WindowsApps\Deleted and other subfolders

Hello,
listing the content of %ProgramFiles%\WindowsApps, I see a bunch of folders which appear to have a special function. Namely:
- Deleted
- DeletedAllUserPackages
- MovedPackages
- Mutable
- MutableBackup
Does anybody have an idea of their purpose? Sure, I'm not going to mess around with them, just curious.
Also, %ProgramFiles%\WindowsApps\Deleted does contain one subdir:
- Microsoft.MicrosoftSolitaireCollection_...
Funny, I never uninstalled the app. How could it end up there?
Cheers,
Mark

Little update.
Checking a bit more carefully, I see that none of the previously mentioned subfolders of %ProgramFiles%\WindowsApps has ever been modified since the first installation of Windows 10.
Except for %ProgramFiles%\WindowsApps\Deleted. This seems to be some sort of recycle bin in which Windows moves the apps it can't/doesn't want to immediately remove. In my case, Microsoft.MicrosoftSolitaireCollection was moved there during the last update of the app (August, 20).
My system is always up and running and I only reboot it when strictly necessary. Anyway, today I had to restart it and after a (warm) reboot the folder %ProgramFiles%\WindowsApps\Deleted is empty. The fact that the "bin" gets emptied during boot/login (I can't really tell which one) could be the reason why many people have never seen anything in it:
Delete content in the /windowsapps/deleted folder | Windows 8 Help Forums

One more piece of information, just in case someone has the same questions and stumbles on this thread.
%ProgramFiles%\WindowsApps\Deleted is not emptied during boot, nor at login. It rather looks like its content is removed after it has been sitting in the folder for a given time.

Feuer said:

you need to be careful with that folders

Hello Feuer,
thanks for your reply.
Sure it's well known you're not supposed to play around with the content of %ProgramFiles%. That's even more true for %ProgramFiles%\WindowsApps. There's a reason if the access is restricted by default. Also, avoid to follow random guides on the web that suggest to take ownership of stuff you're not supposed to own.
By the way, there's a simple way to access these folders in read-only mode without messing up ownerships. Open an elevated cmd prompt and point it to the desired folder:

Code:

dir %ProgramFiles%\WindowsApps\Deleted\

Still, I like to know how things work. Do you know exactly when and why things are moved to %ProgramFiles%\WindowsApps\DeletedAllUserPackages?
Cheers,
Mark

Feuer said:

23.05.2020 is my upgrade date to 1909 version, date of the 3 folders
the other folders are closed to the date that i bought this computer

So we have at least part of the solution.
On my machine, I see packages moved to Deleted as soon as they are updated or uninstalled. After a while (matter of days) Deleted gets emptied.
DeletedAllUserPackages has never been modified since I bought the computer.
Weird Microsoft magic

Feuer said:

C:\Windows\WinSxS

I wouldn't advise touching that folder. Its modification leads to undefined behaviour.

Thank you very much for your contribution, but I'd like to say focused on the orginal topic. I just wanted to discuss the meaning of %ProgramFiles%\WindowsApps subfolders.

Cheers,
Mark

Feuer said:

you need to be careful with that folders

bloatbox you can remove apps
Bloatbox | built by Bel ❤︎

HiBitUninstaller has its own windows store app manager, you can uninstall
HiBitSoftware

win10privacy you can uninstall that apps from system too, but it is slow and complicated
you can also disable automatic downloads for universal apps in this program
W10Privacy - Privacy made ​​easy - W10Privacy

windows has its own routines after updates, it erases, closes, moves somethings
i have some of that apps in my computer lots of them i never used
today i removed sticky notes, i found a simple one

C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\DeletedAllUserPackages


C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Deleted < it is empty

hey there, seems like i followed the wrong tutorial and changed my WindowsApps permissions at some point and now i can't open the Microsoft Store or any other default Windows apps. I've returned ownership to TrustedInstaller but it didn't fix the problem, not sure what to do at this point, any help would be greatly appreciated!