AppData weighs a lot: what is this folder, how to find and delete it. Removing unnecessary junk from your computer manually
The appdata folder contains data for all applications used by the Windows operating system. How to find this folder and how to clean up unnecessary files is described in the full article.
Beginning with operating system Windows Vista, some users began to find the appdata folder on their computers, the weight of which sometimes reached 10 GB and more. Given the fact that Vista was not a popular system, few people tried to help solve the problem, but with Windows 7 it became more global. Let's deal with it in more detail.
How to find the appdata folder
By default, the appdata folder is hidden from the user. To open it, you must first enable the display of hidden folders. If in Windows XP this could be done in any window through the service / folder properties, then starting with Windows 7 Microsoft decided to remove such a quick access to this option. You can find the display setting in the Control Panel, in the "Folder Options" section. It is here now that the same section for setting the display of folder properties on the computer is located under Windows control 7. Put the "birdie" on the item "Show hidden folders" in the subsection "View".
Note: in Windows 8, everything is exactly the same.
You can now find the appdata folder in the following path: System Drive -> Users -> Username. This is where she is.
What's in the appdata folder
The folder contains a kind of "necessary stuff" from programs and games, for example, history, settings, saves, bookmarks, etc. Pretty much everything that happens on your computer. Over time, the size of the folder increases, as a result of which the free space on the disk decreases, because not all programs delete their settings and other files in appdata, given the fact that someday you will install them again.
There are three subfolders in the hidden appdata folder:
- Roaming (the folder contains data that you can save to a portable device at any time and post Windows installations insert them along the same path, while retaining all your settings). Most likely all your browser data, bookmarks, etc. are located here.
- Local (the folder contains only local data that cannot be transferred together with the profile). Here you can often find large files that cannot be synchronized with the server, for example, downloaded files, game saves, torrent date, etc.
- LocalLow (the folder contains data that cannot be moved and has the most low level access). Here you can find the data of programs that are running or have been running in a protected, safe mode.
An ordinary user cannot influence the location folder in any way, and the applications themselves determine in which folder they will save their data.
Note: If you need to delete any data that takes up a huge amount of memory on the system drive, you should first go to the search engine and find out which program created the folder (in most cases, the folder is called the name of the program, but not always), then make sure that you do not need its data, and feel free to delete it.
Is it possible to delete the appdata folder in Windows 7 and Windows 8
Considering the above, you probably realized that you can free up space by deleting unnecessary data. But the system will not let you destroy the entire appdata folder. There is only one reason - some open system and user files also use appdata and their destruction can destabilize the system. Accordingly, you can only delete the folders of the applications themselves, and then only those that are in this moment are inactive. To do this, you need to go to one of the folders: Roaming, Local and find and delete the necessary data inside these system folders.
How to delete a folder with an unnecessary program
In most cases, you are not allowed to delete the program data because it is being used by the system. Close the program and then you can delete its data.
If the program is running in the background (invisible) mode, the Task Manager will help you, which can be called through the Alt + Ctrl + Del combination or by clicking on the bottom panel -> Task Manager.
If you are 100% sure that this is exactly the program you do not need, find it among the installed programs, look at the name of the executable file. In 90% of cases, this is how the program is signed in the task manager. Open the Processes tab, filter them by user and find the executable file. Complete the process.
Note: never do this with system programs! In most cases, this is fraught with destabilization of Windows 7 and Windows 8.
After the process is complete, you can delete the program and its data in appdata.
The Windows operating system is actually not as simple as it might seem at first glance. With a more detailed acquaintance with it, a lot of interesting facts, unused and previously unseen folders, files, etc. It is the topic of the latter that I would like to touch upon in this material.
I have previously covered how to make hidden folders visible and how to reverse the process. Now I would like to discuss the most interesting, in my opinion, hidden folder that is present in this OS. So, further we will talk about the appdata folder: where is it on windows 7, how to see it, etc.
What is the Appdata folder
Traditionally, let's start with general knowledge. For example, the Application Data system folder is hidden by default and is a repository of personal files for all users registered on the computer. As you understand, the folder contains absolutely all data about all programs installed by the user.
Theoretically, it would be possible not to think about this folder at all and not to know grief. But there is one caveat: if you do not reinstall the OS and at the same time actively use the Internet, Appdata grows to indecent sizes, taking away valuable space on your hard drive.
Where is the Appdata folder
As mentioned, Application Data is hidden folder, so before you start searching, you must first make it visible. You can read exactly how this is done in the last article, but here I will repeat myself briefly:
Now it is very easy to find the folder, it is located in this path: C: \ Users \ Admin \ Appdata, where Admin is the username. By the way, if several users are registered in the system, everyone will have their own Application Data folder.
Within this directory, you can find three more subdirectories, namely: Local, LocalLow, Roaming. The first one stores files that are created during the operation of installed programs, and this information cannot be moved to another computer. In LocalLow, you can find buffered data from Internet Explorer, Java, and Adobe applications. Well, the Roaming subfolder stores sample data obtained during the user's life on the network. By the way, they can be moved from one PC to another. 
Well, now you also know where to find the Appdata system folder, how to make it visible and find it on your computer.
The Appdata folder contains data generated by programs. In WindowsXP, this directory had the expanded name Applicationdata, which literally translates as "application data"; in subsequent operating systems, it received an abbreviated name. Read more about this directory in the article What is the Appdata folder in Windows 7 and whether it can be deleted.
The article describes how to find the Appdata folder in Windows 7, 10, 8 in order to perform actions with application files, namely, copy, create, delete. There are several search methods, and we will consider them in more detail.
Find the Appdata folder by including hidden files
By default, the application directory has the following path: System drive: \ Users \ Username \ AppData. Please note that there can be several users in the system, respectively, you will see several folders of individual users that contain directories of application data.
To find out the name of your directory, press + R, then enter msinfo32 and click OK. This will launch the System Information window. Find the element "username", opposite which the name of the user's folder will be written after a slash. In the screenshot, this is the name Alex. 
Note: if you do not have an administrator Account, then when you try to open the directory of another user, you will see a message about the denial of access to this folder.
Going to the user's directory, you will see that there is no AppData folders and to see it, you need to enable the display of hidden files. This is done for different versions OS like this:
1. In Windows 7, start Explorer, in the menu, click "arrange". Next, select the section that opens. Go to the "View" tab and in the additional parameters area at the bottom, check the option to show hidden files, then click OK. Learn more about ways to help. 
2. In Windows 10, 8 open Explorer, then go to the "View" tab. Then click on the "show or hide" area and check the "hidden items" option. 
The above steps will help you find the Appdata folder in Windows 7, 10, 8. You can go into it without any problems and perform the intended manipulations.
Alternative ways to find the Appdata folder
Exists additional ways to help open the Appdata folder in fast mode. There is no need to include hidden files, go all the way, or search for your user's directory name.
Hello friends! According to your numerous requests, in today's article we will find out all the secrets of the folder AppData on Windows, namely:What functions does the AppData directory perform in the operating system, where it is located, why it takes large volume(sometimes more than 10 GB)? How do I clear this folder? Should I move it from disk (C :) to another location?
AppData folder on Windows. Where is. Why it takes a lot. How to clear or transfer
"AppData" (full name "Application Data") is a hidden system directory of user profiles for Windows Vista, 7, 8.1 and 10. The folder is located inside the profile of each of the operating system users and, accordingly, is located on the drive (C :) along the path:
C: \ Users \ UserName \ AppData
"AppData": what kind of folder is this
It contains the working files of the installed system software- temporary files, configuration files, cache, saved sessions, application logs etc. As you can see, almost all applications installed in the OS have their own personal folders with files here, including antivirus and printer service program.
Browsers, for example, store their profile data in this folder - the history of visited Internet pages, cache, cookies, extensions, etc.
Another example: this folder contains a lot of what we use when working with Microsoft Office products - document templates, autocorrect options, dictionaries, etc. AppData is the parent directory of one of the system temp folders.
AppData includes three subfolders:
"AppData" is a hidden folder. Microsoft believes that the average user has nothing to do there, and the extra curiosity of newcomers can lead to undesirable consequences. But this folder is a treasure trove of opportunities for experimenters. Most of the existing programs do not provide for the export-import of settings, projects and other user experience into the newly installed operating system, in this case, you can use the AppData folder. Using the usual "Manual transfer" - copyin the old system from this folder the necessary directories and after installing programs in the environment new system replace them. In this caseprograms in a newly installed Windows are brought into working form in a matter of seconds.Such a maneuver was once considered in one of the articles on our site: we when the sync service was not working for this browser.
The content of "AppData" is of particular interest to those who do not have the opportunity to purchase an SSD-drive, fans of sophisticated ways to optimize Windows. Such as, for example, transferring working files of programs to a RAM disk - a virtual disk created in the operating system environment at the expense of a resource random access memory... The above-mentioned working directories of programs are transferred to the RAM disk, and the performance of the latter increases significantly.
There is another type of users with an interest in this folder - shocked by its frantic consumption of disk space (C :).
How to access the AppData folder
To access this folder, in file managers it is necessary to enable the display of hidden files and follow the path of its placement.
But there is an easier way. Press the Win + R keys and enter:
AppData
The folder will immediately open in the system explorer.
Why AppData grows large
Immediately after installing Windows, this folder weighs no more than 300 MB. However, its size will increase exponentially as third-party programs and games are installed into the system. More software means more folder weight. For example, I have it weighs 6 GB.
- During normal uninstallation, programs and games remove their data, as a rule, only from the Program Files folders on the C drive. But the contents of their working directories inside AppData are left to be used for the future. new installation... This data is destroyed only.
Personally, after uninstalling any program, I must visit this folder and clean up the tails of the application manually.
What if this folder has grown to incredible volumes and, accordingly, takes up a lot of space on the C drive? What happens if you remove AppData
You can only partially delete this folder, it will not work entirely. Since it stores the working data of the programs, their active processes simply will not allow this to be done. Only the approach from the environment of another operating system installed on the computer, or from the LiveCD, will help. But you should not do this. Removing "AppData" will not affect the critical sectors of Windows - bootable and directly supporting the operation of the system itself. but installed programs and the games will either not work correctly, or they will start with default settings, or they will not start at all. It is necessary to clear this folder selectively and the right methods, let's talk about this further.
How to reduce the weight of AppData
To reduce the weight of the folder, you need to take the following steps one by one:
1. Run the standard Windows disk cleaning utility;
Note: in Windows versions 10, the ability to clean up disk space, in particular, get rid of temporary files that are stored in the "AppData" folder, is also implemented in the "Settings" application. Going along the path "System - Storage - drive C - Temporary files",
we can delete all temporary files of the system.
Moreover, the Creators Update cumulative update has added a new feature "" to the Top Ten, which automatically deletes temporary files if they are not used by programs.
2. Explore the content of "AppData" using the program
and delete the directories of already uninstalled programs and games, before placing the archive folder on another disk or creating a system restore point in case the necessary data is deleted. For example, my system has a lot of folders already remote programs, it is better to delete these folders manually.
3. In the future, use uninstallers with cleaning the remnants of programs such as Soft Organizer, Uninstall Tool, Revo Uninstaller, etc.
If resource-intensive programs and games are installed on the computer, the folder weight, of course, will not be small. In this case, about 10 GB may be the norm, and it may be worth looking for other ways to free free space on disk (C :). For example:
Change the physical location of the Temp folders using environment variables;
Transfer working directories of browsers and other programs to other disks using their internal settings or symbolic links;
How to transfer transfer AppData folder
Friends, there are sites on the network that will offer you ways to transfer the AppData folder to another section hard disk by manipulating the registry or a conductor, but firstly, this has nothing to do with reality, after transferring the AppData folder, the programs installed in your operating system will start giving such surprises that you will quickly abandon this venture,and secondly, explain to me, what's the point? Save disk space (C :)? Many readers will say yes, this should be done to save disk space on the SSD (120GB) that Windows is running on. But let me then notice that if you move the folder AppData from solid state to regular HDD, then your programs will be 5 times slower.I will even say solet's transfer morefolder C: \ Windows on another drive, because if you try, you can do it too.And the most good way Save 100 years of solid state drive life by simply disconnecting it from your computer and putting it on the shelf.
On computers running the Windows operating system, the user has access to all system folders if he is authorized as an administrator. Many system folders in Windows 10 take up a lot of space, which can cause questions for a computer user. One such example is the AppData folder, which is very heavy, but not everyone knows if it can be deleted and how to do it. In this article, we will consider what this folder is, what information is stored in AppData, why this folder was created, and whether it can be deleted.
Table of contents:Where is the AppData folder on Windows
The AppData folder is fully named Application Data, which literally can be translated as “Application Data”. It is a hidden system folder that has been found in the Windows operating system starting with Windows 7.
Each computer user has its own AppData folder, which is located in the user's profile. You can find the AppData folder at:
(System_Disk): \ Users \ (Username) \ AppData
Note: The AppData folder is hidden by default. For it to be displayed when you go to the above address, you need to enable the display of hidden files and folders in the system.
AppData: what is this folder, what information is stored in it
The AppData folder contains information about the working files of installed applications. These are various configuration files with information about application settings, temporary files for competent work programs, application logs, information about saved application users and sessions. Almost all applications installed on the system have their own folder in AppData, in which they store various data.
To make it clearer, a few examples can be given. Office applications such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and others, store page templates, dictionaries, autocorrect data and other system information in the AppData folder, which may differ for each computer user. Browsers like Google chrome, store in the AppData folder information about installed extensions, history of page visits, cached logins and passwords, and much more.
You can go to the AppData folder both from Explorer and from the “Run” line if you enter “AppData” as a command.
The AppData folder contains 3 other folders - Local, LocalLow and Roaming. Each of these folders contains its own information:
- This folder stores temporary application files and their local data, such as user preferences.
- This folder contains the buffer data of applications.
- Folder with user data for various applications.
As noted above, the AppData folder is hidden from users by default. It is not assumed that the normal user of the operating system must perform various manipulations with it. However, it is important to be aware of the existence of this folder and the information stored in it. If you want to migrate custom application information from one Windows computer to another, you can use the data in the AppData folder. You just need to copy the information from the desired folder in this section and transfer it to the new computer in the appropriate folder. Similarly, it is convenient to import and export settings, templates, bookmarks and more. Many applications do not support the ability to export data by default, but it can be done via AppData.
Why the AppData folder is so heavy
If you go to the AppData folder immediately after installing the operating Windows systems, you can see that its size is quite small - several hundred megabytes. But with every new application installed and used, the AppData folder gets bigger. The more programs and games on your computer, the larger the AppData folder.
Please note: There is no size limit for the AppData folder. Windows itself does not control the size of this folder, so it can grow up to tens or even hundreds of gigabytes.
At the same time, removing a program or game from a computer does not always lead to the removal of information from AppData. Most applications, when uninstalled through the standard Windows utility, do not erase their data from the folder in question. It turns out that AppData stores data about a program that is no longer on the computer, and they take up space on the system drive.
Please note: If you delete applications from a computer using specialized software, it, in most cases, erases the data about the program from AppData.
How to delete the AppData folder
As discussed above, AppData is an important system folder that simply cannot be sent to the trash can without causing problems for applications to work in the operating system.
