How to reinstall Steam on my device? If you are looking forward to uninstalling Steam just to reinstall it, then this post is for you for steamworks common redistributables error and installation. A lot of Steam client users tend to have many doubts related to the Steam uninstallation and Steam games. If you want to know how to reinstall Steam without any issues, then read the complete post.
Steam is one of the major digital distribution platforms for playing video games. Steam brings a large number of video games on PCs for game lovers. With the help of the Steam client, the gamers can download and install a variety of games on their computers.
But, due to whatever reason you want to reinstall Steam, you must be stressed that you will lose all your game data. Don’t worry if you want to keep your Steam games safe while uninstalling or reinstalling Steam. Here, we are going to show you how to reinstall Steam without losing your game data easily.
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How To Reinstall Steam
Whatever is the reason for you to reinstall Steam, you can do it easily. But, you have to remember that reinstalling Steam will make your game account start from the first. This means all your downloaded games, game data, progress, and saved game files will be removed from your account.
If you don’t want to lose your game data, then you can always back up the game files somewhere on your PC and then restore them later. To reinstall Steam, you first have to uninstall or remove Steam from your device completely, and then install it.
Uninstall Steam From Your Device
There are various ways to uninstall Steam from your PC. You can either use the Control Panel or Apps Settings on your Windows to remove the Steam application and Steam games. If you want to keep your game data safe and are uninstalling just to reinstall, then move the Steam folder to any other folder so that you can restore it back.
- Right-click on the Start menu and open the “Settings” option.
- Now, click on “Apps” and make sure you are on the “Apps & Features” tab.
- From the given apps, select “Steam” and then click on the “Uninstall” button.
- A confirmation window will appear. Confirm to uninstall Steam.
- Alternatively, you can go to Control Panel -> Programs -> Programs and Features.
- Select the “Steam” app and click on the “Uninstall” option. Confirm to remove.
- This is how you can easily uninstall the Steam client from your PC.
- After the uninstallation is finished, restart the PC.
Install Steam
Once you have uninstalled the Steam Client from your PC, make sure there are no Steam processes running on your device. For this go to the Task Manager and end all the available Steam processes there. Then, you are ready to install Steam on your device.
- To reinstall Steam, go to the official page of Steam at https://store.steampowered.com.
- Click on the green-colored “Install Steam” button at the top-right of the page.
- Then, click on the “Install Steam” button again to get Steam on your device.
- Finish the installation successfully without any interruptions. If the Steam client was not installed properly, then it can lead to a lot of issues in the near future.
- That’s it. You have successfully reinstalled Steam. If you have backed up your game files before uninstalling, then move that Steam folder to the main installation directory.
How To Reinstall Steam Without Losing Game Data
If you want to reinstall Steam without losing your game data, then there are two possible ways to do so. Steam Client consists of your installed games and game data which will be removed once you uninstall Steam. But, if you don’t want your game data to be deleted, then don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Know how to reinstall Steam without losing your game data using the following two methods.
Backup and Restore Games On Steam
If you want to reinstall Steam for any software issues, gaming problems, or error codes, then you can fix the issue by backing up and restoring games on Steam. All you have to do is use the “Backup and Restore Games” option on Steam to keep your game data safe and untouched. Follow the steps given below to reinstall Steam without losing your game data.
- Launch Steam on your PC and on the homepage click on the “Steam” tab.
- A drop-down menu will appear on your screen. Click on “Backup and Restore Games”.
- Now, select “Backup currently installed programs” and click on the “Next” button.
- Choose which games you want to backup and then click on “Next”.
- Then, select the location where you want to store the backup files and click “Next”.
- Also, set the backup file name and size settings.
- Now, you can uninstall Steam client from your Windows or Mac successfully.
- Once reinstalled Steam, launch the Steam client and go to Steam -> Backup and Restore Games.
- Now, select “Restore a previous backup” and click on the “Next” button.
- Follow the on-page instructions and choose the games that you want to restore.
Move SteamApps Folder
The second way to keep your game data safe while uninstalling Steam is by making a copy of your Steam Apps. You can just make a backup folder where you can store your SteamApps files. After reinstalling Steam, you can restore these files to the Steam installation directory. If you didn’t get exactly what to do, just follow the simple steps given below.
- Firstly, launch your device and navigate down to the following path on your PC: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam
- Now, copy the Steamapps folder and paste it into any other folder out of the Steam folder.
- Then, go ahead and uninstall the Steam client application from your PC.
- Install Steam from the official website and then move the saved folder by visiting the Steam installation directory.
Conclusion
That was all about how to reinstall Steam on a PC successfully. If you don’t want your Steam game data to be deleted or removed while reinstalling Steam, then use the two easy and simple methods which are given here. Make sure to prepare a backup file for your Steamapps, otherwise, your complete game data will be deleted along with the uninstallation. We hope this information was helpful. For more related posts, visit Techy2Tech.