As Elena stated in her full review of Sims 3 back in 2009, it's one of those games you either love or hate. When it comes to uninstalling it however, it's a game most definitely to hate. I've learned from bitter experience that removing Sims 3 from Windows is like yanking teeth out with pliers.

At some stage during the uninstall, you'll probably be confronted with an error message along the lines of:

An error(-5005 : 0x8000ffff) has curried while running the setup. Please make sure you have finished any previous setup and closed other applications.

Many people think that the problem is due to the EA Download Manager running in the background but its got nothing to do with that. The problem, as is common in such cases, is that Sims 3 has rooted itself firmly in your registry meaning the tepid Windows Add/Remove Program tool simply doesn't remove everything properly.

The simple answer is to use a more powerful uninstaller. I used the free version of Revo Uninstaller because it makes sure that absolutely everything is removed.

Select Sims 3 from the Program List:

Select the Uninstall Mode. Moderate was sufficient for me but if you find after wards that hasn't done the job properly, use Advanced to be sure.

Let Revo Uninstaller do its stuff and when it detects the Leftover Registry Items, make sure you select them all and click Next.

Sims 3 is now completely uninstalled from your PC.