I cant uninstall files my computer apparently has

[Blash]

Hello there wonderful people!

I played Valorant a while back and for that I obviously installed the game and its client. For a while now I have had it uninstalled, which I did with windows delete apps function, but there is this residual file which I cant access, find or even delete, but its apparently taking up 12 GB of my storage? It isnt that much but its troublesome. I want this to go away, be removed or whatever, just not like this!

 

Ive attached what it looks like. Any help is appreciated.

 

Edit: I forgot to mention I already tried deleting it in cmd and repairing the file in windows troubleshoot, both did NOT work.

[OddOod]

Welcome to firmware level anticheat. The only way to actually eradicate it from your PC is to reinstall windows fresh. 

[Blash]

18 minutes ago, OddOod said:

Welcome to firmware level anticheat. The only way to actually eradicate it from your PC is to reinstall windows fresh. 

is there any way I can keep my data and just reinstall windows? My ass is not trying to backup my 500 gb of videos and media and reinstalling my other 400 gb of games plus save files which arent backed up online

[Gem_Star4071]

16 minutes ago, Blash said:

is there any way I can keep my data and just reinstall windows? My ass is not trying to backup my 500 gb of videos and media and reinstalling my other 400 gb of games plus save files which arent backed up online

maybe try using safe mode and/or uninstall using powershell

[BoomerDutch]

Uhh it's actually attached to your windows kernel now.

 

If you have second drive then I'd suggest to move the most stuff you want to keep to second drive then disconnect second drive and reinstall windows then attach second drive and move everything back.

 

It's gonna take a while.

[BoomerDutch]

7 minutes ago, LataDeAtun said:

First off, I know this may be a bit nit-picky but it's kernel level anticheat, if it was firmware you couldn't remove it even by reinstalling windows, and secondly I'm sorry but it's wrong, this has nothing to do with anti-cheat.

 

Well yes but same meaning it's under windows anyways so it's still reinstalling windows.

 

- Offtopic

Your first post and chose nitpicking. Well welcome to the forum.

[OddOod]

10 minutes ago, LataDeAtun said:

First off, I know this may be a bit nit-picky but it's kernel level anticheat, if it was firmware you couldn't remove it even by reinstalling windows, and secondly I'm sorry but it's wrong, this has nothing to do with anti-cheat.

 

Welcome to the forums!
I'm kinda honored that my comment so irked you that you made an account ^.^

And thanks for the correction. You are, of course, in the right. Firmware runs on the device itself while kernel anticheat modified the files of the OS. 

 

41 minutes ago, Blash said:

My ass is not trying to backup my 500 gb of videos and media and reinstalling my other 400 gb of games plus save files which arent backed up online

...why not? Pop a new drive in, use steam Game Mover to move them to the new drive, use explorer to drag the media files over, go to bed, wake up, done. 

[OddOod]

1 minute ago, LataDeAtun said:

Yeah, not the smartest move I guess, I'm sorry. But the claim is still wrong even ignoring the nit-picking.

Fair. Though invasive anticheat is one of the primary reasons I stopped playing PVP games so I'm not really up on their chicanery these days. 
 

 

1 hour ago, Blash said:

this residual file which I cant access, find or even delete

I wonder if WizTree can find it. Just scan the drive, then sort by size and skim through the ~12GB entries

[Blash]

13 minutes ago, OddOod said:

Welcome to the forums!
I'm kinda honored that my comment so irked you that you made an account ^.^

And thanks for the correction. You are, of course, in the right. Firmware runs on the device itself while kernel anticheat modified the files of the OS. 

 

...why not? Pop a new drive in, use steam Game Mover to move them to the new drive, use explorer to drag the media files over, go to bed, wake up, done. 

I frankly have no more drives and no more adapters for m.2. I have 2 drives installed, my main being 500 gb, full, my other on an adapter with limited bandwith with 400 gbs. thats whyyyyy

[Blash]

10 minutes ago, OddOod said:

Fair. Though invasive anticheat is one of the primary reasons I stopped playing PVP games so I'm not really up on their chicanery these days. 
 

 

I wonder if WizTree can find it. Just scan the drive, then sort by size and skim through the ~12GB entries

Ive never used WizTree. What is it?

 

[Blash]

17 minutes ago, LataDeAtun said:

It's not actually a file in your computer, it's an entry in the Windows registry. If you can't find any files in "C:\Riot Games" or "C:\Program Files\Riot Vanguard" it was probably correctly uninstalled but it failed to remove the registry entry. The 12 GB value isn't actually true necessarily, it can just be edited in the registry with an arbitrary value, just open regedit and go to "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Riot Game Riot_Client."

As I said, if the files aren't there anymore you can probably just delete the registry entry, or you could just reinstall the Riot Client and uninstall it again so it hopefully cleans up correctly.

I tried finding it the way you described. I am having quite some difficulties. I ended up finding it, but idk it feels wrong to just edit that size. I mean idk what that would even do. Like it will still show up no?

 

[Blash]

1 minute ago, LataDeAtun said:

I mean that you shouldn't trust the size that appears on Uninstall Apps, it could be incorrect and that 12 GB file may not even exist.

yes agreed but how do I make windows stop thinking it does? is it actually removing the meta data for the program and file locations? I dont believe just editing values will help with that. I mean I could eventually just reinstall windows again, though Idk if thats going too far for now

[Killjoy_NS]

You can try FREE version of Revo Uninstaller.
That THING cleans everything from files to registry entries.
It helped me a lot back in the day.

[jmwhite33]

47 minutes ago, Blash said:

I tried finding it the way you described. I am having quite some difficulties. I ended up finding it, but idk it feels wrong to just edit that size. I mean idk what that would even do. Like it will still show up no?

 

Your overthinking it.

First backup the registry, then if you no longer use that program just delete the entire key.

You can use F3 to search for "Riot Client" and find all references to it and remove them.

IF something goes wrong, simply restore the registry backup.

I have cleaned up the registry this way for decades with no problems.

 

[Dedayog]

2 hours ago, Blash said:

is there any way I can keep my data and just reinstall windows? My ass is not trying to backup my 500 gb of videos and media and reinstalling my other 400 gb of games plus save files which arent backed up online

Yes, this is why we use more than 1 drive.  Game libraries and data are on a completely separate drive you don't have to format or reinstall.

 

At the very least, a separate partition.

[Donut417]

8 hours ago, Blash said:

Hello there wonderful people!

I played Valorant a while back and for that I obviously installed the game and its client. For a while now I have had it uninstalled, which I did with windows delete apps function, but there is this residual file which I cant access, find or even delete, but its apparently taking up 12 GB of my storage? It isnt that much but its troublesome. I want this to go away, be removed or whatever, just not like this!

 

Ive attached what it looks like. Any help is appreciated.

 

Edit: I forgot to mention I already tried deleting it in cmd and repairing the file in windows troubleshoot, both did NOT work.

So when you uninstall stuff in Windows it doesnt remove everything. For instance stuff is generally left in the registry. While there are registry cleaners they are controversial. Because if you fucked up your registry it can take out the whole install. 

 

8 hours ago, Blash said:

is there any way I can keep my data and just reinstall windows? My ass is not trying to backup my 500 gb of videos and media and reinstalling my other 400 gb of games plus save files which arent backed up online

There is a way to keep your files but I think the reset does remove software. This is the prime reason why Windows is on 1 SSD and my software/ games are on a separate SSD and hard disk. 2TB SSD's are pretty cheap now days for either M.2 or SATA. If you're complaining about 12 Gigs, then you probably need to invest in more storage. Just saying. 

[Blash]

9 hours ago, Donut417 said:

So when you uninstall stuff in Windows it doesnt remove everything. For instance stuff is generally left in the registry. While there are registry cleaners they are controversial. Because if you fucked up your registry it can take out the whole install. 

 

There is a way to keep your files but I think the reset does remove software. This is the prime reason why Windows is on 1 SSD and my software/ games are on a separate SSD and hard disk. 2TB SSD's are pretty cheap now days for either M.2 or SATA. If you're complaining about 12 Gigs, then you probably need to invest in more storage. Just saying. 

Well its not that I have storage problems, i mean with my secondary drive I have more than enough. However my main drive with my windows install is just full. Idk why I deleted practically everything off of it. And its seriously impacting my load times and im kinda worried it will degrade my ssd. 

[Blash]

9 hours ago, Donut417 said:

So when you uninstall stuff in Windows it doesnt remove everything. For instance stuff is generally left in the registry. While there are registry cleaners they are controversial. Because if you fucked up your registry it can take out the whole install. 

 

There is a way to keep your files but I think the reset does remove software. This is the prime reason why Windows is on 1 SSD and my software/ games are on a separate SSD and hard disk. 2TB SSD's are pretty cheap now days for either M.2 or SATA. If you're complaining about 12 Gigs, then you probably need to invest in more storage. Just saying. 

Can you provide me a link to a good cheap sata ssd with 2tb storage? I can find any good cheap ones.

[Mark Kaine]

Real solution is: reinstall the game fully and then deinstall it properly with the uninstaller the game or / otherwise riot provides.

 

I know for sure you can uninstall the anti cheat, but certainly not through "windows apps" you need the correct uninstaller (which again, is most likely provided by the game/launcher itself) 

 

 

 

[Mark Kaine]

On 5/22/2025 at 5:28 PM, LataDeAtun said:

The 12 GB value isn't actually true necessarily

Correct I have tons of stuff "installed" taking up space according to windows. But there's nothing there either deleted or moved (when I plug in my external drive it's suddenly back for real - but to windows it makes no difference, it's dumb as bread lol) 

[OddOod]

On 5/23/2025 at 11:45 AM, Mark Kaine said:

Correct I have tons of stuff "installed" taking up space according to windows. But there's nothing there either deleted or moved (when I plug in my external drive it's suddenly back for real - but to windows it makes no difference, it's dumb as bread lol) 

....but it's still taking up space, it's just taking up space on the external drive

[Blash]

On 5/23/2025 at 6:40 PM, Mark Kaine said:

Real solution is: reinstall the game fully and then deinstall it properly with the uninstaller the game or / otherwise riot provides.

 

I know for sure you can uninstall the anti cheat, but certainly not through "windows apps" you need the correct uninstaller (which again, is most likely provided by the game/launcher itself) 

 

 

 

Well here in lies my problem: I dont have enough space on the drive to install the game again. Lmao

[Mark Kaine]

Just now, Blash said:

Well here in lies my problem: I dont have enough space on the drive to install the game again. Lmao

Well yeah that is a problem indeed

 

Only solution I know tho,I certainly did that a few times when even revo uninstaller couldn't fix something.

 

It's certainly even harder with a kernel anti cheat, but would probably still work ~