# Empty Folders in Windows **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 5, 2021, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/empty-folders-in-windows/953866 "2021-11-05T23:26:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Petek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/petek/32/1590_2.png) [@Petek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Petek)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/empty-folders-in-windows/953866/1 "2021-11-05T23:26:52Z")
This article > **[Windows 11 creates lots of empty folders in a System32 directory - gHacks...](https://www.ghacks.net/2021/11/01/windows-11-creates-lots-of-empty-folders-in-a-system32-directory/)** > > Microsoft's Windows 11 operating system creates lots of empty folders in a System32 directory, just like the Windows 10 operating system. describes a bug in Windows 10 and 11 systems in which folders whose name begins with tw and ends with the extension .tmp might be created in the folder C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local. The folders are empty. I checked my system and found more than 11,000 such folders (now deleted). The cited article (and similar ones) states that these folders occupy little space and don’t cause a problem. However, doesn’t the mere presence of these folders create overhead? After all, the file system has to keep track of them. Also, how much space do these folders actually occupy? The file system stores the name of the folder, which must take space, especially for 11,000 of them. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/empty-folders-in-windows/953866/2 "2021-11-05T23:40:04Z")
> [@Petek](#): > > However, doesn’t the mere presence of these folders create overhead? After all, the file system has to keep track of them. A minuscule amount, but yes. > [@Petek](#): > > Also, how much space do these folders actually occupy? The file system stores the name of the folder, which must take space, especially for 11,000 of them. Again, yes, but a minuscule amount, and in the file header indexes not the general disk space. Not noticeable on today’s hard disk sizes. That said that’s a pretty bad bug to let slip in! ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/empty-folders-in-windows/953866/3 "2021-11-05T23:50:41Z")
How did you delete them? ---
**Author:** ![Petek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/petek/32/1590_2.png) [@Petek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Petek)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2021, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/empty-folders-in-windows/953866/4 "2021-11-06T00:54:49Z")
I deleted the folders through Windows file explorer: Highlighted them, right-clicked and selected Delete. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2021, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/empty-folders-in-windows/953866/5 "2021-11-06T01:22:57Z")
Never heard of this before. I checked and I had 1,159 of them. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2021, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/empty-folders-in-windows/953866/6 "2021-11-06T01:28:43Z")
Same for me: 4,800 junk folders. A bizarre bug. ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2021, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/empty-folders-in-windows/953866/7 "2021-11-06T02:16:45Z")
Only 443 for me. Truly bizarre. ---
**Author:** ![Chickenwrangler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chickenwrangler/32/91_2.png) [@Chickenwrangler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chickenwrangler)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2021, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/empty-folders-in-windows/953866/8 "2021-11-06T04:06:42Z")
A couple of ways to delete empty folders, [https://windowsreport.com/remove-empty-folders-windows-10/](https://windowsreport.com/remove-empty-folders-windows-10/) [https://sourceforge.net/projects/rem-empty-dir/](https://sourceforge.net/projects/rem-empty-dir/) [https://www.raymond.cc/blog/easily-removing-empty-directories-from-windows/](https://www.raymond.cc/blog/easily-removing-empty-directories-from-windows/) A Google will turn up plenty more 👍 ---
**Author:** ![paulmarkj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9e8a1a/32.png) [@paulmarkj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paulmarkj)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2021, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/empty-folders-in-windows/953866/9 "2021-11-06T09:28:22Z")
I have 3600, but out of a total of 256,000 folders, it is small. And out of a total of 1,364,000 files tat actually contain stuff, hardly worth worrying about. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2021, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/empty-folders-in-windows/953866/10 "2021-11-06T17:08:34Z")
852 for me. Deleted but I think Windows 10/11 has more overhead issues than those temp files. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2021, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/empty-folders-in-windows/953866/11 "2021-11-06T19:04:39Z")
I understand that much but you didn’t highlight 11,000 folders individually, so how did you highlight them? ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2021, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/empty-folders-in-windows/953866/12 "2021-11-06T19:09:56Z")
Do a Left Click on the first folder, then scroll down to the last folder in the list and do a SHIFT+Left Click on that, and you have the whole list highlighted. Then Right Click and choose “Delete”. ETA: this only works if the folders are ordered alphabetically and are consecutive, as in this case of folders all named tmp\_\*. Be careful not to highlight any folder or file you don’t want to delete. ---
**Author:** ![Petek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/petek/32/1590_2.png) [@Petek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Petek)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2021, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/empty-folders-in-windows/953866/13 "2021-11-06T19:46:21Z")
I don’t remember exactly how I selected the folders, but EinsteinsHund’s method is probably how I did so.