How to Uninstall Sims 3

What is “Sims 3”?

Sims 3 like its predecessor is a single-player life simulation game designed by Electronic Arts. It is an extension of the popular game ‘The Sims’. As soon as Sims 3 was released it was an instant success. Sims 3 was released for Windows and Mac OS initially but now it has also been released for all popular mobile platforms like iOS, Windows mobile, Android, Web OS and Symbian.

Just like Sims 2 a user controls his Sims in life-like situations and performs various activities. The reason behind this game’s popularity is that there is no definite path for a player to follow. This is because the game play is completely indefinite. A series of expansions have been released by EA for Sims 3 that over the months have become very popular.

Sims 3 – Can’t uninstall program

Sims 3 installs itself into one directory and puts very few registry entries so it is easy to remove it from the system. You can use the following methods to uninstall Sims 3 from your system –

  1. Sims 3 Uninstaller
  2. Windows uninstaller in Control panel

Sims 3 Uninstaller– Sims 3 provides an uninstaller for the core game module and also for its expansions. To run the Sims 3 uninstaller, use these steps –

  1. Close the Sims 3 game.
  2. Click on Start and then All Programs.
  3. Browse to Sims 3 and choose Uninstall, (Expansions of the Sims 3 game should be uninstalled before the core module)

This uninstaller will remove the Sims 3 game including all the expansion packs from the system.

Windows uninstaller in Control panel –Windows uninstaller is used to uninstall programs from the system. To run the Windows uninstaller, follow these steps –

  1. Close the Sims 3 game.
  2. Go to Control Panel.
  3. Click on Add and Remove Programs in Windows XP  or Program and Features in Win 7 / Vista.
  4. Select Sims 3 expansions World Adventures, Ambitions, Late night from the list of programs and then click on Change/Remove or Uninstall.
  5. Once done select the Sims 3 core game and click on Uninstall.

This will completely remove the Sims 3 game and its expansions from the system.

After uninstalling Sims 3 you can follow these steps to manually remove folders and registry keys related to it:

  1. Click Start and then click Run.
  2. Type %Program Files%  and press Enter.
  3. Browse to the EA games folder look for Sims 3 folder and delete it.
  4. Now close this window and type %Appdata% and delete Sims 3 in the EA folder.
  5. Close all the windows and then run the Regedit command to open the Registry Editor window.
  6. Browse to
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SOFTWARE \EA GAMES\Sims\Sims 3 in XP

    7. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SOFTWARE \ Wow6432Node\EA GAMES\Sims\Sims 3     in 64 bit Vista / 7
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Uninstall
    Look for {C05D8CDB-417D-4335-A38C-A0659EDFD6B8} and delete it.

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Classes and delete the following folders:
    .Sims3
    .Sims3Pack
    Sims3
    Sims3Pack
    Browse to
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\EA GAMES\Sims\Sims 3 in XP
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER \SOFTWARE \ Wow6432Node\ EA GAMES\Sims\Sims 3 in 64bit 7/vista
     Delete the Sims 3 folder.

  7. Close your Registry Editor and restart the system.

This will ensure complete removal of Sims 3 from the system.

If you find all this work time consuming and tedious, you can opt for a third-party tool like Perfect Uninstaller. This tool ensures complete removal of the folder and files of the Sims 3 game. Also, if you are not comfortable in manually deleting registry keys, you can use the powerful RegGenie software to remove all the registry entries related to Sims 3 in just a few mouse clicks.