How to Reinstall Steam VR? – In-Depth guide with FAQs, Tips, Advice, & More

SteamVR is an amazing tool for experiencing VR content. It works with the Valve Index, HTC Vives, Oculus Rifts, Windows Mixed Reality headsets, and others.

Let’s find out how to reinstall your Steam VR.

How To Reinstall SteamVR?

If you want to remove SteamVR completely, you must clear its local data first and then delete the Advanced SteamVR setting files. Then, after uninstalling SteamVR from the Control panel, you can install SteamVR again.

If you remove SteamVR from your computer normally by going to Programs > Add/Remove Programs or Control Panel, then removing SteamVR won’t have any effect because all your settings will still be there. You, therefore, need to delete all these settings before uninstalling.

First, you need to do some things in Steam. If you’ve ever cleared one of your games’ application data from Steam before, then this should be easy for you.

Uninstall Steam VR

To uninstall and reinstall SteamVR, follow these steps:

1. Open the Steam application and click the “Library” button at the top.
2. Go to Steam > Games > Add A Game To Your Library > Right-click on SteamVR and select Properties.
3. Click on the local files tab and then select the delete button. Delete all the files in the new folder.
4. Check out our epic guide on when PS5 controllers last for hours!
5. After deleting the Steam local data, use these steps to remove the leftover files.
6. Press the Ctrl, Alt, and Delete keys on your keyboard simultaneously and choose Task Manager from the menu.
7. Look for any processes relating to Steam or SteamVR and end them one by one.
8. On Windows 10, copy and paste this URL into the browser’s location bar by right-clicking and selecting “Edit” from the menu. C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common
9. When you hit “ENTRY” on your keyboard, you’ll see some files and a folder called SteamVR. Delete the folder named “SteamVR”.
10. If you copy and pasted the Steam folder location from earlier, then go back into Steam and click C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\config.
11. You need to remove the file called steamvr.vr settings from this folder.
12. Delete the folder called Lighthouse.

Now that you’ve successfully removed all the temporary SteamVR folders and configurations, you need to remove SteamVR from your computer just like you would any other game. Keep in mind that you will lose all your Steam VR titles too.

These are the steps:

1. Go to the Steam library and select “Games” from the left-side menu.
2. Right-click on SteamVR and select “Uninstall.”
3. Follow the instructions displayed when you’re prompted to remove the app from your device.
4. You may think that deleting all these files is a good idea because they’re probably no longer needed. However, that isn’t quite true.
5. Before you can safely install SteamVR again, there’s one final step you need to take.
6. Copy and paste the following URL into your browser’s address field. %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Steam\steamapps\common
7. Delete any SteamVR folders you may find here.

That’s it! You’ve successfully removed SteamVR from your computer. There shouldn’t be any leftover SteamVR folders or anything else. All your old games and settings are gone now.

Reinstall Steam VR

Reboot your computer before installing SteamVR, but it’s not necessary to do so.

Here’s how to reinstall SteamVR:

To launch SteamVR, just open up Steam and go to the library. Click on the “install” tab next to Steam VR.

If you don’t get an install option when installing Steam VR, then select the SteamVR app again from the Steam client, and you should be able to install it now.

If something goes wrong, this should fix it. Or, if you want to remove SteamVR completely, run this command.

If your problem persists even after following the instructions above, then completely remove Steam and any other VR-related apps from your computer.

It sounds crazy, but it might actually work, so it’s definitely worth giving it a shot.

How Do I Uninstall Steam From Windows?

You can remove Steam from Windows by following the same steps you would use to remove any other Windows program. This is because Steam stores no residual files like SteamVR.

To remove Steam from Windows, follow these steps:

1. Select the control panel from the list of results.
2. Click on “Uninstall” under “Programs.”
3. To uninstall Steam from Windows 10, open the Start menu and type “Steam” into the search box. Then, right-click on Steam in the results and choose “Uninstall.”
4. On the new window, select “Automatic” from the drop-down menu and then click Next.
5. Follow the instructions onscreen, and Steam should be completely uninstalled within a few moments.

Before doing this, be sure to remember that it will not only uninstall Steam but also remove all of the installed games and save files.

Backup Your Data

The good news is Steam has provided an option to back up all your games and their associated files. To access that feature, follow these instructions:

1. Open Steam and then go to the Steam menu in the upper right-hand corner of the window.
2. From the list of options, look for the one called Backup and Restore Games and then select it.
3. On the Backup and restore programs window, Steam will allow you to pick which game files you want to back up, and then you need to select the location where the data will be stored. We suggest choosing a directory on your hard drive.
4. Once you click next, you can safely restore any games you’ve backed up using Steam Cloud when you reinstalled Steam again, whether it was five minutes ago or five years from now.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How do I fix Steam VR?

If you’re having trouble with Steam VR, you can fix it by either re-installing it from scratch or disabling Steam VR add-ons. You should also disable all your Steam VR add-ons and adjust your graphic card’s configuration or update its driver.

Why did Steam VR uninstall itself?

Because an antivirus program was either editing or deleting the app manifest file located inside the Steam directory, Steam VR was unable to launch properly. To fix this problem, you need to open the Steam directory and manually add the missing app manifest file back into the Steam directory.

How do I get out of Steam VR Beta?

To leave the Steam VR beta, go to the Betas section in SteamVR Properties and choose None from the list of options.

Conclusion

We hope this article was helpful. Feel free to reach out to us in the comments below.