There are many secrets hidden in the Windows operating system. Some of them are more interesting than others. If you take up their unraveling, you can get great benefits and invaluable experience.
Need to know
An example is the AppData directory. What is this folder? It first appeared in the Vista operating system. Few suspect its existence. And the reason is that this directory is hidden from user eyes, because it contains extremely important system files. But understanding the nature of this folder can help significantly save such precious hard disk space and, possibly, improve the performance of the entire system.
Catalog Description
So, the AppData directory: what is it? The full name of the folder is Application Data. This is the default hidden system directory, which is a subdirectory of the Users folder, which stores personal files of all users registered on this computer.
AppData contains all the information that is generated by the software installed on the computer. Such data is invisible to the user, since, in theory, all these files should not be of any interest to him.
Possible problem
But reality, however, is often different from what Microsoft originally intended. If the operating system is actively and continuously used without reinstallations, the size of the AppData folder will rapidly grow. Windows 7 will soon inform the user that there is too little free space left in the system partition. This problem especially concerns relatively small SSDs, since each megabyte is worth its weight in gold on them.
Making the folder visible
It is necessary to consider in detail the structure of the AppData folder. What will it give? It will become clear which of the files stored in the directory are very important, and which are not.
As already mentioned, by default this folder is hidden, so in order to get to it, you will need to change some parameters of the operating system. To do this, open the Control Panel, and then go to the "Appearance and Personalization" section. The next thing to do is open the dialog box with the folder options and in the “View” tab find the option in the list of options that is responsible for hidden files, disks and folders. It remains only to change those settings that are set by default to the opposite - "Show hidden files."
Now not only the AppData folder will be visible. What does it mean? Other system directories and files, as well as those files that may have been hidden by other users, will become available to the user.
Directory structure
The directory in question is located on the system drive in the Users folder, but you need to pay attention to the fact that each user registered in the system has its own AppData directory. What does it mean? Windows 7 and other versions of the operating system mean that each user will install their own programs, so it makes no sense to dump everything in one directory. That's why you need to find a directory with your own username in the folder. By default, the folder has three subfolders: Local, LocalLow, Roaming. Each of them stores data of various profiles.
The Local folder contains files that were created during the operation of the installed software. All this information is specific only to a specific computer user, and it cannot be moved to another PC. Here you can find a folder called Microsoft, which contains a history of all activity of the operating system. There is also a folder, the full path to which looks like this: AppData / Local / Temp. What is this directory? It contains temporary files that are created during the operation of various applications. All its contents can be deleted without worrying, as often all records are completely unnecessary and just take up space on your hard drive.
The Roaming folder stores specific user files that can be transferred from one computer to another.
The purpose of the LocalLow folder is to store buffer data that is generated by programs from Adobe, the IE browser, and Java.
Clean up junk files
Quite often, in all these catalogs, a large number of program waste accumulates, which over time grows to indecently large sizes. In order to clean the computer of all this file junk, it is not necessary to go into the bowels of the AppData folder. A directory with temporary files to be deleted can be accessed in an easier way.
If you write the shell: history command in the address bar of the operating system explorer, a folder with the IE browser history will open. The shell: cache command opens a directory with browser cache files. The shell: cookies command displays all stored files with information for entering websites. Finally, the shell: sendto command will help you remove or add shortcuts to the send menu.
If there is a desire for a more detailed study of the contents of the AppData folder, then a small but very powerful utility called WinDirStat can bring huge benefits, which is able to quickly scan a hard disk, and then visually distribute all the files recorded on it in an extremely attractive graphic form. It will be very easy for the user to navigate in it, even if one or a whole group of files of the same type take up too much space.
Well, the simplest and best way to clean up both the AppData folder and all other unnecessary contents of hard drives is to periodically scan the system with the wonderful CCleaner program, which, thanks to its algorithms, removes all unnecessary garbage from the computer.
Summarize. AppData: what is it? Windows 7 and other operating systems of this family store files created by the software in this directory. Using special software, the folder can be cleaned, but you cannot delete all its contents.