How to Safely Delete $ WINDOWS. ~ BT and $ Windows. ~ WS

Windows has never been known for keeping hard drives clean and organized. And this is a problem for those of us who like to have our hard drives tidy and free of everything that is not necessary. When we install Windows from scratch, the operating system creates the necessary folders for the system and the programs to work, such as Windows, Program Files or the Users folder. However, as time goes by, as we use the system, it creates new folders. Folders that are totally unnecessary and that only take up disk space. Two of these folders are $ WINDOWS. ~ BT and $ WINDOWS. ~ WS .

What are $ WINDOWS. ~ BT and $ WINDOWS. ~ WS?

Windows 10 updates are the most chaotic part of the operating system. In addition to the time they take to install, and the large number of problems they cause, they take up unnecessarily a lot of space on our hard drives. And if the space is freed there would be no problems, but it rarely happens. The most common thing among users is to see how after each update they have less free space on the hard disk.

Safely Delete $ WINDOWS. ~ BT and $ Windows. ~ WS

For one thing, $ WINDOWS. ~ BT, for example, is one of the folders required for the operating system update to be successful. This folder is responsible for keeping a copy of all the Windows files that are replaced so that, if we have a problem, we can revert the changes and go back. On the other hand, the $ Windows. ~ WS folder is another one that is created when updating Windows. This folder is responsible for storing all the installation files of the new version necessary to carry out the Windows update.

Both folders are necessary to be able to install the latest version of the operating system. However, once installed, if all goes well, they are no longer needed. And, therefore, they will be occupying several gigs of space on our hard drive, valuable gigs in the case of having an SSD or flash memory. Fortunately, if Windows has not automatically deleted these folders, we can do it manually without problems. We explain how.

Delete these folders safely

Depending on the version of Windows and the system configuration, deleting these folders in the classic way (that is, right-clicking on them and choosing the delete option) can give problems. This is because Microsoft configures Windows directories with special permissions to prevent them from being modified.

If we want to erase these files without problems, we must do it from Windows 10’s own space cleaner. To do this, we will open the “This computer” window from our desktop, then the properties of our hard drive or SSD where we have Windows installed, and from there we will get to the space liberator .

Liberar espacio disco duro Windows

Before continuing, we must click on “Clean system files” to load it with Administrator permissions and be able to delete unnecessary system elements. Once we have the new release window open, we will choose the following two options:

  • Cleaning Windows updates.
  • Previous Windows installations.

In addition, if we want, we can take the opportunity to delete other temporary files and junk from the operating system that are not necessary. For example, temporary files or emptying the trash. So we can do a complete cleaning at once.

When we accept the window, Windows will begin to erase all this data. The process may take a few seconds, but when it is finished we will have the space that these folders were occupying already freed and available. And we would not have to worry about it again until the release of the next Windows 10 updates.

Obviously, deleting these folders will prevent us from going back to the previous version of Windows 10. Therefore, it is necessary that we make sure that everything works properly before carrying out this process.

Delete $ Windows folders from Linux

Another trick that we can use to delete these files is to do it from another operating system. Specifically from a Linux distro loaded in RAM . In this way we will be able to delete these folders without being affected by the permissions that Microsoft applies to its own directories.

To do this, what we must do is load the operating system in RAM, and once inside, open our Windows hard drive from the explorer until we find these folders. Once located, we will have to click on them to open the contextual menu from which we can eliminate them. We can also do it with the Delete key on the keyboard, just like in Windows.

Eliminar carpetas Windows desde Ubuntu

Once the folders on the hard drive are deleted, we can restart the computer. Of course, first of all, we should check the trash to make sure that the data has been deleted correctly and has not been moved there. If we have not touched anything else, Windows will start normally, but if these folders occupy space unnecessarily.

What about Windows.old?

Windows.old is another of the folders that we can often find on our computer. This folder is directly related to the previous ones, since it is in charge of saving all the data from the previous installations so that, if we lose something, or something goes wrong, they can be recovered directly from this folder.

Some versions of Windows take advantage of the Windows.old folder to store the $ WINDOWS. ~ BT and $ WINDOWS. ~ WS folders within it. In this way, the hard drive is a bit more organized, although we will still have 10 or more gigs unnecessarily occupied.

The process to delete this folder is the same as to delete any of the two above. To do this, what we must do is open the properties window of the hard disk, access the cleaner, the cleaner of the system files, mark the option ” Previous Windows installations ” and carry out the cleaning.

Liberar espacio Windows old

When done, the folder should be gone, and all the space it was occupying should be available again.

If we have a Linux distro at hand, we can do the same as in the previous step, that is, delete this folder from an Ubuntu Live , loaded in RAM, to forcibly free up the space without affecting the Windows permissions.

Propiedades carpeta Windows old Ubuntu

In this way, when we log back into Windows, the space occupied by these folders will be freed, and we can use it for whatever we want.