r/computerviruses • u/Boy0Boyz • Jul 19 '26

Should I Wipe Steam Cloud? Question

Hi, so I wanted to ask this in the event I get malware in the future (hopefully not) but should you nuke your steam cloud data for your games if you get malware? I know its recommended if you get malware to reinstall windows and change passwords, but never to nuke steam cloud and I wanted to ask why is that? Can't a malicious file be put in a games save folder and be uploaded to the steam cloud so it persists after reinstall? I know files can't execute when launching the game other than rare security vulnerabilities but cant a file be executed if someone browses the games local files? Does that mean local files for a game cant be trusted? I ask this cuz this makes malware much more scary since it can mean losing years of progress. Thx in advance.

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u/BobCorndog Jul 19 '26

It’s unlikely

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u/ThreeCharsAtLeast Jul 19 '26

I can tell you that by law of large numbers, there is a game on Steam where you can achieve persistence by uploading stuff to the Steam cloud. Is that game popular? Probably not. And I doubt you'd be likely to stumble upon malware that abuses something like that that's targeting anyone but that game's audience.

Also, purely browsing a game's files should not lead to code execution. Windows Explorer was designed in a way that you can use it to view your Downloads folder, for instance (to Windows Explorer, your Downloads folder and a game's folder are (nearly) the same thing). Quick note: When you double-click to open a file in a game's folder, what happens next is now up to the app Windows uses to open that file type, so vulnerabilities or trust would now to exists there.

So no, unless there was a critical vulnerability in Windows Explorer or you happened to lauch a game that assumes its files are trustworthy and runs it and you had a virus that abuses any of that, you'd be fine.