What If You Delete the AppData & Users Folder in Windows?

[@ThioJoe]

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[@windowsxpprofessional]

:(

[@BARAAGAMER_YT]

You're creative keep going✨✨✨✨✨.. Sender:your brother (Baraa) from Palestine 🇵🇸🇺🇲

[@soumyamanoj9964]

;)

[@timcook9730]

Did you try to reset Windows from advance options? 🤔

[@phinblue4989]

@Cat lover no your not first

[@abcdgon]

So the whole point of this video was to confirm that Internet Explorer is still the King of all viruses and there is no way to get rid of it more than 20 years after. Well done MS!

[@endless_puns]

Maybe they’ll be able to retire Internet Explorer by the time they get to Windows 20. But I highly doubt it. They’re unfortunately stuck in a situation where they need to support a lot of legacy features because of some of their business users.

[@runed0s86]

You actually can uninstall ie11, which is still included with windows 11 Add& remove features

[@notthatntg]

@@endless_puns I thought it was removed in Windows 11.

[@Blood-PawWerewolf]

@@notthatntg it is removed. It’s now “emulated” in Chromium Edge as “Internet Explorer Mode” for backwards compatibility

[@wolphin732]

There is other programs that still use an embedded IE or that just use the folder, as MS used the folders for system caches...

[@avumor9049]

So the users folder isn't actually your soul saved digitally? They said everything can be found on computers these days

[@darkbionic1044]

What u did?

[@Legendary_Logan]

@@darkbionic1044 he tried a satanic ritual

[@hazelordwebtv]

of course not! thats why we can replace computers if they break down!

[@DeathStriker88]

"Everything can be found" is just only for internet. Internet don't run in my shoes or t-shirt 😂😂

[@EpicNoobx]

me: **giggle** me: **realizing that I forgot to switch to the virtual machine**

[@skibidireizz]

oof

[@Ali-m6g7g]

that would suck💀

[@malikrimzan5765]

The way you express tech makes almost everybody interested in very confusing things also! You are great, Thio Joe!

[@DragoniteSpam]

This is the kind of inquisitiveness that scientific progress is built upon.

[@darrynrogers204]

You can learn a lot by breaking stuff.

[@blueteddy3216]

If u did this on a real computer and if it was ur dads or moms computer ur probably going to get trashed

[@WatercraftGames]

For science

[@mezlol]

Ypsowu rucky burgure

[@pikchassis]

r/ihadastroke

[@JohnEd_04]

One time, I tried to delete the AppData folder on my computer because I didn't want to have it. I didn't like that folder.

[@TheBeast9417YT]

Bruh

[@TV3TOT]

No, because later some programs may not work. For example if you install Minecraft/Roblox or other software, theres a minecraft/roblox file on appdata. if you delete it, minecraft/roblox or other program may not work.

[@jamesrgamesoffical]

@@TV3TOT or undertale/deltarune

[@aphztic]

@MPK LOL WHAT

[@EHMM]

@MPK ew.

[@light-gray]

ThioJoe's Interesting points only get more interesting!

[@SunIsLost]

Yes

[@ChanceSMBX]

agreed

[@kkenjeetan]

I enjoyed this video so much! I expected you to delete the folders right away but you actually experimented on stuff for fun which I CAN DEFINITELY RELATE TO😂

[@chromerims]

I enjoyed how this almost felt "gamified" in the epic quest to purge. Nice speed run. I also like how there's isnt any harsh editing for images or sound. Classy production value. Kind regards.

[@aximusroh6453]

Yeah nice.....nice comment 👍

[@TheColdestWater]

Interesting content today, Thio! Always been curious about these default folders 😅🤣

[@CanOfDew132]

so i can make new users be rickrolls

[@FFVison]

Kind of curious what would happen if you deleted all of the contents of the users folder except for the Default folder. Would it be able to re-create a working profile?

[@windowsxpprofessional]

I did this myself on my vm. It was fun

[@windowsxpprofessional]

@filipdacoolest :(

[@yusinwu]

For even more fun, try this on your colleagues' computer

[@windowsxpprofessional]

@@yusinwu I did this on windows xp in school mate

[@TV3TOT]

Lol

[@bitonic589]

@@windowsxpprofessional in a virtual machine

[@march22nd]

Window: ThioJoe is a big menace to our company.

[@spitfirelast8761]

"What's your job?" "To delete everything" "Must be nice."

[@ryang183]

Thanks joe. I'm always adamant about cleaning my computer/hard drive with all the unused programs. Part of me doesn't because I do not wan to lose anything or something goes wrong. Keep the content coming!

[@verminscum]

You don't have to worry to much, Windows mostly won't let you delete something vital without going through a whole lot of trouble first,

[@iceezander]

I really enjoy these kinds of videos! I’ve been hoping you might do a “What happens when your phone/laptop dies while updating” video too… Is it really as bad as you’d think it would be?

[@emirgenc8550]

For phones, this process may hardbrick the device and it may be necessary to open it with authorized service tools. In short, you should go to the authorized service, I don't know what happens to the computer.

[@shariqhasan6220]

In the case of a pc, the OS might get corrupted resulting in crashes, to fix this you need to use a recovery tool or maybe reinstall the OS. If you were updating your BIOS and the laptop turned off, then your BIOS will got corrupted and your laptop won't even boot at all. To fix this you can contact the manufacture of the laptop to provide you with the BIOS or you can take it to a technician.

[@XPNGamer]

​technically, some manufacturers input a BIOS flash option which allows you to put a BIOS file on a USB

[@XPNGamer]

and then flash the BIOS/UEFI image onto the computed

[@IloveRumania]

I'm pretty sure that phones will now require a certain percentage and/or be charging when installing updates.

[@AlyssaMcNeil]

Me: I'm looking for some random stupid video Thio: What happens if I delete a system folder?? Me: Oh, found the video ~

[@writerpatrick]

If you delete "Desktop" then you're also going to delete any data stored on the desktop or in desktop folders. Windows seems to use the "Default" user folder in creating new users, so it wouldn't be able to create new users if deleted.

[@hhjpegg]

didn't know that, neat

[@DavidWonn]

I discovered glitches in the NT4 era that could prompt you on whether you wanted to delete some otherwise impossible things like the Recycle Bin. I’d later confirm the same glitch existed in Windows 95 as well. I documented it in a video for anyone that is interested, along with a video description.

[@ButterFromDiscord]

Fun fact: the internet explorer folder is nessecary for web browsers to work, if you delete it I kid you not using a web browser window will cause your mouse go crazy, aswell as make the keyboard type random letters all the time. I renamed the folder to go from there to deleting it, but then I used Firefox and it was insanely difficult to get my pc working Properly again

[@CarlTheNPC01]

"What rhymes with wolf?" My brain: Golf My mouth: Ralph

[@DanielTekmyster]

to repair, add c:\users\default\ from another PC and it can recreate a profile based on that profile.

[@runed0s86]

You are better off reinstalling windows.

[@Ali-m6g7g]

@@runed0s86 he means to people that hate reinstalling windows

[@justahumanwithamask4089]

Love this windows debloating tutorial.

[@pandagirlstuff6222]

this was more entertaining than the deleting system32 video

[@jonsprivatelife]

So odd, why would deleting users and appdata prevent windows from recreating accounts? I can understand it messing with programs and profiles, but windows, program files and program data are all still there, so I wonder what it would need to fix this without reinstalling anything. I'm guessing it was deleting the users/default folder that really broke the ability to recreate profiles and the only reason you could delete default but not "user" was because "user" was in use. I also wonder what would happen if you copied a "users\user" folder but not the default folder from another instance back into this one.Ultimately, I think you found an oversight in how Microsoft organizes things. It makes sense logically to keep the default user in the users folder, but it looks like it might be better kept in c:\windows Great video, really got me thinking, I love this stuff!

[@rexthewild]

I agree with you, the "default" folder should be somewhere elese... but another thing... we have the ability to enable an Administrator User... that User will run everything as Admin.. in essence is the thing that run something when you click "Run as Admin" so I wander... we can still enable that thing aftet deleting the users folder?

[@madlad453]

Jonsprivatelife: questions😐 Microsoft: (puffs cigarette) you wouldn't get it 🤡🚬

[@ALIENCOOL666]

It might work using the net command to add a new user via cmd at the advanced recovery options. I cant confirm as I am not deleting my users folder and I got rid of hyper-v so I cant virtualize

[@rexthewild]

@@ALIENCOOL666 it might work too, but TBH i will confirm this omly if I will have a problem, i'm not messing around with my users folder just yet.. i could put it into a VM buuuut... you know... pesky laziness

[@davidfishwick5573]

Yes. Providing you don't delete Default you aren't gonna do anything except corrupt user accounts, but it wont break your pc by any stretch. As long as Default us still there it will be able to regenerate lost profiles.

[@dvongrad]

6:00 The Internet Explorer folder contains the folder Quick Launch that can contain shortcuts to frequently used apps. These can even be placed inside subfolders to create the illusion of submenus for app categories. I pin this to my taskbar and it acts as a dropdown menu for my most used apps (over 80 in total!) rather than using the Start menu or pinning the apps on the taskbar itself. I do the same with the Favorites Bar folder to create a dropdown of most used websites that isn't browser-dependent if I change my default browser and I don't have to export/import bookmarks from one browser to another.

[@dkgalbraith]

It'll be cool to make a part 2 video where you swap the users folder from Windows 11 and Vista to see if it'll boot up again

[@nunyafockler5650]

I found this video interesting, informative, and hilarious. Thanx always Thio, you've come along way, glad to see you've kept you're sense of humor, and I love your love of learning PC's.. reminds me of me. lol

[@botatodev7632]

Can we get more KZbinrs like him, even tells what stock image is shown

[@msun12000]

So as long as the "Default" user exists, a new profile can be created in much the same way as deleting the user and profile via user management - and creating a new user with the same name...

[@TheRealJLucas]

You can create a new account with same name, but the GUID will be different

[@sirbiggle7748]

The users folder is actually the folder where windows stores the user profiles. additionally it remembers the folder names of the particular users in the registry. if the folder of a user is indicated in the registry but not present in the file system you cannot log on. to do that you have to delete the link to the particular user additionally. ist is stored in Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList. there are folders with weird names like long digits. in fact it is the users sid. delete the folder of the user you want to test. on next logon the users profile will be recreated since it seems to be a new user from the systems point of view. don't mess to the folders with short names in that registry path. that are the indicators for the system user and the template for new users logging into the system.

[@thevectorguy-flash]

he knows

[@superJK92]

I love that you put what you searched for the images you use

[@TheBeast9417YT]

11:24 I think what it means is your session had been blocked by either the TrustedInstaller or Windows has a safety mechanism to shutdown if too many files are deleted, and because of that User Profile Service couldn’t log you in. I could be completely wrong, but it’s a good hypothesis, no?

[@johnc2438]

That was like watching an episode of "Destruction Derby" -- except for Windows! Great fun... and informative, too. 🤣

[@ThatLinuxDude]

So to explain some things: NTUSER is literally HKEY_CURRENT_USER, and since Windows mounts it into the Registry there on login, it is locked into System using it until it is unmounted (logging out, I think) UsrClass is HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Classes, same situation here Internet Explorer is literally implanted into Explorer in a sense. The Quick Launch uses IE, your Pinned Taskbar items are generated lnks placed in the Internet Explorer folder, and so on. Also the folders in your Home Folder aren't Libraries - the 'Libraries MS' files are the Libraries, though - folders in the Home Folder are just purely folders that the Libraries are configured to use as their main folder respectively.

[@HappyQuailsLC]

You might mention that you turned on hidden files to do this and select a username other than "User" to help disambiguate the system's use of the term User in your demonstration.

[@ThioJoe]

I do later in

[@_GhostMiner]

*6:00** Because things like quick launch and pinned programs are stored in this folder*

[@mochafire88549]

we tought a thing: NEVER DELETE SYSTEM32, APPDATA AND USER FOLDER

[@Ishan.khanna]

This channel is perfect for knowing what I can't press shift+del on

[@reginaldmerritt]

I think if left the default user profile it would have been able to recover, if you still have the vm you can copy the default user profile from another win 10 machine, be interesting to see if that works.

[@ofwaywardwill]

This and your other videos were actually great info to know what I can partition or move to other drives and what needs to stay with the Windows 👍

[@RubelTheComputerGuy]

What if we replace the "User" folder data from another computer? What will it do? New question to be solved…

[@thelittleman8796]

this guy's videos is so educational, I learnt so much from this guy

[@raypalmer5125]

hey Joe they added Android subsystem on Windows 11 in the US for the Beta Channel please make a video about it!

[@Dragon2OOOO]

Please make a video "What can you delete for making your PC faster" Thanks for the video :)

[@williamg209two]

7:35 i used to get that error when windows 10 first game out, it was a issue for a small while

[@Mingming_Studio]

There's my guess if the User file doesn't exist, it would run the first boot up screen and copy files from the Default folder (C:/Users/Default) since you deleted the entire Users folder, Windows will be no way to create a new user anymore.

[@DarkSansTV]

This actually might be useful because I'm having trouble uninstalling a program that ended up having a service that windows "Couldn't locate" and even after going to the specified location in the properties it still didn't show up so I need a way of viewing even the most hidden of files so I can actually find it as I think it's being double hidden by something.

[@AliHabeb]

Him : do not it on your computer Me : trying it on my school computer

[@BARAAGAMER_YT]

You're creative keep going✨✨✨✨✨.. Sender:your brother (Baraa) from Palestine 🇵🇸🇺🇲

[@whalemingo5601]

lol this isnt your brother, likeley a impersonator

[@fitmotheyap]

@@whalemingo5601 your country isn't the only country,whichever one it is,it's common to call anyone a bro in other parts of the world y'know.

[@whalemingo5601]

@@fitmotheyap no im from america and who fucking cares?? hes faking it

[@fitmotheyap]

@@whalemingo5601 there we go You are just ignorant af,it's normal in many places to call people bros as mentioned,just because you are in a country with no culture or anything compared to literally any other country doesn't mean others don't have any as well.

[@whalemingo5601]

@@fitmotheyap he said brother, not bro.

[@strawberrylemonadelioness]

For some reason I find "Deleting essential computer files" videos really interesting!

[@classicalricky]

rip to the virtual computer lol.

[@WinterGamesYT]

Thio: deletes desktop folder Windows: somethings wrong, I can feel it...

[@YesIHaveRTX]

Whats going on if you end task manager?

[@scarless510]

Thiojoe: lets cause as much chaos as possible in the name of science

[@BellCube]

Another folder I wanna see is "C:\Program Data", which is a hidden folder. It's basically AppData for all users. Probably gonna nuke an install too.

[@davidfishwick5573]

Would be VERY hard to remove that. One of the folders is for Windows Defender so would make it virtually impossible to remove, unless Defender is first disabled.

[@BellCube]

@@davidfishwick5573 As much as Microsoft tries, Joe could always just boot up in Linux to do it.

[@khaopanmusic]

i love how his recorder is just fine

[@akwalek]

0:34 "of course don't do this on your own computer" ..so do it on someone else's computer?

[@dariosyt1035]

Jimmy (6) when he needs memory for his super cool game.

[@RagingInsomniac]

you’d think with windows 10 being user friendly they’d do something to prevent you doing stuff like this

[@TheSultan1470]

To be fair, for many of these deletes, he used methods regular users are unfamiliar with

[@HaraldrHarðráði]

Yeah, I tried to copy the users folder to D drive to free space and then deleted the one on the C drive. Never realized how much was on there. So a lot of stuff got deleted. Having an existential crisis right now. Trying in any way I can to save the stuff that got deleted since it didn’t get in the recycle bin.

[@Demasi-h1l]

​@@HaraldrHarðráðisame thing is happening to me rn

[@baller-cool]

This video actually helped me out beacuse some of the app data folders because my icons were blank

[@SuperFoxy8888]

You should have deleted the files directly from the unlocker

[@Blue967]

You are awesome man, keep up what you are doing. I love this type of content.

[@infy004]

As a follow up to this, what happens if you copy-paste your "Users" folder from your main (working) PC into the virtual machine's virtual hard drive? Would that fix it, or do nothing at all?

[@FenekkuKitsune]

I would assume it would start up again (I think the main reason he couldn’t get in even with safe mode was because the default user didn’t exist - there was no template for it to run off), but if he tried to login to the user it would bug out a fair bit trying to reference things that don’t exist in the file system (such as desktop picture, files and folders, etc etc.)

[@Twisted_Code]

I had to send this to a friend to explain why she shouldn't try to move the ENTIRE app data folder to a bigger drive. She insisted it was taking up too much space on her C drive, but I pointed out that much of that was from less critical files from games that could at least THEORETICALLY be moved separately. I would just have to set up some symbolic links to "trick" those games into putting their data on the second drive. In hindsight, I'm glad I didn't actually get around to that, since the D drive disappeared (thankfully only temporarily?), which would've meant more data 💀if the drive had actually completely failed.

[@Househoppper]

Next you need to delete the “Program Files” and “Program Files (x86)” folders

[@oyedeji.oyewole]

Joe: "Don't do this on your personal computer!" Me: "I can't wait to try this on school computers 😎"

[@raymondgarina779]

Am in this situation am really panicking right now. How can I recover my default user profile?

[@zohaibrafialvi8459]

@@raymondgarina779 Bro did you actually figure it out? I actually did this rn and I dont even have another user profile. Please tell I'm actually really panicking rn

[@windows0316]

The "Internet Explorer" folder is not completely IE. Interestingly, it contains things such as the Taskbar and Start Menu folders, plus apparently some Windows Shell folders.

[@boredsobad]

*The moment you unhide appdata on a customers computer in order to get them tempfiles for a lost word document - only to later have them accidentally delete appdata*. Yes.. I'm talking from experience xD.

[@Yellowcat98]

fun fact: you can fix this by booting into windows pe (specifically hiren boot pe) and doing something but once you log in you will be signed into a temporary account and you have to make a new user in order to fix it

[@byronmb0]

Now I should be REALLY careful when I continue coding my cleaning tool, I don’t want complaints that people’s entire Users folder disappeared 😂

[@bosnianmapper135]

DUDE1!1! I DELETED MY WHOLE LOCAL DISK CUS OF YOR CLEN TOL!1!1!1! REFUND NOW1!!!1!!1

[@Ali-m6g7g]

@@bosnianmapper135 what are you talking about

[@RichardVR45]

The Virtual Windows:WHAT ARE U DOING!?!?!?! ThioJoe:*deleting files windows needs*

[@Melody666]

I wonder if logging in through safe mode was actually trying to re-generate the user by using the Default user's template. In that case, maybe putting the Default user's folder back might make it go through the whole process.

[@--_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_]

Asking and answering the right questions

[@Mad_Dogg]

i deleted my windows thank you

[@ThioJoe]

Uh oh

[@dswqsa895]

Skip sponsor at 4:18

[@jbtop1778]

that one kid with its school computer: it's big troll time

[@rahulr9539]

The recycle bin and my computer does not reside in Desktop folder, it has to be enabled/disabled in settings. Which is why recycle bin came back even without Desktop folder.

[@MonochromeWench]

The NTUser and UsrClass files are user registry files. Not suprising force unlocking them caused a crash as it is screwing with the kernel. In normal circumstances if you have the default user profie windows will create a new profile for you if it can't load the user,

[@techtriggr]

4:48 The Wallpaper Has Disappeared Because Windows Stores Wallpaper Cache Just For A Backup becuase lets sayur applying a custom wallpaper and windows is using only that directory where you think the wallpaper is but when you delete it its gone so what windows does is just as soon as you apply the custom wallpaper It Goes Ahead Creates A Duplicate Of That File Somewhere in appdata and applies that as a wallpaper and that is also why whenever you delete the custom wallpaper it will be applied as the desktop background

[@arbitervildred8999]

GameDVR is that feature that permanently record your screen in silence and you can do a shortcut to clip the last 30 seconds. It's tied to xbox gaming bar recording service. To stop it you must remove it in regedit

[@manuelvleeuwen]

Idea for next video: try deleting important folders on Windows 11 and see if it behaves differently

[@thaveldhsohdkeuckebeodbdj]

two ideas 1. can you break a computer with task manager 2. is there something that, when you delete it, the computer just shuts down

[@Ceelbc]

Unbelievable windows even let you delete those files.

[@sillicon8227]

Well, it does give several warnings making sure that you really want to continue with what ur doing

[@pyp2205]

Sometimes whenever I watch these kind of videos. I feel like Windows is like "You want to delete it? Sure you can delete it!", even if it's something important to the system. 😆😂

[@notsa_s]

I mean, they did this from Windows 1.0-2.0 and possibly 3.0.

[@buffuniballer]

Never used a Unix/Linux system eh? It doesn't even ask you. If you are root, you can rm -rf / and it's like "okay, here I go!" I think the only thing it complains about is removing . or ..

[@pyp2205]

@@buffuniballer I do use Linux! In fact I set up a Multi-boot Ventoy USB with persistence. So that I can do some work in Linux, whenever Windows is slow. In fact, I have a Linux server that I use for uploading some random things. That I can directly copy from the server on a different device. So that I don't have to put it on a USB. Which whenever I want to delete something, it would just delete it without prompting me for confirmation.

[@seatertlegaming4015]

I love these types if videos

[@ultrabird5130]

this man downloaded windows just to delete it lmao

[@Riptide900]

Really enjoyed this video, thank yo for making!!!

[@rajaram69]

When you're trying to destroy your pc internally PC - my vital organs 😖😖😖

[@clerkofthesea]

one of my recurring mental health struggles is an absurd intrusive thought that I will accidentally do all this lmao

[@codergirlgames]

Awesome video! Hi ThioJoe! You make great vids!

[@JustFard]

Wow. The day you created the virtual machine windows 10, it was my birthday. 13/10.

[@SusuLakuProductions]

The reason why the VM wasn't able to fix the deleted user profile is because you deleted the 'Default' user profile. THAT profile is actually used to create new user accounts. When a new one is created, all files and settings from the default profile are copied over to the new profile. I guess what the OS was doing was it was trying to create the Users folder which it did, but then checked for the Default folder and didn't find it. So the OS just got stuck on the first-time boot-up not knowing what to do because there is no Default profile and I guess it crashed eventually.

[@davinp]

Before Windows Vista, it was C:\Documents and Settings. In Vista, it was changed to C:\Users

[@angelcaru]

And before that, it was C:\WINNT\Profiles

[@InnerEagle]

0:37 Did you just spoiled the entire video? I'm sad now I can close the video! It's so important and delicate that you put that in clear site to the user, if user could, they could delete the bin itself

[@MarkW1210]

ThioJoe talks so fast it feels like the video is playing at 1.25x speed 😆

[@RefinedTheMite]

Always funny videos thx joe

[@maniksinghgamer5099]

Him: please don't use in your computer Me: uses friend computer