What Are the $GetCurrent and $SysReset Folders

What Are the $GetCurrent and $SysReset Folders, and Can You Delete Them?

By Chris Hoffman


Windows 10 automatically creates the $GetCurrent and $SysReset folders in your C:\ drive in certain situations. These folders can use gigabytes of space, but what to they do, and can you delete them?

These are hidden files, so you’ll have to show hidden files in File Explorer to see them.

What Is $GetCurrent?

The $GetCurrent directory is created during the upgrade process. It contains log files about that last Windows upgrade process and may also contain the installation files for that update. On our system, the $GetCurrent folder took up 3.38 gigabytes after upgrading to the Creators Update. This is because the folder contains leftover Windows Update installation files.

Assuming you don’t need to review the log files stored here and you’ve finished installing the latest Windows Update, this folder is safe to remove. In theory, Windows should automatically delete these files itself after 30 days at most. In practice, we noticed that this folder was still lying around more than a month after upgrading to the Creators Update, so we had to delete it ourselves.



What Is $SysReset?

The $SysReset folder is created when a Refresh or Reset operation fails. It contains a log folder that may be useful to system administrators experiencing a problem with refreshing or resetting a PC.

On our system, the folder was very small—less than a megabyte at 636 KB in size.

Assuming you aren’t having any problems with the Refresh or Reset features and you don’t need to review the logs here, this folder is safe to remove.

Can You Delete Them, and How?

The Windows Disk Cleanup tool doesn’t automatically delete these folders. However, it does delete the $WINDOWS.~BT and ~WINDOWS.~WS folders you may also see in your C: drive.

To get rid of these folders, you can just delete them the old fashioned way. Select the folders in File Explorer, right-click them, and select “Delete”. File Explorer will prompt you to provide administrator permission to delete them, and you can then empty your Recycle Bin to free up the space they take on your device.

Deleting these folders won’t cause any problems if you don’t need to review the log files they contain and if you aren’t in the middle of installing a new update to Windows. Even if Windows does need the files to install an update, it will just download them again.