In Windows, the %LocalAppData% (or LocalAppData without the percent signs) environment variable points to the local application data folder. This folder in Windows 10 or Windows 11 is used by applications to store data that is specific to a particular user and not shared among different users on the same computer.
The full path to the local application data folder is typically C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Local, where [Username] is the name of the user account.
This folder is hidden by default to prevent users from accidentally modifying or deleting critical files, because if you delete files from the AppData folder you could lose settings within your games or software depending on what you remove.
Inside the %LocalAppData% folder, you’ll find subfolders for various applications that store user-specific data, such as settings, caches, temporary files, and other application-specific information.
It’s a crucial location for applications to maintain user-specific configurations and data that don’t need to be shared among different users on the same system.
So if you would still like to know how to go about deleting the appdata temp folder keep reading.
Table Of Contents
How To Delete The AppData Temp Folder
Now make sure you are definitely within the Temp folder, as you do not want to remove everything within the localappdata folder, otherwise you will lose important data.
Deleting appdata Temp Folder Manually
Open File Explorer
Now copy and paste the following into the address bar and Press Enter %LocalAppData%
Find the Temp Folder within the AppData folder and Open it
Now go ahead and remove everything within the Temp folder. Also if you are wondering if I can delete the temp folder in appdata local, the answer is yes the appdata local temp folder is safe to delete.
Deleting appdata Temp Folder Using CMD
Open CMD also known as Command Prompt as an admin
Now copy and paste the following command, the /q flag stands for quiet mode.
del /q %localappdata%\temp\*.*
There you go the files within the localappdata temp folder will now be removed, unless of course, a file is currently in use by a program/game.
Final Thoughts
So there you have it that’s how you can easily delete all the files in the local app data temp folder, Like I said above be careful to not remove any files within the local app folder ensure you are inside of the temp folder.
I hope you enjoyed reading this guide as much as I did writing it, if you do want to read more Windows guides check them out here.
