6 Windows Folders You Should Never Touch
Windows has many default files and folders that the average user should not touch or manipulate. The more you leave them as they are, the more you will avoid many problems and will not cause damage to the operating system.
Windows certainly takes up a lot of storage space, and with a little searching you'll be able to find some folders and files that you can get rid of to reclaim free space.
But be careful when dealing with some folders, because any deletion of their contents will cause the system to work incorrectly, and it may eventually lead to Windows collapsing, and your only option will be to reset the Windows system from the beginning.
The problem is not specifically in the Windows crash (even if it is for some), but the real problem is if Windows crashes and you are unable to skip the Windows boot stage and enter the system interface, then, you may lose a lot of important data that you did not have time to keep in a safe place away from the C sector.
Although there are several solutions to this problem, they will all be costly in terms of time and effort, which is what we try to avoid and not be exposed to. So, always remember to take care of creating a Restore Point , and remember to keep your valuable files in the C sector on the cloud .
1- Program files and X86 program files
These files are C:/Program Files and C:/Program Files (x86), when you install or run any program through EXE format. The application automatically takes care of creating default files inside the Program Files folder, and this is necessary for any program to work properly.
So, if you now go to the Program Files or Program Files (x86) folder, you will find inside it all the programs and applications that you have installed yourself. Applications are rarely installed outside of either of these paths.
If you want to remove any program from your computer, you can do so by going to Settings, then Apps, then Apps & Features, then Uninstall the programs from there.
You can also do this through the Control Panel window, which helps you delete programs better. In this way, the programs are deleted from the computer, but they may leave a small trace inside the Program Files folders, which may contain some personal customizations and settings that you would have preferred to set the programs to.
If you want to get rid of them forever, you can delete them too, but be careful. In fact, programs leave traces of some of their logs and configuration files all over the C drive.
But they are very small files and may not exceed 10KB, so you do not need to search for them and delete them manually so as not to make any unintentional mistakes unless you are confident in what you are dealing with.
2- System file 32 System
All the contents of the Windows folder in the C partition are very important and necessary and it is better not to touch them, but the System 32 folder in particular is an exceptional case and deserves all the attention. This folder contains DLL files responsible for the computer's operation and managing the main system processes properly.
If you ever wondered how your computer's sound works, this folder is responsible for making the sound work properly, how the system can complete the boot process, how the fonts appear the way they are, and many other necessary processes all happen from within the System 32 folder.
In addition, it contains some resources needed to execute the default Windows programs such as Paint, Calculator, etc. Whatever you do, and whatever instructions or advice you hear on the Internet that urge you to delete this folder to recover free space on the storage disk, be sure that they are all false advice and are not based on any truth.
3- Page File
The file is located in C:/Pagefile.sys, and this file is not visible by default unless you unhide files from the View tab in File Explorer.
When you start running some programs like Microsoft Word or playing some games, the processes are stored in the random access memory (RAM) until the processor needs these files again, so it is able to request them again from the memory and deal with them in a quick period of time.
But if the system finds that the RAM is full, it has no choice but to store the processes on the storage disk in sector C. If you have a large RAM, say 32 GB, for example, it is very rare to notice any activity or change in the pagefile.sys file because Windows does not need it.
But less than that, and depending on the type of work you do, the system may be forced to store in a Pagefile on the hard disk memory, which causes the system to run noticeably slower – but this problem is inevitable with modest and old computers.
Read also: How to make Windows shut down faster
If you decide to delete this file, you will see a lot of free space, but be prepared that you may face a crash in most of your business programs while working on it. Windows allows you to manage virtual memory if you have to, but in reality, it is always better to let Windows manage it on its own. If you are running low on RAM, you can rely on a flash drive to make a RAMDisk while you are working, and there are some tricks that help you free up RAM space. But the basic principle in solving this problem is to increase the RAM capacity.
4- System Volume Information
This folder is located in the C:/ System Volume Information section but is hidden by default as long as the Hide protected operating system files command box is enabled.
It is just a large file and you will not understand what it is when you look at it or examine its contents, but it is a very important folder for managing many tasks in the Windows system. You may be surprised that you are not able to access it, and Windows will give you an error message "Access is denied" so that you do not encounter it or cause any serious problems for the system.
This folder is where the System Restore Point resides , which Windows creates so you can revert to it if you encounter problems with Windows. To reduce the size of this file, you can click on Restore Point from the Start menu and then choose Configure.
You can then move the Max Usage value to a certain amount to reduce the amount of space the restore point takes up, but be careful because it reduces the chance of restoring many things if you think about relying on it in the future.
5- WinSxS
Its location path is C:/Windows/WinSxS which stands for Windows Side by Side. It was intended to address old problems that made Windows 9x difficult to work with. Microsoft created this folder to collect multiple versions of DLL files and load them when the system is asked to run a program. As a result, this folder led to more compatibility and system stability.
Naturally, the longer you use Windows, the larger this folder will become. Although some users are able to select some large files from within it and delete them to reclaim some space, we see this as a risk that is not worth taking, and in any case it is a bad idea for the average user. Microsoft is always keen to warn users against approaching this folder or even going to its path, instead you can use the Disk Cleanup feature built into Windows as a routine procedure to delete unwanted files.
6- D3DS Cache
This folder is located in the C:/Users/usernameprofile/AppData/Local sector and may not be as important as the previous folders, and it is not responsible for managing any important tasks or processes for the Windows system, but it contains hidden information for Microsoft's Direct3D API library.
It's just a part of the DirectX programming needed to render graphics inside games and many other intensive processes and programs. Fortunately, these files don't take up much space, and you probably won't need to touch them, unless you're having unusual problems while playing games, then deleting the temporary files might help you solve those problems.