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Files & Folders You Can Safely Delete in Windows 11

Mitch BartlettJune 5, 2023 Comments (17)
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If you’re looking to free space or just simply need to clean the clutter from the hard drive of your Microsoft Windows 11 computer, here is a list of file and folder locations you can safely remove to clear the most space.


Windows Temp Folders

Applications use these folders to temporarily write data. You can safely remove anything in the folder, but you may not be able to delete items that are in use.

Likely safe locations to delete files and folders from:

  • C:\Windows > Temp
  • C:\Users > username > AppData > Local > Temp

Browser Temp Folders

Data from web pages. Cached to make loading time quicker.

Likely safe locations to delete files and folders from:

  • Microsoft Edge – C:\Users > username > AppData > Local > Packages
    >
     Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe > AC > MicrosoftEdge > Cache
  • Internet Explorer – C:\Users > username > AppData > Local > Microsoft > Windows > INetCache
  • Firefox – C:\Users > username > AppData > Local > Mozilla > Firefox > Profiles > randomcharacters.default > cache2 > entries
  • Google Chrome – C:\Users > username > AppData > Local > Google > Chrome > User Data > Default > Cache

Log Files

Files that store data about what certain applications did.

Likely safe locations to delete ONLY FILES THAT END IN “.LOG”.

  • C:\Windows
  • C:\Windows > Debug

Normally it’s safe to delete all files and folders in this location:

  • C:\Windows > Logs

Old Prefetch Data

Data Windows uses to open commonly used programs faster.

Likely safe locations to delete files and folders from:

  • C:\Windows > Prefetch

Crash Dumps

Files containing data about what was in memory when applications crash.

Likely safe locations to delete files and folders from:

  • C:\Users > username > AppData > Local > CrashDumps
  • C:\ProgramData > Microsoft > Windows > WER > ReportArchive

Update Date

If you’ve updated Windows 11 with all updates, you can lose the update files stored in these locations:

  • C:\Windows > SoftwareDistribution > Downloads 
  • C:\Windows > SoftwareDistribution > Datastore

Microsoft Office Backups

Office keeps backups of your files in case you need to recover them. You can delete them if you like.

  • C:\Users > username > AppData > Roaming > MicrosoftWord
  • C:\Users > username > AppData > Roaming > MicrosoftPowerPoint
  • C:\Users > username > AppData > Roaming > MicrosoftExcel
  • C:\Users > username > AppData > Roaming > MicrosoftOutlook
  • C:\Users > username > AppData > Roaming > MicrosoftAccess

Thanks to Larry Marks for this one.


Surely, I don’t know it all. Others may have locations they regularly clear to free hard drive space in Windows 11. If you have a location that you know about, please share it in the comments section.

Categories: Windows

Author Mitch Bartlett

My name is Mitch Bartlett. I've been working in technology for over 20 years in a wide range of tech jobs from Tech Support to Software Testing. I started this site as a technical guide for myself and it has grown into what I hope is a useful reference for all.

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Comments

  1. Charlee Powell says:
    January 23, 2021 at 4:54 pm

    Thank you, very useful!

  2. Cahaya says:
    November 17, 2020 at 9:57 am

    I deleted the Software Distribution / Downloads files and gained about 1-1.5 GB of space, but it seems like they get downloaded again right away and then my computer starts nagging again about not having enough space. Is there any way to change the location of these downloads? Thank you. This article is extremely helpful.

  3. Kyu says:
    July 19, 2020 at 10:05 pm

    What about all the txt files?
    such as default.help and other text files

  4. Amit says:
    June 2, 2020 at 6:24 pm

    Thank you.. really very helpful.

  5. Frederik says:
    March 13, 2020 at 12:53 pm

    Wauv, I cannot explain it but I had 7 GB in C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Downloads. That was a nice tip. Thanks, Varun and the rest of you :-)

  6. SHAMIR KWAHLIF says:
    June 28, 2019 at 12:07 pm

    This post waz very helpful indeed. Thx so very muchl

  7. Emily says:
    November 26, 2018 at 3:58 pm

    I have a lot of the following files, but don’t know what they are for. Can I safely delete them? and how?? 45699160-b64f-4840-a2d4-3cfdaa195e7d_v_807_0.xml and also bfb65196-4b87-2614-514d-82616e508f40_v_836_0.xml.

  8. ak says:
    August 16, 2018 at 1:46 pm

    what about program data folder. how to delete stuff from there, specially if the program is uninstalled, is it safe?

  9. JaD says:
    April 28, 2018 at 9:58 pm

    ha hem.,edit?,, ‘DISK’ clean up. was my reference, in disk properties.. and those image files that are 1″x1″ that Gulppy referred to are the live tile start menu images. That folder can get HUGE… turn off ‘live tiles’ if you want to stop that from accumulating.

  10. JaD says:
    April 28, 2018 at 9:54 pm

    The user /appdata /local/ temp is a tricky one. Outlook stores its ‘backup.pst’ there (unless you moved it in settings). Other programs can leave “active” files and folders there. My approach to this is look at the creation and modified dates, Anything that hasn’t been modified in 2 weeks goes. Some believe that dick cleanup uses discretion when deleing files. It really doesn’t and can cause an app to hang or other problems. It also runs in administrator mode some permissions get ignored. you should always use a little patients and do diligence in investigating and not jus click and hope. Just M2C

  11. Gulppy says:
    April 18, 2018 at 6:50 am

    I realize this pertains to windows-7. I am posting this just in case it applies also to windows-10. “\users\appdata\\local\microsoft\windows photo gallery\original images\” contained numerous previously deleted photo files. I deleted all entries with no subsequent computer malfunctions.

  12. Bill Haughton says:
    March 13, 2018 at 4:23 pm

    How about the “Downloads” directory? Are those files needed in the future?

  13. Mel Babb says:
    January 26, 2018 at 12:42 pm

    Thanks so much. I had wasted a lot of time going one by one through the folders trying to locate the culprit.

  14. Me and i says:
    November 25, 2017 at 5:30 am

    this is awesome thanks

  15. Mejgan says:
    September 28, 2017 at 5:20 pm

    It was helpful. Thanks

  16. Aziz says:
    March 2, 2017 at 9:46 am

    thank you very helpful info…

  17. DangHieu says:
    October 24, 2016 at 3:10 am

    Thanks you so much!

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My name is Mitch Bartlett. I've been working in technology for over 20 years in a wide range of tech jobs from Tech Support to Software Testing. I started this site as a technical guide for myself and it has grown into what I hope is a useful reference for all.

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