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How-to · Heiward
Heiward's game mode, what games leave behind
With game mode on, Heiward lists your games from every launcher and what they leave behind (leftovers of uninstalled games, download and shader caches, crash dumps), and never touches an installed game or your saves.
- Article
- 3903
- Applies to
- Heiward 1.9.6
- Last reviewed
- For
- For everyone
Turn it on#
Open Heiward's Settings (the gear in the title bar), and turn on Game mode. Once a day, after a scheduled scan, or when you press Check now, Heiward looks at your games, and lists them in the Games area, by game, by drive and by kind, with each one's size, what it is, and what removing it means.
Where it finds your games#
Only from the launchers' own records, never from a folder's name: Steam, Epic Games, GOG GALAXY, the EA app, Ubisoft Connect, Battle.net, and Xbox and the Microsoft Store. Only Steam records when a game was last played.
What it lists#
| Kind | What it is | Ticked for you? |
|---|---|---|
| Leftovers of uninstalled games | Folders a launcher no longer claims, and Workshop downloads of games gone | Yes, unless it's in a Steam library where Steam lists no game at all |
| Launchers' download caches | Steam's, Epic's, GOG GALAXY's and Battle.net's caches and unfinished downloads | Some. A paused download or update of a game still listed never is |
| Shader caches | Graphics drivers' and Steam's | Uninstalled games' only. Installed games' and the drivers' never are: the first launch may stutter while they rebuild |
| Crash dumps and reports | Windows' and the games' own | Yes |
| The same game installed twice | In two launchers or two libraries | Pointed to only |
| Games not played in months | 90 days, biggest first | Pointed to only |
Heiward doesn't move or uninstall games. A game's page says how its launcher does it: in Steam, right-click the game, Properties, Installed Files, Move install folder.
Safety#
What you remove goes to the Recycle Bin. Just before removing anything, Heiward reads the launchers' records again, and checks what's running. It never touches:
- an installed game's own files, or a folder that holds one;
- your saves:
Saved Games,Documents\My Games, Steam's own folders, or any folder with a save in it; - anything of a launcher or game that's running.
To back your saves up, see the Butler.
Clean up by itself#
Under Automatic cleanup, in Settings, What games leave behind lets it take the safe kinds: crash dumps and reports, download caches, leftovers of uninstalled games, and uninstalled games' shader caches, to the Recycle Bin, after the daily look. Paused downloads, and installed games' and the drivers' shader caches, always wait for you.
Related articles
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Still stuck? Write to support@castellan-software.com and mention article 3903. Every version of Heiward, and what changed in it, is in its release notes.