How to Uninstall Steam

What is Steam?

Steam is a multi-player platform for gaming and communication provided through digital distribution. It is a large platform for individual and large developers to showcase their online content, such as games, under one network. Digital content is purchased through the online web store provided by Steam. This platform provides multi-chat video facility and anti-cheat facility for games. Steam cloud helps in storing game and content settings of specific games. These settings are then attached to the Steam software present on the system. Steam provides a development and publishing suite, which can be downloaded for free.

This kit provides access for Steam servers.

How to Uninstall Steam

Steam website provides a small application that can be downloaded and installed on the system. This application stores all the settings for the application and games accessed on the Steam cloud or network. There are several methods that you can use to uninstall Steam software your system.  A few of these methods are listed below.

  1. Windows Uninstaller program
  2. System Restore
  3. Manual or Registry Removal

Windows Uninstaller program –Windows uninstaller is present in all versions of Windows to remove installed software from the system. To employ the uninstaller, perform the following steps –

  1. Open Control Panel.
  2. Click on Program and Features for Win 7 / Vista or Add and Remove Programs for Windows XP option, this brings a complete list of programs installed on the system.
  3. Select Steam from the list and click on Change/Remove or Uninstall.

This will remove the Steam software from the system.

If you face problems with your system after the uninstallation process, you can use System Restore to revert your system settings to the time before you installed Steam on the system. To use System Restore, perform the following steps:

  1. Click Start and then choose All Programs.
  2. Browse Accessories and then System tools.
  3. Click the System Restore option and then choose a date prior to the installation of Steam.
  4. Click Next after selecting the date.

After this, apply the settings and then restart the system.

After the uninstall process is completed, you can manually remove registry keys and folders from the system by following these steps –

  1. Browse your Steam directory in Program Files.
  2. Delete all of files in the Steam directory.
  3. Close all the windows and then in run type Regedit
  4. Browse to:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Valve\
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Valve\Steam     and delete the Valve directories in both
  5. Close your Registry Editor.

This will remove all traces of the Steam software.

If you find the aforementioned procedure too long and want to save time, you can download the Perfect uninstaller software, which can uninstall any software from the system. Also, if you are not confident enough with deleting keys in the registry editor manually, you can use the RegGenie software, which can remove all keys related to the Steam software in minutes.