People have been asking for a confirmation dialog box for 20 years.

https://steamhost.cn/help_steampowered_com/en/faqs/view/3C73-90F9-F600-0266

Originally posted by coalescence:

I know I'm an idiot for not realizing this before but I feel I am not wrong in wishing there was AT MINIMUM a notice or warning that it would uninstall your entire library. idk

You're not wrong.

Yeah that sucks, especially if your internet isn't fast.
I don't know if its still working like that, but in the past you could just manually delete all of steams files aside from the exe and the folder with the games in it and steam would automatically download everything it needed the next time you start it. I guess that'd be the cleanest option with keeping your games to do so.

It's not something that I've thought about for a while given that I rarely keep the client and my games in the same place. But I can see how it continues to catch users unaware.

The quick and dirty reinstall of deleting everything but the .exe and a couple of folders is what I typically use whenever I run into an issue.

For single library setups, an option would be to just use Windows File Explorer to move the \steamapps\ folder out of the Steam install folder temporarily. That way when Steam is uninstalled, it won't take the downloaded game files with it. Then when it's reinstalled, just move/merge the the old \steamapps\ folder back into the new one.

There are a lot of different workarounds, but really there should be a warning during the Steam uninstall. Maybe it does and I just haven't seen it?

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

It's not something that I've thought about for a while given that I rarely keep the client and my games in the same place. But I can see how it continues to catch users unaware.

The quick and dirty reinstall of deleting everything but the .exe and a couple of folders is what I typically use whenever I run into an issue.

For single library setups, an option would be to just use Windows File Explorer to move the \steamapps\ folder out of the Steam install folder temporarily. That way when Steam is uninstalled, it won't take the downloaded game files with it. Then when it's reinstalled, just move/merge the the old \steamapps\ folder back into the new one.

There are a lot of different workarounds, but really there should be a warning during the Steam uninstall. Maybe it does and I just haven't seen it?

Luckily most of my other games are on my additional storage. Only games I want fast load times for like CS2 and Rocket League are on my SSD and got deleted.

And trust me, there is not warning at all. After opening the uninstaller program, you literally press one button and it instantly deletes everything in your Steam folder including your game library. Very frustrating especially considering Steam downloads your games incredibly slow.