Windows 10: Cleanup for the WindowsApps folder - it is possible?

Dear Folks,


I would like to have some official tool, for the cleanup of the Microsoft Store local folder, located under Program Files\WindowsApps.

Currently I want to update to the newest windows 10, but because this folder is so huge, and stores apps, what I deleted already, I cant update the windows.

Is there any kind of descriptions, how can I temporary or forever disable the local caching the updates for the installed apps?

Or delete some unwanted apps not only from Settings - whatever, also from the Store?

:)

 

WindowsApps Folder Cleanup

Hi,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

I Suggest you to take ownership of the folder and attempt to delete the contents of the folder, I recommend you to try the below steps:

Step 1:

Follow the steps listed in
Access Denied or other errors when you access or work with files and folders in Windows.

Step 2:

Check for the article
Disk cleanup in Windows 10

Hope it helps,

Let us know if you got the help you needed by clicking yes Or No.

Mithin EJ

Microsoft Community- Moderator

 

WindowsApps Folder Cleanup

Hi,

I've noticed, thanks to SpaceSniffer, that the Windowsapps folder is huge (2,4 Gb). That sounds strange since I don't have that lot of apps running.

I've gained access to the WApps folder taking ownership and there are a lot of old/unused/unknown folders referring to long time gone apps (2 Candy crush folders for 200Mb each??). I've managed to delete one of them (gaining full control) but for the rest
of the stuff it doesn't seem to be quite easy getting rid of them (I'm stuck with no full control permissions).

I've tried "Get-AppxPackage -allusers PackageFullName | Remove-AppxPackage" command and "dism /online /Remove-ProvisionedAppxPackage /PackageNameackageFullName" command in a powershell elevated perm window, both with no luck.

I'm considering to use brute force (from a bootable linux stick) and get rid of the most heavy packages:

Microsoft.Windows.Photos_2018.18081.14710.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe

Microsoft.Office.OneNote_16001.10827.20178.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe

Microsoft.Office.OneNote_16001.10827.20152.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe

Microsoft.SkypeApp_12.1815.210.0_x64__kzf8qxf38zg5c

Microsoft.MSPaint_5.1809.1017.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe

Microsoft.ZuneVideo_10.18082.10311.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe

Microsoft.ZuneMusic_10.18091.10321.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe

Microsoft.XboxApp_44.44.7002.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe

Microsoft.MicrosoftOfficeHub_17.10314.31700.1000_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe

Microsoft.BingFinance_4.26.12334.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe

Microsoft.BingSports_4.25.11802.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe

but to be sure to have win10 boot again I'm asking if there's any problem considering:

- Inside C:\Program Files\WindowsApps the are 239 folders

- if I run "Get-AppxPackage | Select Name, PackageFullName" it returns a list of more or less 90 packages

- if I run "dism /online /Get-ProvisionedAppxPackages" it returns a list of 20 packages

- NONE of the packages I'm planning to delete are found by the commands above (they are present only in the winapps folder)

I'm working on a win10 installation than comes with no formatting from 8.1 (I've got the idea that this stuff has been layered by the windows releases)

Any suggestion is very appreciated.

 

WindowsApps folder says permissions are corrupted and need to be deleted, is this normal or critical?

According to your description, I suggest you try the following steps:

1. Navigate to the location C:\Program Files.
   
2. Right-click on the WindowsApps folder, and select Properties.
   
3. Turn to Security tab and click on Advanced.
   
4. Click on Change and then type Users in Enter the object name to select area.
   
5. Click on OK, then click Apply > OK. You can also add the TrustedInstaller to the users list and check if it takes effect.
   

However, you might be still not able to access the files. The workaround is to go inside the C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\, and repeat the same way with the Microsoft.WindowsStore* folders.