What happens after I remove Electrum from my desktop and re-install?

[bitcoin talk]

What happens after I remove Electrum from my desktop and re-install? Whats the best way to delete all hidden files in registry windows 8? Will my address change, there's zero in the account right now.

[The Cryptovator]

Why do you want to remove and reinstall again? Because of upgrade your wallet software version? If so then it doesn't necessary to remove, simply you may install newer version from the original website and verify Signature as well to confirm original copy of software. Your operating system should delete old software automatically, if not then you may delete it manually and install latest version.

Anyway your answer is here, your wallet file is stored separately from software. So even you delete your software it doesn't effect to your wallet file. But you must save your wallet seed to recover your wallet incase if happen something. If you restore your old wallet seeds during first time open new software then your old address will be there, means new wallet will regenerate your old address and replace the old wallet file. But be careful, likely you will not able to open new wallet file if you downgrade your software again. New wallet software will replace your wallet file with new features which wouldn't read old version.

If you really don't want to use old wallet file then select new wallet during open first time. So you will get new wallet file and new seed. I am not sure but likely you will be forced to encrypt your wallet file with password. So you have to write your seed and password as well. Anyway you will be able to recover your wallet with seed anytime, so it's more important to keep safe on multiple places. If you really want to delete wallet file permanently then you may go as below since you are using windows.

* Show hidden files
* Go to \Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\Electrum (or %APPDATA%\Electrum)

Likely you will able to delete from above.

[Russlenat]

Maybe you can use an app like CCleaner, you can search it in google, that's the app I am currently using now and it deletes unnecessary files every time I run for a scan to clean my computer.

Also, don't be confuse, when you remove or uninstall, the install back, as long as you have the wallet seed, I guess you can still see your old transactions because those transactions are already part of the wallet. This is an interesting question actually because I sometimes uninstall my electrum wallet when it was compromise but I don't really pay attention if I still got the same wallet address I've use before, due to the fact that I sometimes use different wallet address under a single wallet.

[NeuroticFish]

1. Please make sure you have a backup of the wallet file(s) or seed(s) before deleting anything. Verifying if the seeds are actually the correct ones for the expected wallets can be also a good step.

2. You also mentioned Windows registry. Electrum uses to put there some data too, there will be "Open with" handlers for .txn files, for .wallet files and maybe others too. If you are sure you know what you are doing (since
removing too much from registry can create problems too), search with regedit for "electrum" and I'm sure you'll find most of the occurences. However, if you plan to reinstall, this may be just unneeded extra work.

[covfefe_]

You wallet are saved in an encrypted plain text document by you account name. It's secured by your password if you have put any. You can access your wallet from anywhere using your mnemonic or private key without the password but if you try to access the wallet file, you'd need the password. You can delete or create as many wallet as you need. A generated wallet with mnemonic phrase has multiple address and private key while an imported private keys creates a single wallet.

[Ifra24]

Anyway you will be able to recover your wallet with seed anytime, so it's more important to keep safe on multiple places. If you really want to delete wallet file permanently then you may go as below since you are using windows.

* Show hidden files
* Go to \Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\Electrum (or %APPDATA%\Electrum)

Likely you will able to delete from above.

Share my experience. I use Windows 8.1. The First if you want to use the address again, Saved your Seeds , if you don't use again just delete it. Directly to Control Panel-Programs and Features - Right-click the Electrum-Uninstall Application.

* Show hidden files
* Go to \ Users \ YourUserName \ AppData \ Roaming \ Electrum (or% APPDATA% \ Electrum)

For folder Cannot be deleted immediately . Must restart computer.

[bob123]

Electrum itself is just an interface which manages your private-/public key pairs.
It loads a wallet file which stores the relevant information.

If you uninstall electrum, you did not delete the wallet file. So upon reinstalling it, you can open the same wallet file and have the same private keys and therefore also the same addresses.
If you delete the wallet file after uninstalling electrum, you will have the ability to create a new wallet or restore an old one when reinstalling it.
With your backed up mnemonic code (12/24 words), you are able to recreate the same wallet (same private keys -> same addresses).

Always make sure to have a backup of your mnemonic code. Do not only rely on an electronic device to store your private keys.