Reinstalling the game

[IvanaFenty]

When reinstalling the game, is it safe to only uninstall The base game & all the eps through Add or remove programs?  Also deleting the Documents/Electronic arts folder.(ofcourse backing up the files I need) Or do you have to do something else?
When reinstalling, I uninstalled it through Add or remove programs, without looking into registry to see if there's something left. Later installed it, and it works fine.

Is this safe?

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@IvanaFenty  It's safe to do what you did in the sense that it wouldn't break your computer.  The additional step usually recommended is cleaning the registry to remove all Sims 3-related entries.  The reason this can be necessary is that if you later reinstall using a different method (e.g. Origin vs. discs), or you don't install all the packs you had before, there will likely be stranded registry entries that no longer point to installed content.  The presence of those entries can prevent the game from launching later.

It's certainly a good idea to do a thorough uninstall if you're not sure what approach you might take later.  But if you're just going to reinstall in exactly the same method you used before, you don't really have to worry about the registry.

[puzzlezaddict · Accepted solution]

@IvanaFenty  It's safe to do what you did in the sense that it wouldn't break your computer.  The additional step usually recommended is cleaning the registry to remove all Sims 3-related entries.  The reason this can be necessary is that if you later reinstall using a different method (e.g. Origin vs. discs), or you don't install all the packs you had before, there will likely be stranded registry entries that no longer point to installed content.  The presence of those entries can prevent the game from launching later.

It's certainly a good idea to do a thorough uninstall if you're not sure what approach you might take later.  But if you're just going to reinstall in exactly the same method you used before, you don't really have to worry about the registry.

[IvanaFenty]

@puzzlezaddict Hey, thank you for your reply! 

I did install everything in the exact same way as before!
Only this time I'm not sure if my SPs are all the same as before, but - the game works just fine. Is it all okay then? 

[puzzlezaddict]

@IvanaFenty  Yes, if the game is working, and you're not missing any content that matters to you, you're fine, no need to do anything else.

[IvanaFenty]

@puzzlezaddict Great, thanks!!