Is it possible to remove Windows 0? Is it possible to delete the TEMP folder? What not to do when cleaning system folders

You've probably noticed the Syswow64 folder in the System directory on your computer if you're reading this article. Many users are interested in what this Windows 7 folder is and whether it can be deleted. Let's take a closer look at why it is needed.

What is this folder?

This system folder is only available on 64-bit Windows versions 7, 8, 10. But unlike others system files, it is not hidden. So it's not a virus and you don't have to worry about security.

Why is it needed?

The main purpose is to store files that are necessary to run 32-bit applications. Such programs use special libraries located inside this folder. If these files are missing, system errors will appear.

Is it possible to delete?

The contents of the folder cannot be touched at all, although it takes up quite a lot of space. Deleting even one file can disrupt the system. At a minimum, 32-bit applications will no longer run. And in the worst case, you will have to completely reinstall the OS.

If you don't have enough memory, then clean up residual and useless files. The article “Cleaning up your computer without reinstalling Windows” describes in detail how to do this.

How to recover

Note! The steps are shown using Windows 7 as an example.

If you deleted the Syswow64 folder and some applications stopped launching, you can try to restore the files.

  1. Through the Start menu, write “System Restore” in the search bar.
  2. "System Restore".
  3. Click "Next" in the window that opens.
  4. Select a restore point (made before deleting the folder) and click Next.
  5. Click “Finish” in the new window and wait for the process to complete.

The computer will reboot after all processes. This means that the system is ready for use.

Folder called AppData– this is the system directory where it is located various information about installed programs(game saves, history logs, settings, etc.).

This folder is located on the C:\ drive. In the Users folder you need to select the folder of the current user and that is where the directory with the name is located AppData or Application Data. The name can be either one or the other - it depends on the version of the installed OS.

Before you find this folder, you will need to make sure that hidden folders are displayed on the device. This is done as follows:

  • First you need to go to the control panel. This can be done through the menu "Start".
  • Next, you should go to the subsection "Design and personalization."
  • There you can find a link to the show hidden files and folders.
  • In the window that appears, on the tab "View" place a check mark next to the line "Show hidden files and folders." A message may appear stating that this action is unsafe, but you can ignore it by clicking the “Yes” button.
  • Press the button "OK".

Now you can start working with the AppData folder. Many users are concerned about the directory issue Appdata: “Can I delete it?” The question is fair, because if the computer has been used for a long time, then the data in this folder begins to take up an impressive amount of space on the disk. You can get to the APPDATA folder like this: "Win+R" and enter %APPDATA%, after which you are taken to the desired folder under your profile.

It is certainly possible to remove it. This action will not affect the operation of the system as a whole. , but this will have an extremely negative impact on all programs. All progress in games will be lost, as well as the settings and history of others installed applications. Therefore, whether to delete it or not is up to each user to decide for himself.

In general, destroying AppData is not a very rational step.

Yes, and it is impossible to completely delete this folder, since some of the data running in the application that is stored in it will interfere with deletion. Therefore, the information will only be partially destroyed.

You can try to transfer AppData to another drive to free up space on the system drive.

  • To do this, create a similar folder on drive D with the same name and all the subfolders that are nested in it (Local, Roaming, and so on), and then copy the files separately into each subfolder.
  • If copying some files fails, it means that this is information from some application that is in this moment put into operation. We skip those files that do not want to be copied.
  • Open the registry editor. To do this in the window "Run" we write the regedit directive.
  • In the registry window go to the folder HKEY_CURRENT_USER, then to the Software folder, then to the Microsoft folder, there we look for and open Windows folder, then the CurrentVersion folder, after which we go to the Explorer folder, and there we look for the Shell Folders folder
  • In the contents of the found folder, we look for all the lines where the address contains AppData. And change the original address C:/Users... to D:/AppData...
  • After this procedure, reboot the device.
  • Delete the AppData folder on the system drive and empty the trash.

Temp folder in Windows, it is just a temporary storage of files: various libraries, program installers and other data that accumulate during the operation of the operating system and programs, but are not automatically deleted. The volume of the folder increases every day, so the Temp folder needs to be emptied periodically. If this is not done, over time it will grow to sizes of tens of gigabytes, and if operating system installed on a logical disk with a capacity of, say, 50 GB, the operating speed of the OS may be significantly reduced.

In the previous article, we looked at how to find and open it, so we recommend starting reading the material from this article if you were unable to find the folder yourself.

To clean the Temp folder, you need to select all files and folders (you can use the combination Ctrl+A) and delete it. During deletion, warning windows will appear repeatedly, so feel free to confirm the deletion where possible.


But you can also use a more formal the right way. Open Properties disk with installed Windows and click on the button Disk Cleanup.

The data collection process will begin.

And a window will open Disk Cleanup. In it we find and mark the item Temporary files, if desired, put additional checkmarks where necessary, and click OK, then confirm the deletion.

Is it possible to delete the TEMP folder in Windows?

Windows itself will not allow you to delete this folder, and there is absolutely no point in doing so. This folder must be present in the system for its normal operation; periodically it is only necessary to clean it from irrelevant content.

The temp folder in Windows 7, 8 and XP stores temporary and intermediate items that are created by programs and the OS. Most of these elements are files with the extension (.tmp). At their core, they are trash.

Sometimes these files are not deleted after finishing working with programs. Over time, objects accumulate and the temp folder takes up a lot of space. Can reach several tens of GB.

Is it possible to delete the temp folder– the answer is no. The directory itself does not need to be demolished, but it must be cleared to free it disk space.

Where is the temp folder in Windows– this directory is located in several places, namely:

  1. Fundamentally system disk(most often this is drive C).
  2. In the Windows folder itself.
  3. On the system partition C:\Users\name account\AppData\Local\Temp
  4. In XP - C:\Documents and Settings\account name\Local Settings\Temp

Note: The account name is the user name that is specified when Windows is installed.

Note: to see the AppData directory.

Now you know what the temp folder is, where it is located, and what is stored in it. It's time to look at cleansing methods.

Cleaning the temp folder using standard methods

1. The simplest and fastest method clear temp folder, this is to go to it, press CTRL + A (), click on the DEL key and confirm deletion. However, not all elements can be destroyed.

Close all programs and repeat the procedure. If you see the message again, restart your PC and go through the steps again.

2. Click right click on drive C (you may have a different one) and select “properties”. Then click the "disk cleanup" button.

IN open window It is possible to clean various temporary files, including those from the temp folder. From here you can even safely, if available.

Check the entire list and click OK. In the confirmation window, click “delete files”.

3. The method is that you. For example, we will clean temp in Windows directories . and write:

DEL /F /S /Q /A "c:\windows\temp\*"

Press Enter and wait until the end of the procedure.

Of course, no one will clean it like this, then I suggest creating txt file and bat. Write in the body file lines similar to the command above, only with your own paths and save it on your desktop, then double-click to run it. For myself I did this:

DEL /F /S /Q /A "C:\Windows\Temp\*"
DEL /F /S /Q /A "C:\Temp\*"
DEL /F /S /Q /A "C:\Users\Alex\AppData\Local\Temp\*"

You can copy and correct these lines. Thus, in a few seconds you can clear the temp folder on Windows 7, 8 and XP in several places at once.

Cleaning using programs

The programs are worth using because they are not limited to just cleaning and removing unnecessary items. With their help, PC operation is accelerated and optimized. Here is a list of utilities that will help you delete the contents of the temp folder:

  1. CCleaner
  2. System Cleaner
  3. SBMAV Disk Cleaner
  4. And others

For example, let's take a closer look at the CCleaner utility:

1. download and install CCleaner.

2. Go to the “cleaning” section, look at the “windows” and “applications” tabs. Here you need to tick the boxes to suit your individual needs. If you check and clear all the items, this will not interfere with the operation of the system, but inconveniences may arise, for example, the absence of entered addresses or saved passwords in the browser, etc.

3. For cleaning the temp folder I selected the items that you will see in the screenshot below. Next, I clicked the “analysis” button to collect information on the objects to be deleted.

4. After assessing the volume of data to be destroyed, clicked the “clean” button and OK.

5. The utility reported cleaning, and I closed it.

So we figured it out, what is the temp folder in Windows 7, 8, XP, and how to clean it. Remove its contents regularly and do not let it become too large. Use everything possible ways cleaning Most effective method use, but do not neglect programs like CCleaner.

When installing operating rooms Windows systems the seventh version and higher (for example, after XP) users saw quite a lot of innovations. In particular, this concerned the appearance of some strange directories that were not previously on the system disk. One of these is the PerfLogs directory. What kind of folder with this name is displayed in “Explorer” or in another file manager, will be discussed further. To understand this, first consider why this directory was created in the system.

What is the PerfLogs folder on drive C?

This catalog was first introduced in file structure only in Windows 7. At the moment it is present in all the latest OS. But what is the PerfLogs directory used for? What is this folder in Windows 10, as well as in Windows 7 or 8?

To understand its purpose, you just need to decipher the abbreviation of the name. The first part (Perf) is derived from the English Performance, which can be interpreted as “design” or “performance”, and the second (Logs) denotes logs, or special system reports corresponding to the performance log.

What data is stored in the directory

Thus, speaking of what the PerfLogs folder is, it is not difficult to understand that it represents a save location special files, which record the results of performance tests, if any.

Separately, it is worth noting that the more tests are carried out, the more files is stored there. And they, in turn, can be quite large in size, since old reports do not disappear anywhere. In other words, new reports are not written over old ones. Ultimately, the amount of disk space consumed can increase significantly.

Default settings

It’s a little clear what the PerfLogs folder is in Windows 7 or higher systems. Now a few words about the nuances that every computer system user should know.

The fact is that initially there is no information in this directory (it is empty or occupies a minimal amount of space). Report data appears only after performance tests are carried out using the operating system. They are mainly used after some time has passed, when the system begins to slow down significantly or cause failures at the system level, which entails an increase in the load on hardware resources. So the more often you run tests, the larger this directory will be. However, all this applies only to the Windows toolkit. Therefore, in order not to clutter the system partition, it is better to use third-party utilities for performance testing.

Viewing Log Files

Many users would like to view full reports, for example to determine why system performance is slow. But it is not possible to simply open files located in the PerfLogs directory (no program is associated with their extensions by default in Windows).

So what is the PerfLogs folder if you can't open its contents? The problem here is that this directory belongs to the performance monitor service, but not the one that is available in the Task Manager, but the one that is presented as a hidden standard application.

You can call it through the regular “Run” menu by entering the perfmon command, that is, the abbreviated name for the performance monitor. In the monitor itself, you need to use performance counters, divided into groups, where you can see the results of all checks.

In this case, the test files are loaded automatically, but the overall report result for all categories is stored not in the main directory, but in the Diagnostics subdirectory, which is located in the System folder of the main directory (PerfLogs). Thus, there is no need to open files one by one.

Is it possible to delete the PerfLogs folder

Let's say a few words about the possibility or impossibility of this action. Since, as already noted, the files contained in the directory can take up too much disk space, many users have a completely natural question about whether it is possible to get rid of this directory.

You can delete a folder with all files and subdirectories, but this will not affect the performance of the operating system. The user will only lose the ability to view the results of checks if he conducted them. As for the folder itself, even after deleting it, the operating system upon restart, using its own automated means of restoring settings (registry entries, folders and files), will automatically create a directory of the same name. It will be located in the same place where the remote folder was located. As in the default settings, this automatically created directory will initially be empty! As soon as you start checking the system for performance, you will immediately see an increase in its size. Conclusion: you shouldn’t do checks too often, so as not to increase the amount of information in the PerfLogs folder, then it won’t interfere.

If the decision to delete a folder has been made, but it is not possible to delete it using the standard method in Explorer, you can use the Unlocker unlocking program or log in as an administrator. Even easier - activate it to log in via command line to immediately assign yourself all admin rights. But she herself command console should initially be launched only with administrator rights.

Finally

That's it for the PerfLogs directory. What kind of folder is on the system drive and what it is intended for, hopefully, has now become clear. As for deleting a directory, the choice is up to the user. If you sometimes need to view report results to compare tests at different time points, it is better to leave the directory alone. If space on the system partition is extremely limited, the directory can be deleted. And remember that for normal operation of any system of the latest generations, it is necessary to keep at least 10-15% of the total volume of the system disk free. In the presence of powerful processors and large volumes random access memory, and also to reduce the use system partition you can simply disable virtual memory (deactivate the use of the paging file).


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