What is this $WINDOWS.~TMP folder that I never saw before

This folder just appeared on my D: drive. Why in this drive? It appears to be connected with updates, because the "replacementmanifests" folder has 355 items. Overall, it takes 4.7 GB, and wastes backup drive space. Notice the WindowsOld.wim file, 4.6 GB.

Is there a registry setting to move this entire folder to a different drive? My D: drive is for "real" data.

Moderators: I wasn't sure if this is the right forum for this issue.

I blogged about these kinds of files and folders in September, 2019: When Disk Cleanup Fails Use Search. In general when files or folders start with the dollar sign ("$") that indicates a system-created, hidden item. As this Google search indicates, it is perfectly safe to delete this folder and its contents. And thanks to you, I'm adding another entry to my September blog post!
Best wishes,
--Ed--

Steve C said:

Looks a like a left over from a recent Windows update. Run Disk Clean to remove else just delete the folder.

Disk Clean didn't touch that folder, so I just deleted it manually. :)

Steve C said:

Also check this folder not touched by Disk Clean but contains left overs from updates C:\Windows\servicing\LCU

I found just one folder inside the LCU subfolder: Package_for_RollupFix~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~18362.535.1.6

There were over 29,000 folders inside, for a total of 31 GB. That's 1/4 of the total space for Windows + installed programs on my C: drive. Seems like a real waste of space. Can I safely delete this folder?

I back up my C: drive twice a week, and sometimes I see lots and lots of files with very weird names and paths. Now I know where these files come from. If I needed to do a full restore of my C: drive, would I need to include this LCU folder? If not, then I'll exclude it from backups.

I think I just found the same thread here at TF after checking to see that indeed, some of my PCs also have this (over-stuffed) folder on them as well:How to clean files in C:\Windows\Servicing\LCU. Looks like multiple sources say it's safe to remove (delete). I'm doing so soon myself and will report ill effects, if any. But first, I'm going to wait for my scheduled daily backup (now underway) to complete!
--Ed--

Here's the properties window for that folder from my production PC:



This iteration of the LCU folder consumes only 1.33 GB of disk space--nothing like the OP's 30+ GB.

Interestingly, running delete on the folder's contents produced a different file count than did Properties, with a slightly different on-disk size as well. Go figure! Delete from running explorer.exe as administrator worked without issue, though.



And thanks for identifying another item for my previously cited blog post: When Disk Cleanup Fails Use Search