get started, open Steam and log in.
Jul 9, 2017 - We'll show you how to speed up Steam downloads. You'll have to download these games too, which can be a herculean task after a buying binge. While this won't radically alter download speeds, it will inform your PC that Steam. To do so, you'll have to locate your motherboard's make and model.
You might notice that after you uninstall a game that it's not removed from the list in the left pane. Instead, it's grayed out. Don't worry, the game has been removed and the game having been left on the list is a good thing, I promise. This brings us to the next topic: reinstalling games.
What I love most about Steam is that I don't have to keep track of any disks or anything, I have to remember my username and password. If I don't want to play a game, I can uninstall it. If I decide later that I want to play it, I still have it... I don't have to pay for it again.
So how do you reinstall a game in Steam? Easy!
This article is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge. Content is for informational or entertainment purposes only and does not substitute for personal counsel or professional advice in business, financial, legal, or technical matters.
© 2012 Melanie Shebel
Helped me a lot:D
Thanks! Simple and short tutorials like this are way more helpful than those with complicated grammar and reasons behind half of everything. Although, I do have one more question. When you uninstall the game, does it keep it's memory stored, meaning when I reinstall it, will it have everything I had done on it?
Thanks for the write up. Simple and to the point. I needed it to remind me how to delete games through the Steam interface.
I know Steam sets aside empty space in anticipation that you might need it for game downloads. A huge empty block on your pc you are not allowed to touch. This has frustrated people for years. So I am not surprised some comments say they did not see that much memory freed up.
And what if you have someone who installed Steam on your machine, installed games, then they go and die, and you want to delete them but do not have access to the Steam account?
I did this with the sims 3 since my cousin likes that game and when she came over once she was bored and watched youtube videos of people playing sims 3 and 4 so I bought sims 3 for her since there was a sale at the time. When I go to re-install it a pop up appears saying 'game cannot be installed.' What do i do then?
I had more than 10 games and they spent 144 GB. I need more space because I want install another software and then I uninstall my games until 4 games left. When I checked, it was using 128 GB. I think there something wrong here so, I uninstall all of my steam and try install 4 games that I need. I was surprise when I checked, it was using 84 GB. How could it be?
Thanks Heaps .. steam wanted me to install a 36Gb test server as well as the 36Gb game .. NOOOOOOO. And I couldn't figure out how to destroy it. Dr Google and yourself to the rescue
: )
i get this 'time out' on a game,i would like to unintsal it but it never works,it's even slowing down my computer and it's only two weeks old..how do i unintsal?
if its a bought game will it still be in my history
thanks i wanted to double check if pressing delete local content was right
I cant find the Library button
i just did it with smite and it removed it from my list is that normal
will you still have alll your progress in the game??
Hi! I used this to uninstall a game from my laptop and noticed the game disappeared from my library rather than it staying like you said. It was a 'Free to Play' game so does this explain it? You only keep the games you paid for?
how do you uninstall a steam game that isn't yours? for example my son has a game on his account he got onto my computer and installed it. now he has moved out of the house and when i try to uninstall it it opens up MY steam account but it wont uninstall because i don't have access to it. so i have this game stuck on my pc taking up space. i know i can delete the files and remove the registry entries for it but i should not have to do all this work to uninstall a game.
Thanks! I wasn't sure about 'delete local content' would work.
Interesting and Useful!! I have used Steam, however I find this useful for those that do use Steam!! Thanks for Sharing!!
I recently started gaming on my Ubuntu laptop and made a Steam account. I went to the Ubuntu Software Center and tried to download the Steam application.
But the problem is, it won't let me download.
When I click install, It prompts me to type my password. I do and I click authenticate. It starts installing, and after about four seconds the progress symbol at the top of the page stops spinning and the Software Center turns gray.
When I try to exit, I get a message saying 'This window is not responding' I get two options: Wait or force quit. force quit stops the install and waiting does nothing.
I tried to install super tux and it installed perfectly fine. Can someone please help me?
You should probably download the .deb from Steam instead of searching for it on the Software Center. There are two Steam applications, and only the .deb will give the right one to install.
Michael LindmanWhen I say 'run' I'm referring to running the command in Terminal which can be opened by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T
Try running sudo apt-get install steam
That should work, if not try this (adapted from the Steam Github README):
run sudo apt-get install gdebi-core
run wget -O ~/steam.deb https://media.steampowered.com/client/installer/steam.deb
.
run sudo gdebi ~/steam.deb
Steam didn't work for me either from the Software Centre. I just used sudo apt-get install steam
. This just worked.