THE WINDOWS FOLDER (C:\WINDOWS)
The Windows folder is where all the important files for the operating system are stored, but it also contains a lot of unnecessary clutter. Here’s what you can safely remove from the folder.
Temp
The Temp folder is where Windows stores temporary files it creates during the course of its everyday operation. These files are only needed during their initial use, and merely waste space on your hard drive afterwards, so it’s both safe and advisable to delete them.
The Storage Sense feature in Windows is supposed to wipe these files automatically, but in our experience it does a poor job – the Temp folder on our Windows 10 PC contained 118 items from the last six months, totalling 56MB. The folder is different to the Temp folder where programs store their temporary files, which we’ll look at on page 56.
You can clear the Windows Temp folder manually by opening it in File Explorer, or another file manager such as Files (www.snipca.com/49840), and pressing Ctrl+a to select everything in it. Whichever you use, either click Delete on the toolbar (see screenshot above right), or press the Delete key or Ctrl+d on your keyboard, to delete the selected files. If Windows shows a warning that you need to provide administrator permission, click Continue or Skip – select ‘Do this for all current items’ to speed things up. Don’t worry about deleting anything important because Windows will create the file again if needed.
Downloaded Program Files
Despite what its name suggests, this folder has nothing to do with programs you’ve downloaded, but is where Internet Explorer stored files that used Activex controls and Java applets. We’re using the past tense here because Microsoft has now removed its browser from Windows, yet this redundant folder remains – even in Windows 11, which was never supposed to have IE installed.
Although the folder is likely to be empty, it can cause confusion when you’re looking for your real Program Files folder, so we recommend right-clicking it and choosing Delete.
Livekernelreports
This oddly named folder is where Windows stores ‘dump files’, which contain logs of information about system crashes and other critical errors. These files, which have ‘.dmp’ extensions, can be useful for troubleshooting problems that cause your PC to misbehave, but they can sometimes be several gigabytes in size (see screenshot below left) and there’s no reason to hang on to them forever.
You can free up space by deleting old dump files, which are often located in sub-folders labelled ‘watchdog’ in the Livekernelreports folder. The next time your PC crashes, it will generate a new dump file that may allow you to diagnose the problem using a program such as Whocrashed (www.snipca.com/49796).
Softwaredistribution
The Softwaredistribution folder is where Windows Update temporarily stores the files it needs to install new updates. It’s generally safe to delete the contents of the Softwaredistribution folder, and even the folder itself, because Windows will re-download all the necessary files, and recreate the folder, the next time you run Windows Update.
However, rather than wipe the folder manually, you should use Windows’ own Storage cleaner. Not only will this free up extra space by removing Windows Update files from both the Softwaredistribution folder and elsewhere on your hard drive, but it ensures you won’t delete anything that affects Windows Update’s performance – such as your update history.
Open the Settings app in Windows 10 or 11 and choose System then Storage, followed by ‘Temporary files’. Select ‘Windows Update Clean-up’ ( 1 in our screenshot above) and Delivery Optimisation Files, then click ‘Remove files’ 2 to purge your PC of all Windows Update junk.
You’ll reclaim more storage using this method than by simply emptying the Softwaredistribution folder – on our Windows 10 PC we freed up 2.91GB 3, rather than only 872MB.
Panther
One of the most intriguing items in the Windows folder is Panther, whose name doesn’t appear to relate to any Windows feature. It’s actually a collection of setup, installation and upgrade log files for the operating system, which can help you roll back and start again if you have trouble installing Windows.
However, once you’re up and running, Panther’s contents are no longer needed and merely take up space – on our