bd00 Posted May 14, 2015 Author Share Posted May 14, 2015 Yeah, I believe Steam preallocates disk space and creates shortcuts, start menu entries, etc. prior to actually downloading and installing the game. So it wouldn't be a stretch to believe that it creates the appmanifest files at this point too. I'm pretty sure a cancelled download leaves these files behind. I recall this happening to me before. I cancelled a download I started by mistake, but the shortcuts remained on the desktop, in the start menu and even in the uninstall list in the Program & Features area of Control Panel. I didn't check for a leftover appmanifest file, nor do I know what happened to the allocated disk space now I think about it. That was on an old machine, so no way to check now. Yeah, Windows leaves a trail of carnage in it's wake. You can get 3rd party unistallers that perform a "deep scan" for leftover files (including registry items) after a programs unistaller has finished. You might be surprised how often and how much, Windows lets apps leave behind. IOBit Uninstaller and Revo Uninstaller are two that come to mind. NOTE: It is worth checking the list of items they find before hitting the delete button and be careful of those that require a restart after unistall. They usually add a task to clean up locked files that couldn't be deleted at the time, this can cause issues. I had a problem with Samsung Kies (a program I already loathed) where I used IOBitU and the next time I restarted my system was crippled. In the end I managed to do a system restore, unistalled it and deleted the leftovers manually after a restart. I seem to have drifted of topic. Back to Steam, did you find/consider any other avenues to get the appid for installed games. I am actually considering shortcuts at this point. Put them in a directory and use those to get the appid. Everytime I install a new game, create the desktop shortcut and move it to that directory. When I remove a game, delete the shortcut. It is a bit of a dirty hack that requires manual intervention, but I will have full control over it and games I need to remove will be easier to find. I will also avoid the issue of Steam creating files for games that are not installed. In fact, I could just import the .url's as you would ROM's and I could use the emulator feature to bypass the "bulk edit additional apps" problem I am faced with. Also, I no longer need to inject the xml file. I won't get the benefits of the Steam scraper, but I can live with that since I create my own uniform covers for PC games anyway and I don't mind adding the metadata to a few games now and then. Also, that reminds me, do you have a "bulk download missing data" and/or "bulk download missing images" feature planned/in-the-works? Sorry for the long post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 bd000 said Yeah, I believe Steam preallocates disk space and creates shortcuts, start menu entries, etc. prior to actually downloading and installing the game. So it wouldn't be a stretch to believe that it creates the appmanifest files at this point too. I'm pretty sure a cancelled download leaves these files behind. I recall this happening to me before. I cancelled a download I started by mistake, but the shortcuts remained on the desktop, in the start menu and even in the uninstall list in the Program & Features area of Control Panel. I didn't check for a leftover appmanifest file, nor do I know what happened to the allocated disk space now I think about it. That was on an old machine, so no way to check now. Yeah, Windows leaves a trail of carnage in it's wake. You can get 3rd party unistallers that perform a "deep scan" for leftover files (including registry items) after a programs unistaller has finished. You might be surprised how often and how much, Windows lets apps leave behind. IOBit Uninstaller and Revo Uninstaller are two that come to mind. NOTE: It is worth checking the list of items they find before hitting the delete button and be careful of those that require a restart after unistall. They usually add a task to clean up locked files that couldn't be deleted at the time, this can cause issues. I had a problem with Samsung Kies (a program I already loathed) where I used IOBitU and the next time I restarted my system was crippled. In the end I managed to do a system restore, unistalled it and deleted the leftovers manually after a restart. I seem to have drifted of topic. Back to Steam, did you find/consider any other avenues to get the appid for installed games. I am actually considering shortcuts at this point. Put them in a directory and use those to get the appid. Everytime I install a new game, create the desktop shortcut and move it to that directory. When I remove a game, delete the shortcut. It is a bit of a dirty hack that requires manual intervention, but I will have full control over it and games I need to remove will be easier to find. I will also avoid the issue of Steam creating files for games that are not installed. In fact, I could just import the .url's as you would ROM's and I could use the emulator feature to bypass the "bulk edit additional apps" problem I am faced with. Also, I no longer need to inject the xml file. I won't get the benefits of the Steam scraper, but I can live with that since I create my own uniform covers for PC games anyway and I don't mind adding the metadata to a few games now and then. Also, that reminds me, do you have a "bulk download missing data" and/or "bulk download missing images" feature planned/in-the-works? Sorry for the long post. Tools -> Download Metadata and Images a few lines down. I use IOBit's entire suite of software personally. AdvancedSystemCare is my absolute favorite. I use IOBit Uninstaller to keep my PC clean when I uninstall stuff. I used it once to uninstall a Steam game, which then prompted the Steam dialogues, but the deep scan afterwards deleted all of my Steam games... so be careful. Just uninstall Steam games from inside of steam. Edit: Also as far as Steam image uniformity goes, in the options switch to just using Steam banners. They will all be their Steam banner with the same dimensions. This actually brings up my issue i have where I have too much dead space with Steam. If I could just edit the Steam views spacing, I could fit more per screen. But the spacing that works for that wont work for literally any other platform view because of the varrying size. So I think spacing and size options per view would be nice... but also I would imagine a nightmare to code. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bd00 Posted May 14, 2015 Author Share Posted May 14, 2015 +1 Yeah I absolutely agree with the sizing per platform thing. It is really needed. I don't use steam banners, I create my own covers. They are more the size of the normal posters, just a little "stubbier", or not as tall. I imported my entire Steam library last night and now it all looks a mess. I have it set to banners at present because it is more complete, however I removed the banners from the installed games because I want to use my own images for PC games. This leaves the steam banners very small with lots of space, it looks terrible. Yeah, I use IOBit Unistaller and IOBit unlocker (both portable). Never used AdvancedSystemCare but I have heard good things about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bd00 Posted May 14, 2015 Author Share Posted May 14, 2015 Tools -> Download Metadata and Images a few lines down. No way! I completely missed the introduction of that feature. How long has that been there? I have been yearning for that feature for so long and to find out it is right there, I feel very silly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 bd000 said Tools -> Download Metadata and Images a few lines down. No way! I completely missed the introduction of that feature. How long has that been there? I have been yearning for that feature for so long and to find out it is right there, I feel very silly. It's been there for several versions now. :P Its ok, It happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bd00 Posted May 14, 2015 Author Share Posted May 14, 2015 LOL. Hmmm... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bd00 Posted May 14, 2015 Author Share Posted May 14, 2015 Also, since we are on the subject of things I seem to have missed, where are those new emojis coming from? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Carr Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 Good question, bd. It seems an upgrade to the forums software introduced them... maybe... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bd00 Posted May 16, 2015 Author Share Posted May 16, 2015 :) :o ;) :D :P :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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