safe to delete AppData/Local?

Is it safe to delete or change the location of AppData/Local and its
subdirectories? I'm trying to regain space in C:

Thanks

"Gizzo" <gbacareza@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:d764adfa-2d70-4d0a-82c3-fb3c0a58517f@e23g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
> Is it safe to delete or change the location of AppData/Local and its
> subdirectories? I'm trying to regain space in C:

No. That's where all your programs store their settings. Run the Disk
Cleanup Wizard and delete all but last Restore Point if you are so short of
space.

ss.

No.

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"Gizzo" <gbacareza@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:d764adfa-2d70-4d0a-82c3-fb3c0a58517f@e23g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
> Is it safe to delete or change the location of AppData/Local and its
> subdirectories? I'm trying to regain space in C:
>
> Thanks

Synapse Syndrome wrote:
> No. That's where all your programs store their settings. Run the Disk
> Cleanup Wizard and delete all but last Restore Point if you are so short of
> space.

Well, this is only partially true. The AppData\Local and
AppData\LocalLow folders are the folders where applications store their
"local machine only" settings. This means that these files are by
default not synchronized to the roaming profile share (usually only in
use for corporate users).
The AppData\Roaming folder contains the settings for the applications
(at least according to the guidelines). The AppData\Local folder should
actually only contain volatile data or data which can be re-generated
easily such as caches.

In case you use roaming profiles you sign off at one machine then the
AppData\Roaming tree is synchronized to the roaming profile share. When
you log in on another machine your profile gets pulled from the roaming
profile server. This by definition does not include the AppData\Local
folder. Therefore on this machine this folder is basically empty.
Windows will then create some default structures like Temp or Temporary
Internet Files folders automatically (empty). Applications which do not
respect the volatile nature of the AppData\Local folder do not respect
the guidelines (I usually try to avoid using such programs).

Therefore it is theoretically safe to remove all files from
AppData\Local\*\** folders. However I am quite sure you cannot delete it
entirely as Windows will complain that it needs it (at run time).

In case the OP likes to free some space he should clean
AppData\Local\Temp\* and look out for some large folders to clean up
selectively. For example Outlook tends to write the mail archive folder
there (AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\Archive.pst. Just note that this
is entirely correct from my point of view. This makes the Archive local.
If I roam to another PC I don't need the archive. In case my HDD dies I
just lose the archive (ie old e-mail). As the archive is usually growing
quite fast it would be very bad to store it within the AppData\Roaming
and synchronize it to the server at each login/logoff.

br,
Rainer

On Mar 26, 7:05 am, Rainer Meier <rme2...@gmx.net> wrote:
> Synapse Syndrome wrote:
> > No. That's where all your programs store their settings. Run the Disk
> > Cleanup Wizard and delete all but last Restore Point if you are so short of
> > space.
>
> Well, this is only partially true. The AppData\Local and
> AppData\LocalLow folders are the folders where applications store their
> "local machine only" settings. This means that these files are by
> default not synchronized to the roaming profile share (usually only in
> use for corporate users).
> The AppData\Roaming folder contains the settings for the applications
> (at least according to the guidelines). The AppData\Local folder should
> actually only contain volatile data or data which can be re-generated
> easily such as caches.
>
> In case you use roaming profiles you sign off at one machine then the
> AppData\Roaming tree is synchronized to the roaming profile share. When
> you log in on another machine your profile gets pulled from the roaming
> profile server. This by definition does not include the AppData\Local
> folder. Therefore on this machine this folder is basically empty.
> Windows will then create some default structures like Temp or Temporary
> Internet Files folders automatically (empty). Applications which do not
> respect the volatile nature of the AppData\Local folder do not respect
> the guidelines (I usually try to avoid using such programs).
>
> Therefore it is theoretically safe to remove all files from
> AppData\Local\*\** folders. However I am quite sure you cannot delete it
> entirely as Windows will complain that it needs it (at run time).
>
> In case the OP likes to free some space he should clean
> AppData\Local\Temp\* and look out for some large folders to clean up
> selectively. For example Outlook tends to write the mail archive folder
> there (AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\Archive.pst. Just note that this
> is entirely correct from my point of view. This makes the Archive local.
> If I roam to another PC I don't need the archive. In case my HDD dies I
> just lose the archive (ie old e-mail). As the archive is usually growing
> quite fast it would be very bad to store it within the AppData\Roaming
> and synchronize it to the server at each login/logoff.
>
> br,
> Rainer

Thanks for all the replies. I've decided to just buy a new HD. I
backed up my entire PC. Problem is Windows Complete PC Restore can't
even find the image DVD but that should be another thread. Thanks.

"Gizzo" <gbacareza@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:a54fc239-da7d-4db1-8050-8be58b6aa9fd@e10g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
> Thanks for all the replies. I've decided to just buy a new HD. I
> backed up my entire PC. Problem is Windows Complete PC Restore can't
> even find the image DVD but that should be another thread. Thanks.


Just use the free trial of this:
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing...s/migrateeasy/

ss.

[sarahk]

Hi, I found 12.6GB of data in my TEMP directory in my AppData folder...

Can I delete the whole TEMP directory? or at least the biggest files there?

[sarahk]

For example, there are 39 identical directories with a zip file and all the photos in that zip file...all exactly the same, except that it goes from Temp1 to Temp39...

Why and how are these files created? Many seem like they came from emails that I sent to people...but some of the Temp zip files are with files that I haven't touched in years...

Are these files related to backups?

"sarahk" <sarahk.3fwhnd@DoNotSpam.com> wrote in message
news:sarahk.3fwhnd@DoNotSpam.com...
>
> Hi, I found 12.6GB of data in my TEMP directory in my AppData folder...
>
> Can I delete the whole TEMP directory? or at least the biggest files
> there?

Yes. Type %temp% into an address bar (or the Start Menu?) select everything
by pressing CTRL+A and then press DEL.

ss.

"sarahk" <sarahk.3fwhnd@DoNotSpam.com> wrote in message
news:sarahk.3fwhnd@DoNotSpam.com...
>
> Hi, I found 12.6GB of data in my TEMP directory in my AppData folder...
>
> Can I delete the whole TEMP directory? or at least the biggest files
> there?


BTW, your apps or the OS must have crashed many times to build up so many
unpurged temp files!

ss.

[sarahk]

Thanks for the reply on the TEMP directory.

My Outlook crashes almost every day!! I'm not sure why. It usually happens when I am launching Outlook. I turned off all the RSS feeds and most of the extra plug-ins...