so I was trying to clean out my mods in the data window of the skyrim launcher, by clicking "delete selected". I presumed that because you couldn't unselect the main skyrim file, that it wouldn't be deleted. so i selected a few mods for removal.
It deleted the skyrim file. AND NOTHING ELSE. None of the mods i selected were actually deleted.
What a stupid feature.

Help help?

In Steam right click Skyrim, choose properties, local files, then,verify integrity. It will redownload all missing files. Arguably the only useful feature of Steam for a single player game.