{"id":80705,"date":"2026-04-17T12:16:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T06:46:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/?p=80705"},"modified":"2026-04-17T12:16:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T06:46:33","slug":"cannot-remove-windows-bt-setup-folder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/cannot-remove-windows-bt-setup-folder\/","title":{"rendered":"[Fix] Can’t Remove the $WINDOWS.~BT Folder"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Windows Setup procedure or the Media Creation Tool may fail to clear the temporary setup files in some cases. As a result, gigabytes of disk space will be occupied by those folders. When you\u00a0manually delete the temporary setup folder\u00a0$WINDOWS.~BT<\/strong><\/span>, you may receive an Access Denied error.<\/p>\n

File Access Denied<\/strong>\r\n\r\nYou need permission to perform this action.\r\n\r\nYou need permission from TrustedInstaller to make changes to this file.<\/pre>\n
\"clear<\/p>\n
Let’s see how to clear the temporary setup folders, namely, $WINDOWS.~BT<\/strong>, $WINDOWS.~WS<\/strong>, and ESD<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
Resolution<\/h2>\n
Method 1: Using Disk Cleanup<\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. Launch the Disk Cleanup (cleanmgr.exe<\/strong>) tool.<\/li>\n
  2. Select the C:<\/strong> drive and click OK.<\/li>\n
  3. Click Clean up system files. <\/strong>Disk Cleanup will now relaunch as administrator.<\/li>\n
  4. Select the C:<\/strong> drive and click OK.<\/li>\n
  5. Enable the Temporary Windows installation files<\/strong> checkbox, and click OK.
    \n\"clear<\/li>\n
  6. Click the Delete Files button when you see the “Are you sure you want to permanently delete these files?<\/strong><\/em>” prompt.That’s it. The Disk Cleanup tool will now delete the following folders:\n
    C:\\ESD\\Download\r\n\r\nC:\\$WINDOWS.~BT\r\n\r\nC:\\$WINDOWS.~WS<\/pre>\n
    \"clear<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    RELATED:<\/strong> How to Delete Windows.old folder [Previous versions of Windows]<\/a><\/div>\n
    \n
    Method 2: Using Command Prompt<\/h3>\n
    If the Disk Cleanup tool doesn’t show the Temporary Windows installation files<\/strong> checkbox or doesn’t clear the temporary setup folders, you can use the admin Command Prompt to delete those folders.<\/p>\n
    Open Command Prompt (admin) and run these commands:<\/p>\n
    del \/s \/f \/q \"C:\\$WINDOWS.~BT\"\r\ndel \/s \/f \/q \"C:\\$WINDOWS.~WS\"\r\ndel \/s \/f \/q \"C:\\ESD\\Download\"\r\n\r\ntakeown \/F \"C:\\$WINDOWS.~BT\" \/A \/R \/D Y\r\nicacls \"C:\\$WINDOWS.~BT\" \/grant *S-1-5-32-544:F \/T \/C \/Q\r\nrd \/s \/q \"C:\\$WINDOWS.~BT\"\r\n\r\ntakeown \/F \"C:\\$WINDOWS.~WS\" \/A \/R \/D Y\r\nicacls \"C:\\$WINDOWS.~WS\" \/grant *S-1-5-32-544:F \/T \/C \/Q\r\nrd \/s \/q \"C:\\$WINDOWS.~WS\"\r\nrd \/s \/q \"C:\\ESD\\Download\"\r\n<\/pre>\n
    \n
    Method 3: Using the TrustedInstaller Command Prompt<\/h3>\n
    Download the Advanced Run<\/a> utility from Nirsoft and run it.<\/p>\n
    Using Advanced Run, launch CMD.exe<\/strong> as TrustedInstaller. Reference: How to Run Programs as TrustedInstaller<\/a><\/p>\n
    \"advancedrun<\/p>\n
    In the TrustedInstaller Command Prompt, run the following commands:<\/p>\n
    rd \/s \/q \"C:\\$WINDOWS.~BT\"\r\n\r\nrd \/s \/q \"C:\\$WINDOWS.~WS\"\r\n\r\nrd \/s \/q \"C:\\ESD\\Download\"\r\n<\/pre>\n
    That’s it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
    The Windows Setup procedure or the Media Creation Tool may fail to clear the temporary setup files in some cases. As a result, gigabytes of disk space will be occupied by those folders. When you\u00a0manually delete the temporary setup folder\u00a0$WINDOWS.~BT, you may receive an Access Denied error.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,8,869],"tags":[106,191],"class_list":["post-80705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-utilities","category-windows-10","category-windows-11","tag-command-prompt","tag-error-messages"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4640,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/automatically-clear-temp-files-every-login-using-disk-cleanup-batch-file\/","url_meta":{"origin":80705,"position":0},"title":"Automatically Clear Temp Files Using Disk Cleanup, Storage Sense or Batch file","author":"Ramesh","date":"November 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The TEMP directory (%temp%) gets bloated over time as applications store data over there and don't always remove the files and folders they created. 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However, when I run Disk Cleanup utility from within Vista Ultimate, it shows multiple 131GB options for me to clean up. 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