Windows 10: Can $Windows.~WS Be Safely Deleted?

$windows.~WS contains 2 images, one an ESD (installx86.esd or installx64.esd) in sources, and another is an install.wim in $windows.~WS\sources\windows\sources.

If you have used the Media Creation tool, after taking a compressed snapshot of your system in sources\Panther during the mini-setup phase, it next downloads an ESD, then decrypts it to a windows setup filesystem (sources\windows\) identical to the files and folders that are found on the resultant windows.iso.

It also starts to make a minimal $Windows.~BT, containing sources\Panther in case an upgrade is continued immediately.

One odd thing is that the Install.wim file on the iso for the DVD is not a normal WIM file, it fails to apply the image with DISM and cannot be extracted or examined in 7-zip. It may just be an ESD with an extension change to fool inquisitive folk for the moment.

Now what I don't know is if the $windows.~WS also is created during the upgrade process for GA, because I haven't done that yet.

The tool then can create a DVD or USB setup drive.

Taking up about 6GB, It should be deleted if you have the Iso or USB setup drive. Clean up has not been told about this file extension yet. It will come in some later update.

 

I think that the $windows.~WS folder is created when running Media creation tool.

 

Indeed it is. The BT and the WS folders are the same thing, the feedstock for the Windows upgrade. If your copy of Win10 is activated, then you can run disk cleaner to get rid of the windows.old and the $windows --BT folders. The $windows---WS folder does NOT clean up by the disk cleaner. After a few reboots, I just deleted the folder after backing it up (just in case) and nothing has happened in the past day so looks OK to delete.

 

I deleted it .. from the command prompt (using troubleshooting / .. command prompt before bootup) .. it worked well and I have not experienced any problems at all.

 

The @WindowsSupport Twitter page advised me not to remove it just yet.

 

It's safe > Is it safe to delete the hidden folder - Microsoft Community

 

Win 10 Downloader & Media Creator: 10.2 GB folder remains. Use it before deleting?

I chose, create media for another PC.

I had chosen to only create x64 .iso even though I was thinking might make sense to have a copy of both.

But apparently Win 10 downloader downloads WIM/ ESD for both?

Can I use it to create Win 10 media? How?

Delete it after?

The Big Files:

 

it indicates that this folder has a role to play in the upcoming "Threshold 2" release scheduled for (?) early November. Check out this posting:
$Windows.~BT and $Windows.~WS
HTH.
--Ed--

PS: It's only 65KB, so I'm keeping it around to see if it does play a role when that SP-like-update pops up in a couple of months.

 

^ I can't see how it's needed for that ... i did a clean install about a week ago just to see how that goes ... those folders are not there. *Huh