Where Is the AppData Folder in Windows? (Windows 11 & Windows 10 Guide)

Direct answer: The AppData folder is located at C:\Users\[Username]\AppData. It is hidden by default in Windows 10 and Windows 11 because it stores user-specific application settings, caches, logs, profiles, and temporary files.

Quick method: Press Windows + R, type %appdata%, and press Enter. This opens the Roaming folder inside AppData. To open the main AppData folder, move up one level in File Explorer or type %userprofile%\AppData in the address bar.

Paths: C:\Users\[Username]\AppData, C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Roaming, C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Local, and C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\LocalLow.

How to open the AppData folder in Windows using Run

1. Press Windows + R.
2. Type %appdata%.
3. Press Enter.
4. File Explorer opens AppData\Roaming.
5. Select AppData in the address bar to move up one level.

You can also use %localappdata% to open AppData\Local directly.

How to find the AppData folder in File Explorer

1. Open File Explorer.
2. Select the address bar.
3. Type C:\Users\[Username]\AppData.
4. Replace [Username] with your Windows profile folder name.
5. Press Enter.

How to show hidden folders in Windows

• Open File Explorer.
• Select View.
• Select Show.
• Select Hidden items.
• Browse to C:\Users\[Username] and open AppData.
  
  

If you only need AppData once, using %appdata% is usually faster than permanently showing hidden folders.

What is the AppData folder in Windows?

The AppData folder is a hidden folder inside each Windows user profile. Applications use it to store data that belongs to one user instead of the whole computer. That data can include settings, preferences, browser profiles, caches, logs, temporary files, add-ins, templates, authentication tokens, application databases, and game saves.

Windows keeps AppData hidden to reduce the risk of accidental changes. Deleting or modifying the wrong folder can reset an application, break a user profile, remove saved preferences, or force an app to rebuild data the next time it starts.

Difference between Roaming, Local, and LocalLow in AppData

Folder	Best for	Common examples
Roaming	Settings that may follow a user across domain-joined PCs when roaming profiles are used.	Application preferences, templates, dictionaries, and small profile settings.
Local	Computer-specific data that should stay on one device.	Browser caches, large databases, logs, Outlook data, Teams data, and temporary files.
LocalLow	Data for apps running with lower integrity or more restricted permissions.	Browser sandbox data, protected-mode app data, and low-integrity application files.

Different programs store their information in some or all of these folder trees. Let’s delve into further detail about each of these locations.

Can you delete the AppData folder safely?

You should not delete the entire AppData folder. It contains active application data for Windows and installed programs. However, you can usually delete specific cache, log, or temporary files after closing the related application, especially when you are troubleshooting a broken app or trying to recover disk space.

Before deleting anything, close the app, back up the specific folder if the data matters, and avoid removing folders when you do not know which application uses them.

When to clear AppData files for troubleshooting

If you’re experiencing odd or unexpected behavior from a particular application, make sure you close it before renaming or deleting files from the associated AppData folder. This minimizes risks to the integrity of your application.

Follow these instructions to assist in troubleshooting odd application behavior.

• Close the application that is having problems.
• Open AppData using %appdata% or %localappdata%.
• Find the vendor or application folder.
• Rename the folder instead of deleting it, for example, add .old to the folder name.
• Start the application again and test whether it rebuilds a clean profile.
• If the app works, copy back only the settings or files you need.

This approach is safer than deleting data immediately because you can roll back if the application needs files from the original folder.

Why AppData matters in enterprise Windows environments

Administrators care about AppData because it can affect roaming profiles, sign-in performance, endpoint storage, application stability, and backup scope. Large AppData folders can slow profile sync, consume disk space on shared devices, and make troubleshooting harder when applications write excessive cache or log data.

In managed environments, admins often review AppData when investigating profile corruption, slow logons, FSLogix or roaming profile growth, application reset issues, Teams or Outlook cache problems, and endpoint security detections that reference user-profile paths.

1. Roaming AppData folder

The Roaming folder’s primary purpose is to store application data as part of your domain-based ‘Roaming Profile’. When a user account is configured with a roaming profile in Active Directory (AD), application data gets stored in this location. Keeping it separate like this helps Windows (and users/IT Pros) manage the policies around data retention, security, and backups.

2. Local AppData folder

You’ll find ‘most application data here as it’s used for locally installed applications. It is never synced from computer to computer, even if you do sign in to your work computer with an AD domain account.

You’ll find most browsers store their data here like Firefox, and Google Chrome, etc. It’s essentially up to each developer if the app chooses to store its data in Local. Plus, the Outlook desktop app stores its data here, as does Microsoft Teams.

3. LocalLow AppData folder

The LocalLow folder is similar to the Local folder except it is used for “lower secured” (or low integrity) applications that run with more restricted security settings. You’ll rarely need to ‘administer’ anything in this folder, mostly due to its low usage and typical data sizes.

Why the AppData folder matters in Windows

Because the AppData folder stores so much critical data for so many applications, it is very significant – this is the primary reason Microsoft decided to make it a hidden folder…they don’t want anyone mucking about and messing up applications!

Let’s go into greater detail about the impact of this folder and the breadth of information types that are stored here.

What is stored in the AppData folder?

I’ve touched on some details here already, but let me help you understand more about the different type of application data that is housed in the AppData folder!

Application settings and cached data

This is arguably the primary case for data and file storage in AppData – your locally installed application information. Browsers store your bookmarks here, configuration files, temporary files, temporary data, preferences, etc. Your browser’s cache files are also often stored here.

User preferences and customizations

Specific application developers choose to store app customizations here, too. Microsoft Office often stores user-specific settings such as custom dictionaries, templates, and even recent files opened.

Computer games often place their customizations and data in this folder, too. This includes Microsoft Store apps and Win32-type applications.

How AppData separates user and application data

The organizational layout of data in the AppData folder and its subfolders is a critical concept in Windows. It ensures the organization, management, and security of application-specific data. Keeping all data separate enhances IT Pros when they need to make sure appropriate data is backed up to the cloud.

And obviously, user customization is basically built-in with separate folders for each application developer and program name.

How AppData supports data protection

Technically the Roaming folder has built-in data protection – it is synced across the computers that each user logs in to. But, this is not ideal of course.

Isolating each user on a Windows system is key. This lets IT Pros and admins choose what specific folder to choose for potential backup purposes using enterprise-grade data protection software.

Another way Windows protects data is by leveling extra system-level permissions on folders like the ‘Startup’ folder – this prevents programs from storing malicious software running at startup without the user’s consent.

How AppData affects profile portability

Profile portability refers to the ability to move or transfer a user’s profile, including the data within the AppData folder, from one computer to another. This helps in maintaining the user’s experience when logging on to multiple computers – a consistent one. In the context of the AppData folder in Windows, profile portability is achieved using Roaming and Local folders within AppData.

How to clean AppData files safely in Windows

One of the daily or weekly issues IT Pros run into when maintaining their users’ computers is the C: drive running out of free space. Sometimes, the root cause is the AppData folder. There may be an errant application saving large amounts of data unexpectedly. Let’s look at the various methods we have to alleviate these types of issues.

Use Windows Settings to review AppData storage

If you’re using Windows 10 or Windows 11 (which is almost all of you!), you can utilize the Storage feature in Windows Settings to determine the storage space used by various parts of the Windows operating system, especially AppData.

• Click Start and open Settings. Click System -> Storage.

Here you get a nice dashboard showing the local drives, how much space is being used, and the top offenders for chewing up the available storage allotments.

• Click the ‘Show more categories‘ to get more details.

Here you get more details.

• Click on any of these categories and Windows will take you another level deeper. Very helpful in pinpointing large directories!

Use File Explorer to review AppData folder size

The most traditional method of course the brute force – using File Explorer.

• Browse to the location, determine folder and subfolder sizes, and delete or move files no longer needed. Let me show you.
  • I will browse to C: -> Users -> MichaelReinders -> AppData.

• If I right-click on ‘Local‘ and click Properties, I can see how much space is used in the entire folder tree.

6.31 GB. That’s nothing, relatively speaking. This is a folder on one of my Hyper-V VMs running Windows 10 –  Azure-AD joined to my M365 Developer tenant in the cloud. I just checked my personal computer running Windows 11, which happens to be running that Hyper-V environment, and…207 GB. So, as you can see, it can be huge.

At this point, it helps to try a free directory tree sizing program like TreeSizeFree to find which folders are the largest.

Move the Roaming folder to another drive

If you’ve found that the Roaming folder is consuming too much space for your comfort, you can move the location of the Roaming folder (and its contents) to another drive or even another location on your network. I would probably advise against the latter as the end-user experience could suffer measurably if many applications need to go over the wire to function.

• Anyway, back in the AppData folder, right-click on Roaming, and click Properties. Then, click the ‘Location‘ tab.

We now have the option of browsing for another location to house these files.

• Click the ‘Move…‘ button, browse to the new location, and click ‘Select Folder.’

Piece of cake.

Move the Temp folder to another drive

Here’s another method – moving the location of the ‘Temp‘ environment locations. We can accomplish this with PowerShell. Let me show you.

First, we run these two commands to confirm the location of the TEMP and TMP environment variables in Windows, tied to my user account.

[System.Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable(‘TEMP’, ‘User’)

[System.Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable(‘TMP’, ‘User’)

So, I’ll bet you thought it would come up as C:\Windows\Temp, right? Well, that’s how things USED to work in Windows. Sometime back, they moved the environment variables to the AppData folder structure.

Interesting, huh? Actually, I imagine it was done for security and integrity reasons – the ‘C:\Windows\Temp’ folder is kind of out in the open…

Anyway, we’ll use the next few commands to make some changes.

First, we’ll store the new path in a variable.

$newDir = 'c:\Temp'

Then, we can run this short script to add the path if it doesn’t already exist

if (!(Test-Path $newDir)) {

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path $newTempDir -Force

}

In my case, it’s already there. So, we can run these commands to set the new variables to our new location.

[System.Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable(‘TEMP’, $newDir, ‘User’)

[System.Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable(‘TMP’, $newDir, ‘User’)

[System.Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable(‘TEMP’, ‘User’)

[System.Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable(‘TMP’, ‘User’)

And we’re done. Both TEMP and TMP will now point to C:\Temp. Not the most creative example, but, you get the idea.

Security considerations for the AppData folder

It is important to note that malware and other malicious processes can use the AppData folder to store unwanted files or data. Therefore, it is imperative to verify endpoint security is up to date across all your endpoints. This location is a target for hackers and threat actors.

Additionally, you can enable Controlled Folder Access in Windows Security to protect your folders from unauthorized access by malicious software.

Frequently asked questions