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Delete Spyware from Steam and clean cache folders

By ペンギン

Delete Crashlytics from Valve Corporation and several Third party developers & prevent (hidden) uploading from own personal and system data, clean several cache folders and more. With minimal effort.

Award

Created by

ペンギン
In non-Steam game

Category: Walkthroughs

Languages: English

Posted

Updated

1 Jan, 2021 @ 9:00am

28 Feb, 2024 @ 3:45am

2,420	Unique Visitors
171	Current Favorites

Guide Index

Overview

» Introduction

» Installation and Download

» Overview of deleted files and folders

» Troubleshooting

» Conclusion / Errors?

Comments

» Introduction

With the guide I would like to present an easy way with which it is possible to quickly and efficiently delete Crashdumps, Crashanalytics and Crashsender from Valve Corporation and several companies like Unity Technologies, Microsoft Corporation, Epic Games, Google LLC, CD Projekt Red, Avalanche Studios (among others) from Steam itself and including game folders.

Especially some of those named companies collect user data with the help of so called Crashlytics. Often hidden and automated, without informing or even asking the user. Furthermore, there is usually a lack of transparency and only in exceptional cases are there hints or even explanations as to what exactly is being sent and why. Apart from that, such annoying behavior is not necessary to play or enjoy a game.

In addition there are some more functions to clean several cache (HTML Cache, Download, Library Cache) folders for maintenance purposes and some analytics can be blocked with the hosts file (temporary disabled).

» Installation and Download

File/s: Del_U3A Batch Script (english and german readme's attached)
Download: Spyware Cleaner[gameindustry.eu]
Github: Del_U3A Repository[github.com]
German thread: Zum deutschen Eintrag

Copy the "del_u3a_en.bat" or "del_u3a_en.bat" into the Steam root directory (or library folder) and start the file. The script terminates Steam, if the client is running in the background but no worry, you'll be asked before ;]

In addition, a steam.cfg is written to the root directory, which prevents the Steamclient from updating itself. This happens because otherwise the client would revert all changes at every startup. Everyone who works with own skins, already know that behaviour.

If you want to receive Steamupdates again or the HTML Cache was cleaned, the steam.cfg must be (temporary) deleted or renamed.

» Overview of deleted files and folders

The following files and directories are removed from Valve Corporation / Valve Softworks

Folders & files:

bin\cef\cef.win7\*.* dumps\*.*

bin\cef\cef.win7x64\crash_reporter.cfg bin\cef\cef.win7x64\debug.log .crash crashhandler.dll crashhandler64.dll crashhandler.dll.old steamerrorreporter.exe steamerrorreporter64.exe WriteMiniDump.exe

From Third party and game developers

Companies (so far...):

Unity Technologies, ApS
Microsoft Corporation
Epic Games, Inc.
Google, LLC
CD Projekt Red
Avalanche Studios/Fatalist Development AB/Expansive Worlds
and few more

Files:

*.log *.dmp CrashUploader.Base.Azure.dll CrashUploader.Base.dll CrashUploader.Base.UI.dll CrashUploader.Publish.exe CrashUploader.Publish.exe.config crashpad_handler.exe CrashSender1403.exe crashrpt_lang.ini CrashRpt1403.dll CrashRptProbe1403.dll CrashReporter.dll CrashReporter.exe CrashUploader.Publish.exe.config CrashReporter.exe.config CrashReportClient.exe UnrealCEFSubProcess.exe CrashReportClient.pdb CrashReporter.resources.dll REDEngineErrorReporter.exe abbey_crash_reporter.exe crashmsg.exe output_log.txt UnityCrashHandler32.exe UnityCrashHandler64.exe See Troubleshooting section: GameCrashUploader.exe (Manually delete GameCrashUploader.exe and instead create a dummy file with the same name and 0kb size) UnityEngine.CrashReportingModule.dll UnityEngine.CrashReportingModule.dll.mdb UnityEngine.PerformanceReportingModule.dll Unity.MemoryProfiler.dll UnityEngine.UnityTestProtocolModule.dll System.Diagnostics.StackTrace.dll UnityEngine.SpatialTracking.dll

System folder

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\CrashDumps\*.*

» Troubleshooting

The files Unity.MemoryProfiler.dll, UnityEngine.CrashReportingModule.dll, UnityEngine.PerformanceReportingModule.dll, UnityEngine.UnityConnectModule.dll and UnityEngine.UnityTestProtocolModule.dll have been deactivated from the list of deleted files, because it differs depending on the product whether after removing the files the game itself still works or not.

If you want, you can still test this out yourself.

» Conclusion / Errors?

The file will be adjusted as needed. In my development area everything worked as it should but i can't guarantee that counts for everyone. So file related criticism and feedback is welcome here.

Thank you very much

12 Comments

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WØoÐs 20 Feb, 2024 @ 8:15pm

Pflanzt ma lieber mehr Bäume, aber das hier ist Lebenszeit Verschwendung.

Unknown 9 Nov, 2023 @ 7:16am

Der fehler besteht immernoch in 2023.
Jedenfalls sehr nützlich um die äußerst störenden steam autoupdates zu verhindern.

Nach dem benutzen und wieder starten von Steam kommt ein Fehler: Fatal Error: Failed to load platform modules

thunfischbaum 4 Nov, 2021 @ 8:02am

Thanks - this is gold.

ペンギン [author] 15 Oct, 2021 @ 9:06am

Update: 15.10.2021
Added workaround to "delete" the GameCrashUploader.exe from Amazon's Crashlytics in New World

ペンギン [author] 12 Oct, 2021 @ 10:01am

Changes from 12.10.2121
- Based on feedback i updated readme files with some additional instructions

crimsonsogood 31 May, 2021 @ 12:26am

got it, thanks.

ペンギン [author] 30 May, 2021 @ 2:30pm

Update 2.74 released...
- Reformatted readme's
- Disabled some problematic files.
- Updated guide

ペンギン [author] 30 May, 2021 @ 1:31pm

Right, the steam.cfg is written to block the update function of Steam, because files like the crashloader are deleted. If the update routine would not be blocked, Steam would fetch the files again at every startup. Would be suboptimal ;]

To get clientupdates from Steam, delete or rename the steam.cfg and after that you can start the batch script again to delete unwanted files.

An update for the script is also planed soon. Have rewritten/formatted the readme's and added a troublesection as well.

crimsonsogood 30 May, 2021 @ 1:10pm

Hmm intersting, I had never thaught of this.. thanks for the effort. and I have a question.. am I still will get steam updates as normal ? or is it just about the notknown data we sent ?. you have wrote, that for updates, steam.cfg must be temporary deleted.

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