Man, what a headache this was. My Valorant decided it didn’t want to leave my PC. Just wouldn’t budge. Tried the normal way first, obviously.
The Basic Uninstall Fail
Opened up the Control Panel like always. Clicked “Uninstall a program”. Found Valorant in that list, clicked uninstall… watched that progress bar zip along… finished! Thought it was gone.
Nope. Booted up the next day and boom – still there. Launcher showed it ready to play. Tried the Control Panel again – wasn’t even listed anymore! Totally ghosted me. Felt like screaming into a pillow.
Solution 1: Hunting Down Leftover Files (Painful Edition)
Figured remnants were hiding. Went deep diving into folders:
- Riot Games Folder: Found the whole “Riot Games” directory chilling in Program Files. Hit delete. Denied! “Access is denied.” Okay, deep breath.
- Closed Everything: Made sure NO Riot or Valorant processes were running hidden in Task Manager. Closed every single one.
- Tried Deleting Again: Back to the Riot Games folder. Delete key. NOPE. Still said “Access is denied.” Super frustrating. This got me exactly nowhere.
Solution 2: Digging Into the Registry (Scary, But Necessary)
Okay, time for the heavy stuff. Registry Editor time. This always makes me sweat a bit.
- Opened Run box: Hit Win + R, typed regedit, hit enter.
- Navigated Carefully: Went to ComputerHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionUninstall. This is where uninstall info lives.
- The Hunt: Started looking through all those cryptic entries under “Uninstall”. Scrolled and scrolled… looking for anything saying “Valorant” or “Riot”. Took ages. FINALLY spotted one named “{some long alphanumeric mess}” that had “Valorant” mentioned inside when I looked at its details.
- Right-Click -> Delete: Highlighted that sketchy-looking key and hit delete. Said “Yes” to the scary confirmation prompt. Poof! Gone from the list.
Tried deleting the Riot Games folder again immediately after. SUCCESS! It vanished. Felt major relief… but then remembered Vanguard. Oh right, that anti-cheat pest.
Solution 3: Vanguard’s Final Stand (The Easy Part… Sort Of)
Went back into the Control Panel’s “Uninstall a program”. There it was: Riot Vanguard. Uninstalled it normally.
- Reboot is KEY: Immediately restarted my computer when prompted. This is super important. Don’t skip the reboot!
After the reboot, checked: No “Riot Games” folder in Program Files. Tried searching for anything Valorant-related. Nothing came up. Launcher confirmed it was gone. Sweet, sweet victory! Finally.
Moral of the story? Game uninstalls can be messy beasts that leave garbage behind. Sometimes you gotta go digging. Registry edit is intimidating, but if you follow the path carefully and delete ONLY the right key (that Valorant one under Uninstall), it does the trick after normal delete fails. Just always double-check you’re deleting the correct thing!
