Elden Ring Still Hogging 60 GB After You “Uninstalled”? Here’s How to Obliterate Every Trace

Why the game refuses to die

Bandai Namco’s launcher, Easy Anti-Cheat, and Steam’s shader pre-caching all bury hooks deep inside Windows. After I “uninstalled” Elden Ring via Steam last weekend, 57 GB of ghost data remained—saves, EAC drivers, Vulkan pipeline caches, and registry keys that kept the title listed in the new Windows Game Pass widget. Below is the exact checklist I used to wipe it clean on a Windows 11 box without breaking other games.

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Step-by-step: what actually worked for me

1. Back up your saves
   Copy %APPDATA%\EldenRing\<steam-id>\ to OneDrive or a USB stick. Cloud saves will re-sync if you ever reinstall.
2. Kill every Elden Ring process

• Win + R → taskkill /f /im eldenring.exe
• Kill start_protected_game.exe, EasyAntiCheat.exe, and steam.exe if they’re still running.

1. Native uninstall (do this first so Steam stops the EAC service)

• Steam → Library → right-click Elden Ring → Manage → Uninstall → confirm.
• Wait for the “uninstall finished” pop-up; it only removes the core 50 GB.

1. Manual sweep

• Delete these folders:
  ‑ C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\ELDEN RING
  ‑ %APPDATA%\EasyAntiCheat\GameLauncher\ELDEN RING
  ‑ %LOCALAPPDATA%\Steam\shadercache\1245620 (Vulkan/DirectX cache)
• Registry cleanup: open regedit, delete:
  ‑ HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\FromSoftware\ELDEN RING
  ‑ HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Valve\Steam\Apps\1245620

1. Clear leftover Easy Anti-Cheat drivers

• In an admin CMD:
  sc stop EasyAntiCheat
sc delete EasyAntiCheat
• Reboot—this prevents the service from auto-reinstalling.

At this point I had clawed back 52 GB, but 4.7 GB of orphaned shader cache and 200+ registry keys still lingered.

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Finish with Perfect Uninstaller

1. Download the portable version of Perfect Uninstaller (no install bloat).
2. Run → scan → highlight Elden Ring → choose Force Uninstall + Deep Registry Scan.
3. Review the list (it caught the remaining shader cache, EAC certificate files, and a stray DirectInput hook).
4. Click Delete Selected, reboot once more—zero bytes left, no re-entries.

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Bottom line

Elden Ring’s anti-cheat and shader systems make a simple “Uninstall” button a half-measure. Follow the manual purge above, then let Perfect Uninstaller vacuum the remnants. Done right, you’ll reclaim every gigabyte—and the game won’t mysteriously reappear the next time you launch Steam.