Not sure what happened. After trying to create an empty base game and getting some error to do with 'hidcon.exe' now my permanent game loads all default Maxis neighbourhoods and not mine. I've deleted AGS. It seems to have left my permanent exe redirected to something else?

Sounds awfully similar to this persons tale. If I indeed have to go into registry editing can someone walk me through it? Hubby's advising me to run a registry cleaner but I get the feeling that could do more harm than good? Must have been a reason @Nysha didn't mention it.

Wish you hadn't deleted AGS :/ what happens is sometimes the registry pop up to go back to the original folder doesn't show up right away, and if you are clicking elsewhere when it attempts to, the registry doesn't go back properly. It is an easy fix if AGS is still installed and a horrific one if it isn't. Message me later on discord.

And don't run registry cleaner

When I say deleted, I mean gone through the 'delete existing AnyGames' setup thing. So there's still the AGS folder but no hoods created. Is that the same thing?

Argh! Yes, I agree with @gdayars - removing AGS is a shame, running the AGS setup again would have corrected the path to your downloads folder.

Not sure if you could fix this now by reinstalling AGS, looks like it might have to be a manual thing or even reinstall (which might be quicker, depending upon your number of EPs/Sps and method of install).

reinstalling and running it fixed it. It took a bit tho, so guess the problem was probably because the computer was slow doing the registry changeovers back? She then uninstalled it again, too.

Oh good, I'm glad it's fixed! Well done both.