The application storage directory structure is divided into Users\Username\AppData
, and is further categorized into three folders: Roaming
, Local
, and LocalLow
.
Windows
uses the Local
and LocalLow
folders to store non-roaming application data (similar to the Local_machine
registry) and some application data that is too large to roam. The Roaming
folder, on the other hand, is used to store user application data that can roam, such as personalized settings for each user.
- The difference between
Local
andRoaming
:Local
is larger and contains non-roaming application data.Roaming
generally contains roaming application data. - The difference between
Roaming
andLocalLow
:
The Roaming
folder is where Windows stores data files generated after using applications, such as cached data from listening to music online or logged-in account numbers.
There are three subfolders under AppData
: Local
, LocalLow
, and Roaming
.
- When extracting a compressed file without specifying a path, the system extracts the contents to the
Local\Temp
folder. This folder stores some extracted files, and when installing software, data is often retrieved from here, especially for large software like graphic design programs, which can take up a lot of space. LocalLow
is used to store shared data. Files in these two folders can be cleaned using optimization tools, as they often contain unnecessary files.- The
Roaming
folder also stores data files generated after using applications, such as cached data from listening to music online or logged-in account numbers. These files are not cleaned by optimization tools. You can open theRoaming
folder, select all files, and delete them. If some files cannot be deleted, you can skip them. However, when you use the application again, the folder will start to expand once more as it caches new data.