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I wanted to free up some space on my SSD, as it was like 60% full and I didn't intend it to fill up with anything but program files. I downloaded WizTree (highly recommended btw) and let it analyze the disk. I moved around things like my entire Google drive library, Spotify cache, and desktop contents off of the SSD and onto my hard drive, bringing down total used capacity to 40%.

The next egg that WizTree points me to is what looks like some remnant of an app, located in the directory

C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.MSEsper_1.3.25854.2_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\Assets\Data\Movie.

It's a folder filled with 62 .mp4 files that take up a whopping 7.5 GB -- quite a lot for my 120 gig SSD.

Considering that these are .mp4 files and not .sys or .ini file (for example), and that it's located deep within the program files (not the Windows) directory, I'm almost certain that these files are completely useless, taking up valuable space on my SSD for no reason.

But like the title says, windows seems really, really, REALLY fond of these tiles. Deleting them leads to the error message "you need permission from SYSTEM to make changes to this file."

I've already tried making myself the owner of the folder, and logging on as the other administrator to do the same thing, all to no avail.

Can someone please help me?

If you google that folder address it brings up some people who had similar problems and possible solutions but it seems that folder is used for windows apps. Do you have any windows apps downloaded that would be bringing in mp4's.

Welp. I ran CCleaner and it deleted the folder. How it did that without permission from SYSTEM? I'm not sure, but I'm not complaining.

There are other files that have the same protections, so the question still stands.

Heiwashin wrote:

If you google that folder address it brings up some people who had similar problems and possible solutions but it seems that folder is used for windows apps. Do you have any windows apps downloaded that would be bringing in mp4's.

I honestly never use the windows store, so I don't know what apps could be bringing in mp4's, and I would think that they would tell me if they were doing so.

I checked and don't even have that folder, beats me what it is.

For my install the largest offender is the stupid Photos app, it's using 300MB of space probably all file cache. Second worst offender is something called "windowscommunicationsapps" at around 250MB

What version of windows are you using? I'm on 8.1 and it acts like the folder links to elsewhere on the OS drive.

The Windows Runtime apps directories are protected from manual **** in manners I haven't figured out yet.

Easier to just uninstall the ones you don't use (where possible) and let Storage Sense deal with any orphaned files. Perhaps CCleaner does know how to deal with them, but it's hard to say.

Kougar wrote:

I checked and don't even have that folder, beats me what it is.

For my install the largest offender is the stupid Photos app, it's using 300MB of space probably all file cache. Second worst offender is something called "windowscommunicationsapps" at around 250MB

I think it's a game. I recognize the folder name from somewhere but my main comps are down so I don't know which.

coolflame57 wrote:

I wanted to free up some space on my SSD,

I find clicking on "Clean up system files" after doing a disc cleanup can also save a no of GB................

Aren't those the video files for the Quantum Break game?

Yeah, I would have guessed a game too, what-with the */assets/* in the path.

62 files and 7.5 GB seems like a lot, but then again Quantum Break evidently has a lot of real-world video with big-name actors.

So I'd say you're on to something.

LostCat wrote:

The Windows Runtime apps directories are protected from manual **** in manners I haven't figured out yet.

Windows protects system files by assigning the owner of the directory to TrustedInstaller, and then removing write access to real users.

If you take ownership of the directory you can edit the ACL to get write access. Be careful doing this though because you never know (especially in Windows 10) what Windows deems as critically important, so messing with apps like that can cause all sorts of stupid problems.

I tried that trick to disable Cortana (by taking control then denying all read access) and after a reboot, my start menu would no longer accept input when raised.

When I run into crap like that my SOP is boot from a Linux live thumbdrive and blast the offending files/folders that way. This is a lot easier now that most distros have NTFS support out of the box.

Glorious wrote:

Yeah, I would have guessed a game too, what-with the */assets/* in the path.

62 files and 7.5 GB seems like a lot, but then again Quantum Break evidently has a lot of real-world video with big-name actors.

So I'd say you're on to something.

I have 3 games on this thing and none of them are Quantum Break. Also I tried to open one of the files and it was just a black screen with a flickering white tag in the bottom left corner. It probably didn't open properly considering I didn't have the correct permissions, but I doubt it's a game. CCleaner actually deleted the entire Microsoft.MSEsper_1.3.25854.2_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe directory and all of its children, so maybe that's why it worked?

mcarson09 wrote:

What version of windows are you using? I'm on 8.1 and it acts like the folder links to elsewhere on the OS drive.

I'm on windows 10.

LostCat wrote:

The Windows Runtime apps directories are protected from manual **** in manners I haven't figured out yet.

Easier to just uninstall the ones you don't use (where possible) and let Storage Sense deal with any orphaned files. Perhaps CCleaner does know how to deal with them, but it's hard to say.

I started doing this yesterday, just deleting every app that I didn't recognize or use (WTH is windows wi-fi and mobile data?), but didn't completely eradicate them. Will update once I do that.

SuperSpy wrote:

LostCat wrote:

The Windows Runtime apps directories are protected from manual **** in manners I haven't figured out yet.

Windows protects system files by assigning the owner of the directory to TrustedInstaller, and then removing write access to real users.

If you take ownership of the directory you can edit the ACL to get write access. Be careful doing this though because you never know (especially in Windows 10) what Windows deems as critically important, so messing with apps like that can cause all sorts of stupid problems.

I tried that trick to disable Cortana (by taking control then denying all read access) and after a reboot, my start menu would no longer accept input when raised.

Did you ever succeed in disabling Cortana without the side effects?

just brew it! wrote:

When I run into crap like that my SOP is boot from a Linux live thumbdrive and blast the offending files/folders that way. This is a lot easier now that most distros have NTFS support out of the box.

I will definitely look into this. I wanted to clean up the SSD to get a linux partition on it, so maybe I will try to do this on the road to the linux partition.

SuperSpy wrote:

I tried that trick to disable Cortana (by taking control then denying all read access) and after a reboot, my start menu would no longer accept input when raised. :roll:

coolflame57 wrote:

Did you ever succeed in disabling Cortana without the side effects?

There's a group policy to do it.

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/disable-t ... windows-10

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PowerShell:
Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.MSEsper_1.3.25854.2_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe | Remove-AppxPackage

or

Windows Key + I > Apps > Find the application and uninstall

You can also impersonate the local system account using psexec (from Sysinternals).

psexec -s -i cmd.exe

Will give you a command prompt running as the local system account, which should be able to delete the offending files.

Searching for the version number in the folder name suggests Phantom Dust