When you install Windows 10 on your computer or perform a system update, the previous installation files are kept in a special folder so that if there are problems, you can go back. In this way, if the installation of an update fails, the system can restore the previous configuration and put the computer back into operation without updating. Also, as seen in the guide to go back to the previous version of Windows 10, these files allow the user to remove an update or to go back to Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 in case of a computer update. All the files needed to go back are stored in two folders with specific names: one is called $ Windows. ~ BT and one $ Windows. ~ WS .
In this guide we will show you what we need to do to make these two folders visible and how to delete them, so as to recover disk space.
How to clear update folders
These hidden folders can be found on the system disk (normally identified as (C :)), and normally they are not visible to the user or only one of the two folders is visible. In the following chapters we will show you how to make them visible and what we can do to delete them.Make the $ Windows. ~ BT and $ Windows. ~ WS folders visible
To make these two folders visible, just open the File Explorer app from the Windows 10 Start menu, go to This PC, press on the C: disk, open the View menu at the top, go to the Show / hide button and apply the check mark on the Hidden Items item.
In this way the two folders $ Windows. ~ BT and $ Windows. ~ WS will be visible and ready to be deleted as we will see in the next chapter.
To learn more about the hidden files and folders in Windows, we invite you to read our guide on how to see hidden files and folders .
How to delete hidden folders
In Windows 10, the $ WINDOWS. ~ BT folder, similar to the Windows.old folder, contains the previous installation of Windows before the upgrade, including log files.This is created when you run the media creation tool to install Windows 10, which also creates a $ WINDOWS. ~ WS folder with most of the Windows installation files inside.
In theory, you don't have to worry about these folders, because Windows automatically deletes these files to free up space after ten days of their creation, or after 10 days if the PC has created the files but has not yet been updated.
To immediately recover disk space, however, we can delete the $ Windows. ~ BT folder on Windows 10, with the only side effect of making it impossible to downgrade to the previous version of Windows present before the update (in case of problems therefore not we can no longer restore the old version). To delete the folder or folders, simply select them, press the right mouse button and use the Delete item.
Once you delete these folders and all the files inside the option to restore the PC (present in the path Settings> Update and security> Restore) will disappear, thus preventing us from being able to cancel the update just made. However, this method is not recommended and may not even work.
Delete files via disk cleanup
If we don't want to manually clean the $ Windows. ~ BT and $ Windows. ~ WS folders, we can use the old disk cleanup tool. This tool can be found by looking for it in the Start menu or even by opening a folder on File Explorer, going to This PC to see the computer disks, right-clicking on the main disk that is indicated with the Windows icon (which is C: on most computers) and finally clicking on Properties .
From the window that opens, in the general tab, press the Disk cleaning button; then, from the disk cleaning tool, we click on Clean up system files . Among the various items, the following must be selected:
- Previous Windows installations which include the $ WINDOWS. ~ BT and Windows.old folders (this entry can also free up 4 GB of disk space).
- Temporary Windows Setup files which includes files inside the $ WINDOWS. ~ BT folder and the $ WINDOWS. ~ WS folder .
Automatic folder cleaning
However, the best way to delete the contents of the $ Windows. ~ BT folder and also of $ Windows. ~ WS in Windows 10 is to use the memory sensor to automatically delete the contents of these folders. To do this, simply go to the Settings> System> Storage> Memory sensor path and activate the button under the heading Storage . At this point the contents of these folders in addition to the temporary files will be automatically deleted from Windows 10.From this menu, you can press on Configure Memory Sensor, scroll down the various options and find the one under the word Free space now . Select the option Delete previous versions of Windows and press the Clean Now button to immediately delete the Windows.old and Windows folders. ~ WS
In this way, when the system deems it appropriate, the useless files and folders will be deleted, including $ Windows. ~ BT and $ Windows. ~ WS.
To learn more, we can read our guide on how to free up space in Windows 10 by deleting 20 GB of the installation files .
Conclusions
If the hard disk or SSD space runs out quickly after updating Windows or creating a new USB stick for clean installation, the managers can be the $ Windows. ~ BT and $ Windows. ~ WS folders., which tend to fill up quickly and often it is necessary to empty them manually in order to recover their space. Using the memory sensor of Windows 10, however, we can make the cleaning of these folders completely automatic, so as not to think about it anymore.We are looking for other solutions to free up space on Windows "> Free up disk space on your Windows PC in 10 ways.
If instead we notice some noticeable slowdowns during our work on the PC, it could be a high consumption of RAM memory, as described in our guide on how to free RAM on Windows to avoid slowdowns of memory on PC .
