Irony ...

GeeYouWhy · June 2014

So you remember when the game launched and people tried to update and instead it deleted the old install and re-downloaded the entire game?

Well the uninstall process doesn't actually remove any files, it just removes the installation configuration in Control Panel and leaves the 30+ gigs of data on your hard drive.

Seroczynski · June 2014

You have to uninstall the game from the launcher. The uninstaller from Add/Remove Programs in Windows is dedicated to the launcher.

GeeYouWhy · June 2014

I ran the unistaller from Windows on one computer and the shortcut that the game installed in Start menu.

zgrssd · June 2014

GeeYouWhy wrote: »

So you remember when the game launched and people tried to update and instead it deleted the old install and re-downloaded the entire game?

Nope. Can't remmeber anything like that. And I had the gamefiles since 2nd last beta. Never had to redownlod the whole game once.
Unless I installed a different client altogetehr of course. Even changing the language is only about 4 GiB.

GeeYouWhy wrote: »

Well the uninstall process doesn't actually remove any files, it just removes the installation configuration in Control Panel and leaves the 30+ gigs of data on your hard drive.

I did notice that removing the game from the launcher does not delete the gamefiles.

That the uninstall routine is not wiping the entire directory is a bit annoying. But then again who knows when you isntalled it using that installer? Maybe that was a version from the Beta Game time.
Naturally uninstallers do not get updated. And it is also common for uninstall routines to not delete stuff it did not created (those files were created by the launcher, not the isntaller).

GeeYouWhy · June 2014

zgrssd wrote: »

GeeYouWhy wrote: »

So you remember when the game launched and people tried to update and instead it deleted the old install and re-downloaded the entire game?

Nope. Can't remmeber anything like that. And I had the gamefiles since 2nd last beta. Never had to redownlod the whole game once.
Unless I installed a different client altogetehr of course. Even changing the language is only about 4 GiB.

Happend to me (I stopped the download and copy a backup of the folder) and to my son who actually had to re-download the entire game. It also happened to a lot of people who posted on the forums.

zgrssd wrote: »

GeeYouWhy wrote: »

Well the uninstall process doesn't actually remove any files, it just removes the installation configuration in Control Panel and leaves the 30+ gigs of data on your hard drive.

I did notice that removing the game from the launcher does not delete the gamefiles.

That the uninstall routine is not wiping the entire directory is a bit annoying. But then again who knows when you isntalled it using that installer? Maybe that was a version from the Beta Game time.
Naturally uninstallers do not get updated. And it is also common for uninstall routines to not delete stuff it did not created (those files were created by the launcher, not the isntaller).

One installation was from beta the other was a fresh install.

Crumpy · June 2014

So what's the best way to do it? I ran the ESO uninstaller and it's left a load of ESO folders .... and it's not now listed in programs in windows uninstaller

GeeYouWhy · June 2014

After running the installed I deleted the Zenimax folder in Program Files (x86) and the Elder Scrolls Online folder from My Documents.

zgrssd · June 2014

GeeYouWhy wrote: »

After running the installed I deleted the Zenimax folder in Program Files (x86) and the Elder Scrolls Online folder from My Documents.

I agree on the Programm Files Folder (or games folder, it you have a extra folder for games). Without any links leading there, nothing there has any value. The bulk is the downloaded data, so if you delete that you surely have to redownload.

But in general I would leave stuff in My Documents. That is where stuff like savegames, gamesettings and the like are usually saved. In this case Addons and thier saved vars are stored there too.
It was designed to let the data still be there when you eventually reinstall the software. Only very rare programms leave any significant amoutns of data there.

GeeYouWhy · June 2014

zgrssd wrote: »

It was designed to let the data still be there when you eventually reinstall the software. Only very rare programms leave any significant amoutns of data there.

Normally I would leave it also, but space is precious on my SSD and I only installed it on my work laptop for a business trip which is now over so it won't be getting re-installed on either machine.