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The AppData folder and what you can do with it. How to open the AppData folder

The AppData or Application Data folder is a system folder hidden by default that stores all information about registered users, as well as installed programs. According to the developers, this folder should not be of interest to the system owner, and therefore is hidden. However, when actively using Windows 10? The size of this folder can grow rapidly. As a result, the user may experience insufficient free space on the hard drive. In addition, it is impossible to make changes about a PC user without access to the files in this folder.

Where is the Appdata folder located in Windows 10?

If you need to find the Appdata system folder in Windows 10, you first need to enable the display of hidden folders and files. To do this, perform the following steps:

Open Explorer and click on the “View” tab, select “Options”.

A new window will open. Go to the “View” tab, check the “Show hidden files” checkbox and uncheck the “Hide protected system files” checkbox.

After that, go to the address: drive C, folder “Users” or “Users”, folder with your nickname and “Appdata”.

You can also get to the Appdata folder using the “Run” line. To do this we do the following:

Press “Win+R” and enter “%appdata%”.

The required folder will open.

It is worth noting that not all files in this folder can be moved or deleted. For example, the Local folder contains files that appeared as a result of installed programs. These files cannot be transferred to another computer. There is also a Temp folder here. Here you can delete it. It stores temporary files that are not needed for the system to function.

The second Roaming folder contains user files that can be moved, deleted, and performed various operations.

The LocalLow folder stores files that were created as a result of browsers and extensions.

For quite some time, Windows has been used as the most reliable and stable OS for managing computers, both private and commercial. Users quite often have to work with system resources - edit files, transfer them to free up space on the hard drive, edit them to change functionality or increase performance.

But even long-term use of the system for many users is not an opportunity to study all its “delights”, since almost no one wants to read literature about the Windows device; it is much more convenient for people to use a ready-made one, without delving into the essence and principle of operation of the device.

What is the appdata folder?

It is for these reasons that many users do not know where “AppData” is located in Windows OS. In fact this is a hidden file directory, which stores a lot of data about installed applications. Access to it may be needed under various circumstances, for example, changing the software components of some applications, or clearing accumulated “garbage” from installed applications that needlessly occupy the hard drive’s memory.

Access to this folder may be needed when installing mods for games or programs. When it comes to accessing “AppData”, many are faced with one huge problem – the lack of this directory. Then the person begins to look for a solution to why he does not have this directory, and how he can find “AppData” on Windows xp, 7 or a higher version of the system.
To be honest, the “AppData” directory is present in all versions of Windows systems, and the location of the folder does not change. There are several ways to find it. The most basic one is to enter the following combination of English letters and symbols in the address bar of the standard Explorer: “%USERPROFILE%\AppData”. These values ​​for Windows Explorer will serve as the address to the desired directory. To open it yourself, in the usual way, you need to enable visibility mode for the “AppData” folder, because according to the initial, standard settings, this directory is in invisible mode. This is why many people cannot find the “AppData” directory on their computer. To activate the visibility of hidden folders on a computer running Windows, you need to find the folder settings in the Control Panel, where you can change the visibility of system folders and files, but then be careful, because there is a risk of accidentally deleting or damaging previously hidden system files, due to which may affect the stability of the system. After you have configured the display of hidden folders on the system, you can open the “AppData” folder by following this path: start / administrator / AppData.

Find and open the folder

First, we make the folders visible (we make hidden ones visible).

Start button—>Control Panel.
On the “View” tab, check “Show hidden files, folders and drives”

And click OK.

In Explorer, enter “%USERPROFILE%\AppData”.

And press Enter.

In addition to standard changes to settings to open the visibility of the “AppData” folder, you can use third-party applications with which you can easily open access to certain files in OS Windows. A striking example of such software is Total Commander - a utility specially created for conveniently performing various manipulations with files and directories in the Windows system. In addition to the standard explorer, Total Commander can give you access to any resource in the Windows file system without any settings. It is made in a convenient format that displays the file system under the guise of two separate windows, which allows you to perform the necessary actions very quickly and efficiently.

The Windows operating system is actually not as simple as it might seem at first glance. When you get to know it in more detail, many interesting facts, unused and previously unseen folders, files, etc. come to the surface. It is the topic of the latter that I would like to touch upon in this material. I've previously talked about how to make hidden folders visible, and also how to reverse the process. Now I would like to discuss the most interesting, in my opinion, hidden folder that is present in this OS. So, next we will talk about the appdata folder: where it is located on Windows 7, how to see it, etc.

What is the Appdata folder

As usual, let's start with general knowledge. Thus, the Application Data system folder is hidden by default and is a storage of personal files of all users registered on the computer. As you understand, the folder stores absolutely all data about all programs installed by the user.

Theoretically, one could not think about this folder at all and not know the grief. But there is one caveat: if you do not reinstall the OS and actively use the Internet, Appdata grows to obscene sizes, taking up valuable space on your hard drive.

Where is the Appdata folder?

As mentioned, Application Data is a hidden folder, so you need to make it visible first before you start searching. You can read exactly how this is done in the previous article, but here I will repeat briefly:

Now it is very easy to find the folder, it is located in this path: C:\Users\Admin\Appdata, where Admin is the user name. By the way, if several users are registered in the system, each will have its own Application Data folder.

Inside this directory you can find three more subdirectories, namely: Local, LocalLow, Roaming. The first stores files that are created during the operation of installed programs, and this information cannot be moved to another computer. LocalLow contains buffered data generated by Internet Explorer, Java, and Adobe applications. Well, the Roaming subfolder stores selected data obtained during the user’s life on the network. By the way, they can be moved from one PC to another.
Well, now you know where to find the Appdata system folder, how to make it visible and find it on your computer.

learnwindows.ru

Where is the appdata folder in windows 7

Despite the usual simplicity of work for users in Windows 7, it is actually a complexly designed complex of software into a single operating system. After a closer look at the elements of which, computer owners often have a significant number of questions about directories and files they have never used. Below we will take a closer look at several similar questions about where the appdata folder is located, what purpose it is used for, and how to open the appdata folder if by default it is assigned the invisible attribute, due to which many users cannot find it on their computers.

What is it for?

A special hidden directory called appdata in Windows 7 contains settings parameters for programs installed by each specific computer user, so there may be several of them. The more OS users there are, the greater the number of these folders with the same name, but they are located in different user subdirectories. Typically, a PC owner begins to become interested in this invisible appdata directory and where it is located on the Windows 7 operating system, after the system disk of the computer on which Windows 7 is installed begins to rapidly run out of memory. And the more users the PC has, the less free disk space remains . Since these directories increase their volume in proportion to the time spent on PCs by users with a global network and the number of various applications they have installed. The application data directories in Windows contain all the data of applications installed by users.

It is necessary to immediately warn that it should not be deleted under any circumstances, otherwise this will inevitably lead to a loss of functionality of most of the programs used. Only a “temporary” folder called “Temp” can be completely cleared of its contents without the risk of side effects, but the directory itself cannot be deleted, so as not to result in a refusal to launch some applications.

Location

Before you can open the location of this folder in Explorer, you must assign it a visibility attribute.

To see this hidden directory you only need to take a few preliminary steps:

In order to open it in Explorer, you will need to perform several simple sequential actions:

  1. Click “Start” and open the “My Computer” window;
  2. Next, enter the system volume “C”;
  3. Go to the “Users” directory, in which find and open the directory with the name of the username - this is where “Appdata” is located.

If you look inside the folder, it contains 3 other folders:

  1. Roaming.
  2. LocalLow
  3. Local.

Folder number one in the above list contains certain data collected over the lifetime of a particular user. It should be noted that this data can be moved to another computer.

The second directory stores buffer data produced during the operation of applications, for example: Java, Internet Explorer and Adobe programs.

The last directory in the list, but not in its importance, is called “Local” and contains files of all installed applications. Data stored in a folder cannot be moved to another PC.

Conclusion

Now even a novice user can easily find and view this system directory through Windows Explorer, simply by first assigning it visibility status.

windowsTune.ru

Where is the AppData folder?

First of all, I would like to talk about what is in the AppData folder. Essentially, it contains various program settings, saves, bookmarks, etc. Over time, the size of the files in the folder increases, which in turn leads to a decrease in hard drive space. However, in fairness it is worth noting that the increase in file sizes is insignificant.

When you go to the AppData directory, you will see three main folders in it: Roaming, Local and LocalLow. The first contains data such as bookmarks from browsers, settings saved in browsers, etc. Local contains data such as game saves or previously downloaded files. And the last folder contains data about programs that run in protected mode.

To get into the AppData folder, the first thing you need to do is open hidden files and folders on your computer, since they are hidden by default. I told you how to do this quite recently. Now you can go to the folder. It is located at the following addresses depending on the version of your operating system:

  • Winodws XP: C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data
  • Winodws 7 and Vista: C:\Users\Username\AppData

If suddenly nothing works out for you, don’t be sad. I suggest you use this method: open drive C and enter the words AppData (for 7 and Vista) or Application Data (for XP) in the hard drive search bar and press Enter.

After a few moments you will see a response to your request.

fulltienich.com

Finding the Appdata folder in windows 7, 8, 10

The Appdata folder contains data created by programs. In windowsXP, this directory bore the expanded name Applicationdata, which literally translates as “application data”; in subsequent OSes it received an abbreviated name. Read more about this directory in the article: What is the Appdata folder in Windows 7 and can it be deleted?

The article describes how to find the Appdata folder in Windows 7, 10, 8 in order to perform actions with application files, namely copy, create, delete. There are several search methods, and we will consider them in more detail.

Finding the Appdata folder by including hidden files

By default, the application directory has the following path: System drive:\Users\Username\AppData. Please note that there may be several users in the system, so you will see several folders of individual users that contain application data directories.

To find out the name of your directory, press the Win + R key, then enter msinfo32 and click OK. This will launch the System Information window. Find the “user name” element, opposite which the user’s folder name will be written separated by a slash. In the screenshot this is the name Alex.

Note: if you do not have an administrator account, then when you try to open another user’s directory, you will see a message about access to this folder being denied.

By going to the user's directory, you will see that there is no AppData folder and to see it, you need to enable showing hidden files. This is done for different OS versions like this:

1. In Windows 7, launch Explorer, click “arrange” in the menu. Next, select the section that opens windows folder options. Go to the “View” tab and in the additional options area at the bottom, check the option to show hidden files, then click OK. Learn more about ways to help show hidden folders in Windows 7.

2. In Windows 10, 8, open Explorer, then go to the “View” tab. Then click on the “show or hide” area and check the “hidden items” option.

The above steps will help you find the Appdata folder in Windows 7, 10, 8. You can enter it without any problems and perform the intended manipulations.

Alternative ways to find the Appdata folder

There are additional ways to help you open the Appdata folder in quick mode. There is no need to include hidden files, go through the entire path, or search for your user's directory name.

Open the “run” command and copy %appdata% or %localappdata% into the input line. Next, click Enter.

As a result, you will be transferred to the Roaming or Local directory, respectively, which are located in the Appdata folder. If you need to go to other places, click the corresponding name in the path bar.

Note: The system variables %appdata%, %localappdata% can also be entered into the windows search bar. In the seven, the search line is displayed when you click the “Start” button. In Windows 10, 8, the search can be launched using the combination Win + W.

In fact, there are many such system variables, for example, those that open the system folder ProgramData, Temp and others. Open cmd windows, then enter the Set command and press Enter to open the full list.

These are the ways you can find the Appdata folder in Windows 10, 7, 8. Of course, for convenience, it is recommended to use system variables to speed up the process of accessing the directory. For your information, there is a Temp directory in appdata, and what you can do with it, read the material: cleaning the Temp folder in windows.

nastrojcomp.ru

AppData what is this windows folder?

Hello, friends. Very often, the system disk runs out of free space, and you have to delete applications and other necessary data in order to slightly increase disk space. But there is one interesting way. In this publication I will tell you about AppData, what kind of folder it is in Windows 7, and how clearing it will help eliminate the problem of insufficient memory.

A little theory

Many users are not even aware of the existence of this directory. And it’s not so easy to find it, because by default it is hidden from our eyes. This is done intentionally so as not to accidentally delete necessary files and harm installed programs.

AppData is a system-level folder that contains users' personal information. When we install applications, this is where various files accumulate. On the one hand, stealth is the correct Windows approach. But if you use the OS for a long time without reinstalling, then this directory increases in size, disk space disappears somewhere...

Folder location

Let's see where this directory is located, how to open the appdata folder and analyze its structure to understand what can be deleted and what is better left.

Initially, you should enable the display of hidden elements. For this:

  • Open the “Control Panel” through the “Start” menu:

  • If you have the “Categories” display mode enabled (in the upper right corner), then you should change it to “Small icons”. Go to “Folder Options”.
  • Switch to the “View” tab and at the very bottom of the list activate the “Show hidden files...” display option:

Ready! Now I will tell you how to find the appdata folder in windows 7.

  • Open the system drive (C by default) and follow the path:
Users – Username

  • We go to the desired directory and see three directories in it:

Structure

Let's look at each of the subdirectories.

  • Local. Contains information about installed programs, temporary files and the history of all actions in the operating system. We look through the contents and feel free to delete application folders that are already uninstalled and not used. Also, you can safely clear Temp, which takes up a lot of space and is of no use. If necessary, the system will create this folder again. You should periodically visit this location and carry out cleaning.
  • Roaming. User files are stored here, which are not software bound to the system and can be freely copied to a flash drive and transferred to another computer. These are the same backup copies (backups) of applications.
  • LocalLow. Contains intermediate data needed to update applications. This is a kind of buffer for storing information that can be deleted after use.

Removing "garbage"

Is it possible to delete the AppData folder in one swift motion? Alas. This is impossible to do due to a system lock. Many of the running processes refer to its contents, so you should first unload all used programs from RAM.

A fairly large number of Windows system users pay attention to the AppData folder. This is especially common when installing programs and applications. Let's see what data is stored in it and how to find the AppData folder in different versions of Windows. Along the way, we will consider the issue related to some actions on this object (moving or deleting).

What is stored in the AppData folder?

In general, before you figure out how to find the AppData folder, you need to decide what it is for and what objects are stored in it.

In fact, this directory is a system directory and is intended to store information about all applications installed on the system that relate to each registered user. It contains three main objects in the form of folders: Roaming, LocalLow and Local.

Based on the fact that the directory itself is tied to a specific user, and the question of, for example, how to find the AppData folder on Windows 8 or another modification, comes down to considering the Users directory, which is available on any system in the root directory of the disk on which the operating system was originally installed. But! You just can't get to her.

How to find the AppData folder if it is not visible in the system: general recommendations

So, let's look at the most basic issue related to the fact that in user directories the directory itself is not visible. In theory, the folder should be present in the path C:\Users\Username, but for some reason it is not there. Why? Yes, simply because the object is hidden.

In order for it to be displayed in the directory tree, in the standard “Explorer” you should go to the service menu, and then on the object display tab, set the enabled display and files option. After saving the changes, the AppData directory will become available for viewing.

Finding a Folder in Windows XP

Now let's look at the problem of how to find the AppData folder on Windows XP. Unfortunately, the names of this object differ in different modifications of Windows.

If in the “seven” this is an abbreviated version (namely AppData), then in the “expish” the directory has a full name (from which, in fact, the abbreviation was subsequently derived). So, as is probably already clear, you should look for an object with a full name, but located in the location of documents and settings for each user.

How to find the AppData folder on Windows 7 (8 and 10)?

As for searching in later versions of Windows, starting with Windows 7, you must use the standard method described just above.

Whether in Windows 7 or 8 or 10 versions, it has a standard name (AppData), and is located in the Users directory, where all the subfolders with the names of registered users are located.

In principle, you can also use the standard Explorer search, where you should enter the combination %USERPROFILE%\AppData in the line and press the Enter key.

Should I delete or move the folder?

How to find the Appdata folder, we figured it out a little. Now a few words about whether it can be renamed, moved or deleted. Many users look at the required size and simply try to clean up the system disk, because this directory takes up quite a lot of space.

Here you need to remember that none of the above actions is highly recommended, because after performing them, almost all programs installed on the system in connection with the user will simply stop working. In addition, if you try to use such actions, the system simply will not allow you to complete them. This is only due to the fact that some objects may be involved at the moment. The simplest example is a working antivirus. The system will report such and such a file is now busy, and that will be the end of it.

In principle, it is possible to deceive Windows. To do this, for example, in another logical partition you should create a folder of the same name AppData (or Application Data in the case of Windows XP) and one by one copy all objects from the desired directory into it.

Now you need to change the path to the object in the system registry. In the HKEY_LOCAL_USER branch, through the Microsoft tree, get to the Shell Folders object. It is there that you need to manually change the access path from the standard to the new one, specifying a full path like D:\AppData or some other.

After this, you will need to restart your computer terminal or laptop, and then delete the source folder. True, there are quite legitimate doubts about the appropriateness of such actions, because no one can give a guarantee that everything will work, so the AppData object itself, as they say, is better not to touch. Agree, it’s not for nothing that the developers of Windows systems placed the directory exactly in the place where it is located by default.

Copying data and changing registry settings is useful only in cases where a logical partition after such changes can be completely or partially blocked by the computer administrator or network administrator so that the user does not make any critical changes to the system settings. However, this option can also be used to free up disk space, but only if there is less than 10% of the space left on the hard drive required for the normal functioning of Windows.