removing downloaded files from windows 10 How to Stop Windows 10 Deleting Files Automatically. on this page, you'll find handy solutions to restore deleted files on Windows 10 and stop Windows 10 from deleting files without asking. Workable Solutions Step-by-step Troubleshooting Fix 1. Stop Windows Defender Open Windows Defender > click Virus & Threat protection > click Exclusions. Full steps Fix 2. Turn off Storage Sense Go to Settings > System > Storage > toggle Storage Sense to "Off". Full steps Fix 3. Uninstall faulty updates Open Control Panel > click Programs and Features > click View Installed Updates. Full steps. Q: Windows Defender Keeps Deleting Files. " Hi, I' m having an issue that my computer is automatically d eleting files without asking me for confirmation. I use some programs with .exe extension . But W indows defender reads those as a virus, and it deletes them while I still want them! H ow do I stop W indows defender from deleting files that I want to keep? " Are you having the same issue that Windows defender keeps deleting files, such as downloaded videos, documents, or .exe programs? Or is your Windows 10 automatically deleting downloaded files and data without asking for confirmation? Although it sounds senseless, it is true. Windows 10 may keep deleting programs and documents after restart because of the defender or the new storage sense feature in Windows 10. But, you don't have to worry since you can easily recover deleted files Windows 10 using a professional data recovery tool, after that, you can use the helpful methods demonstrated below to stop Windows from deleting files automatically. Part 1. Restore Files Deleted by Windows 10. If your important files got removed or deleted by Windows 10 and you can't get them back anyhow, don't worry. One of the best file recovery software - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard can simply recover your lost files within three steps. It allows you to restore files deleted from the recycle bin, HDD, SSD, USB flash drive, external hard drive, digital camera, and more. Now, download and install this software on your PC and follow the next steps to restore the removed files deleted by Windows 10. Step 1. Select a location and start scanning. Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, hover on the location where you lost data, then click "Scan". Step 2. Preview and select the files. Wait until the scanning completes. You can use Filter or search bar to find lost files. Step 3. Recover lost data. Then choose a location to save the recovered data, and click "OK". You should store the data in another place instead of the original one. Part 2. Fix Windows 10 Automatically Delete Files Error. After getting all your lost files deleted by the Windows system, now you can follow solutions here to fix Windows 10 from deleting files problem. Method 1. Stop Windows Defender from Deleting Files Automatically. 1. Open "Windows Defender" > Click on "Virus & threat protection". 2. Scroll down and click "Virus & threat protection" settings. 3. Scroll down to "Exclusions" and click "Add or remove exclusions". 4. Click + plus icon to add an exclusion and select File, Folder, File Type, or Process, then specify the exact files, folders, or even file types that you don't want to get them deleted or removed by Windows Defender. 5. Save all changes. If you don't want Windows Defender to remove the .dll files, click "File Types" and type in the .dll and .exe file extension, click "Add". After this, those files that you’ve set to be excluded won’t be removed or deleted again. Method 2. Turn off Storage Sense to Stop Windows 10 Deleting Files Automatically. Storage Sense in Windows 10 is a new feature. When you enable it, Windows will automatically delete unused files when the computer is low on disk space. For instance, it can automatically delete files older than 30 or 60 days from the Recycle Bin or delete temporary files to free up some space. It also can delete older files in the Downloads folder. But If you don't want the Storage Sense to delete files by itself, you can change its default settings to prevent Windows 10 from automatically deleting files when you want to keep them. Step 1. Open the "Settings" app. Click the "System" > "Storage". You can flip the Storage Sense switch to "Off". Step 2. If you don't want to disable this feature totally, you can re-configure Storage Sense by click "Change how we free up space automatically". Step 3. Click the box under "Delete files in my recycle bin if they have been there for over" and select "Never". Also, click the box under "Delete files in my Downloads folder if they have been there for over" and choose "Never". Method 3. Uninstall Faulty Updates that Delete Files on Windows 10. As we all know that sometimes the newly installed Windows system would remove or delete files on the computer without asking you for permission. It seems that if you’ve installed an incompatible or faulty Windows 10 update, it will remove or delete your files on PC. SO the most straight-forward way is to uninstall the faulty updates that remove files on your Windows 10 computer. Here are the detailed steps about how to uninstall faulty updates: Step 1. Press Windows + X keys and select "Control Panel". Step 2. Click "Programs and Features" and select "View Installed Updates". Step 3. Click the "Installed On" column header to sort the updates by dates. Step 4. Locate and right-click on the large-sized, major updates that you’ve recently downloaded, and select "Uninstall". Step 5. When the uninstall process completes, reboot your PC. PS: If you want to install the latest Windows 10 update, you can refer to Microsoft Windows 10 update official website to download Windows 10 ISO and install it on your PC then. How to Remove Junk Files From Windows 10. The longer you use your computer, the more it accumulates files that you likely do not need. Cleaning out those junk files can improve speed and performance. But how do you know what is trash and what is treasure? Learn how to remove junk files from Windows 10 and keep your hard drive clean without harming your PC. The Benefits of Removing Junk Files From Your Computer. Leaving files and programs on your computer that you don't need wastes precious space. It makes your machine work harder than it needs to. It can also slow down your computer, as it has to dig and sift through these files to find what it needs or use resources to update applications you no longer use. Before You Begin. System Restore is a Windows tool that essentially allows you to take your computer back in time. If you should inadvertently delete a file that you still need, performing System Restore could save you. Before you start taking out the trash on your Windows 10 PC, make sure that System Restore is enabled. Follow up by creating a system restore point that you could revert your system to in case you accidentally delete something important. Enter control panel in the Search box and select Control Panel app in the search results. Select System and Security and then select System if your Control Panel window is in Category view. Select System if your Control Panel window is in Icon view. Select System Protection in the left pane. The System Properties window will open. Make sure Protection is set to On for the System drive. If not, select the drive and then select Configure . Select Turn on system protection and then select Apply . Select Create next to Create a restore point right now for the drives that have system protection turned on . Type a word or phrase to describe the restore point. The date and time will be added automatically. Select Create . When the process is complete, a message stating The restore point was created successfully will appear. Select Close . You can restore your system to the current settings in the future, if need be. Managing the Recycle Bin. The Recycle Bin will store deleted files. If you decide you need one back, it's easy to go in and restore it. However, as space fills up, Windows 10 will begin to permanently get rid of those files, beginning with the oldest ones first. If you are certain you don't need any of the files currently in the Recycle Bin, you can empty it to make room for more. Press Win + D or select the space at the very right end of the taskbar to access the desktop. Right-click the Recycle Bin . Select Empty Recycle Bin . Select Yes to confirm that you want to permanently delete the items. Trashing Temporary Files. Temp files are also junk that you can clean off your computer. You can use a Windows 10 setting to automatically get rid of temporary files for you. Go to Start > Settings > System . Select Storage in the left pane. Turn on the toggle switch under Storage . Select Configure Storage Sense or run it now . Under Temporary Files , select Delete temporary files that my apps aren't using . Choose a frequency in the drop-down lists under Temporary Files . These allow you to choose how often Windows will delete temp files in your Recycle Bin and your Downloads folder. Select Clean Now if you want to delete these temporary files immediately. Exit the Settings window. The Disk Cleanup Tool. Disk Cleanup is an integrated tool in Windows. Running this tool simplifies the task of getting rid of junk files in Windows 10, such as previous software installations, Recycle Bin contents, temporary files, and thumbnails. Another feature of Disk Cleanup in Windows 10 is system compression, which compresses files that are not yet compressed, freeing up even more space. Enter disk cleanup in the Search box. Select Disk Cleanup app to open the tool. Select the drive you want to clean up. In most cases, this will be Windows (C:), which is the default drive selected. Select OK . Wait while Disk Cleanup calculates the amount of space that can be recovered. Select the checkboxes next to the types of files you want to delete. Avoid selecting Windows ESD installation files if they appear in the Files to delete list. These files are required if you should ever need to reset your computer to factory default settings. Select View Files if you want to see the files in the category you have selected. Select OK to delete the junk files. Select Delete Files to confirm that you want to permanently delete the files. Disk Cleanup will get rid of the files and close when it has completed. How Often Should You Remove Junk Files From Your Computer? If you use your computer for several hours each day and download dozens of files, you will need to clean out the junk more frequently than someone who only hops on a couple of times each week. However, if you run Disk Cleanup once a week or twice a month, you can keep those junk files from building up and slowing you down. How to Remove Windows 10 Installation Files from Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 PCs. Redmond automatically downloads Windows 10 just in case. As we’ve told you earlier this week, it turns out that Microsoft automatically downloads Windows 10 files on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 PCs no matter if users want it or not, which is quite a problem, especially because these files use their bandwidth and take up to 6 GB of their storage space. Previously, Microsoft said that only users who reserve the upgrade to Windows 10 actually get these files, but the company had a change of mind and is now putting all these files on Windows 7 and 8.1 PCs automatically, just in case you might want to install the new OS at a later time. So today we’re going to show you how to get rid of these Windows 10 installation files from your Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 PC, how to block them from being downloaded once again, and how to get back your lost space easily. How to remove Windows 10 installation files. First and foremost, it’s worth noting that the Windows 10 installation files take up to 6 GB of your storage space (5.40 GB in our case), so it’s no wonder that everyone wants to delete them. To do that, go to your C: partition and look for a folder called $Windows. BT. This is where Microsoft puts all Windows 10 installation files, so you can right-click it, hit Properties and check how much space it takes on your PC. Additionally, here’s what the content of the folder looks like. The setup.exe file there triggers the Windows 10 installation and it’s proof that files for the new operating system are already on your PC. So to remove them, you can either use Shift + Delete, or let Windows do that the safe way. Right-click C: drive > Properties > Disk Cleanup > Clean up system files > Enable Temporary Windows installation files > OK. It could take a while to complete, but once it’s done, no Windows 10 files should be there anymore. How to prevent Windows 10 installation files from being re-downloaded. The Windows 10 installation files are downloaded on your PC with the help of some Windows updates, so even if you remove them, they’ll land back on the computer after a reboot. To prevent that from happening, you need to get rid of the Windows updates responsible for this. So follow the next path: Control Panel > Programs and features > View installed updates. And in the search box at the top right side of the screen, search for this updates one by one, right-click each of them, and hit the Uninstall option: Windows 8.1: KB3035583, KB2976978 Windows 7: KB3035583, KB2952664, and KB3021917. A reboot will be required when you complete the removal, so do it, but then follow this path: Control Panel > Windows Update > Check for updates > View uninstalled updates. Look for the updates you just removed (depending on your Windows version), right-click them one by one and hit the Hide update option. Assuming that you’ve completed all these steps successfully, Windows 10 installation files should not only no longer be there, but should never arrive on your PC again until you say so . Automatically Delete Files From Downloads Folder In Windows 10. When you download a file from the web, using one of the web browsers, the file is downloaded to the Downloads folder by default. Although you can change the default download location, Downloads folder is the default download location in Windows 10/8/7. If you often download the software and other files from the web, chances are that your Downloads folder has GBs of files and programs. Since the Downloads folder is located under C:\Users\UserName folder, you can free up some disk space on your system drive by deleting unwanted files and programs from the Downloads folder. Depending on the number of files and size of files, cleaning up your Downloads folder might free up to a few GBs of space. Would not it be nice if there was an easy to way to automatically delete unchanged files from the Downloads folder? With Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (version 1709), Microsoft introduced a new option in Storage sense to automatically delete files from the Downloads folder. The option, when turned on (turned off by default), automatically deletes unchanged files from the Downloads folder after 30 days. This means that the feature deletes only files that have not seen any changes over the last 30 days. The option comes in handy especially if you often download software from the web using a web browser. As you know, after installing a program, the setup file in the Downloads folder is of no use. Here is how to configure Windows 10 to automatically delete files from Downloads folder after 30 days. Automatically delete unchanged files from Downloads folder in Windows 10. IMPORTANT: While this is a handy option, please remember that Windows 10 automatically deletes all files (not just programs or any file type) that have not seen any changes over the past 30 days. So, you might lose important files. If you often save important files in Downloads folder (which is not a good practice), this feature is not for you. Step 1: Open Settings app. Navigate to System > Storage . Step 2: In the Storage sense section, turn on the Storage sense feature by moving the slider to on position. Step 3: Now, click Change how we free up space link. Once again, make sure that you have turned on Storage sense feature as mentioned in the first step. Step 4: Turn on Delete files in my Downloads folder that haven’t changed for over 30 days option . You may turn off Delete temporary files that my apps aren’t using and Delete that have been in the Recycle bin for over 30 days options. Removing downloaded files from windows 10. Removing "Downloaded Program Files" on Windows 10. What files are stored in the "C:\Windows\Downloaded Program Files" folder? Can I delete them? Files stored in the "C:\Windows\Downloaded Program Files" folder are ActiveX controls and Java applets downloaded automatically from the Internet when you view certain pages using Internet Explorer (IE). Yes, you can remove everything in the "C:\Windows\Downloaded Program Files" folder. But some of them will be downloaded again whey visit web sites using IE next time.