I can't uninstall Steam and the Half-Life 2 Demo

[Josh7289]

Here's what I did:

I downloaded the demo .exe.

I installed Steam and Half-Life 2 from the .exe.

Steam started running and updating, then I registered for a Steam account.

I went to My Games and double-clicked Half-Life 2 Demo, which proceeded to update.

I played the demo for awhile, then I Quit the game with the in-game Quit option.

I went to Add/Remove Programs and uninstalled Steam by selecting Custom uninstall and Selected All the things I could uninstall.

After doing this, Steam was still running and working fine, C\Program Files\Valve\Steam and all of its files are still there, and it is no longer listed in Add/Remove Programs (nor was it ever in the Start Menu or Desktop).

I restarted my computer. Steam started running and it updated. It asked me to login and I closed it. I see it's no longer in the icons in the bottom right and I am now posting here.

Please help me. Thank you.

 

[igowerf]

You closed it so it's probably closed now. Just run it again from your Start Menu -> Programs.

 

[Josh7289]

Originally posted by: igowerf
You closed it so it's probably closed now. Just run it again from your Start Menu -> Programs.

I don't want to run it again (did you read my post?) and it's not in my Start Menu (you obviously didn't).

 

[igowerf]

Originally posted by: Josh7289

Originally posted by: igowerf
You closed it so it's probably closed now. Just run it again from your Start Menu -> Programs.

I don't want to run it again (did you read my post?) and it's not in my Start Menu (you obviously didn't).

Oops. I got confused when you said that "steam was still running and working fine." It sounds like that's what you want. You can try reinstalling just Steam. That should add it back to Add/Remove programs and then try to do the uninstall again.

 

[Josh7289]

I don't know if I can do that...I think Steam and the demo came together, but I will try it anyway...This sucks.

 

[igowerf]

Originally posted by: Josh7289
I don't know if I can do that...I think Steam and the demo came together, but I will try it anyway...This sucks.

You can download just Steam at steampowered.com.

 

[Josh7289]

It was still installed. It was never uninstalled. I just confirmed that. Half-Life 2 Demo still runs perfectly fine and so does Steam. Steam and Half-Life 2 Demo are both not in my Add/Remove Programs, Start Menu, or Desktop. Can you suggest anything else?

 

[neit]

delete the folder and then search for registry entries, thats all uninstaller does anyways

 

[igowerf]

Well, usually when I have uninstalls go wrong, I just reinstall everything and try the uninstall again. This way, I can make sure that the uninstaller removes all of the registry entries. You can try deleting the installation folder and then manually combing through the registry.

EDIT: In your Valve/Steam installation directory, is there an Unwise.exe? That's the uninstaller. Try running it again if it's there.

 

[Josh7289]

How do I know what to delete in the registry?

 

[Josh7289]

I searched for Unwise.exe in Find and didn't find anything in Valve...

It only came up with three results...

 

[igowerf]

Originally posted by: Josh7289
How do I know what to delete in the registry?

Look under the Software section for Local User and Current Machine and delete anything related to Valve or Steam.

 

[Josh7289]

Where is this?

 

[igowerf]

Originally posted by: Josh7289
Where is this?

Start -> Run -> type "regedit" hit enter. Be careful when poking around in the registry though. You can really screw up your system if you delete the wrong thing.

 

[Josh7289]

I sent an email to Valve Tech Support, so I'll wait for their reply before I manually delete things. If I have to, this is how I uninstall it, right?

1. Go to C\Program Files and delete the Valve folder.
2. Go to rededit -> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE and delete the Valve folder.

Will that completey uninstall everything and keep my computer working like it was before I installed Steam and the Half-Life 2 Demo?

Thank you very much.

 

[igowerf]

Originally posted by: Josh7289
I sent an email to Valve Tech Support, so I'll wait for their reply before I manually delete things. If I have to, this is how I uninstall it, right?

1. Go to C\Program Files and delete the Valve folder.
2. Go to rededit -> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE and delete the Valve folder.

Will that completey uninstall everything and keep my computer working like it was before I installed Steam and the Half-Life 2 Demo?

Thank you very much.

I have no idea if that will remove everything. Steam might have some other registry entries.