Question Do I need to keep the AppData folder from my old build?

[Gamebanter]

Hi,

I recently upgraded my PC with a new motherboard, CPU, RAM and SSD (it was a big upgrade).

I backed up all my files before I did it and have been moving everything onto my new PC.

This afternoon, when looking through my older stuff to see what I can get rid of, I found an AppData folder in my old PC's User folder that's 27 GB.

Nothing in the folder has been modified since I moved it over on Sunday and there are old games and programs referenced in there that I never even transferred over.

I tried to check whether the new PC has its own AppData folder but I couldn't seem to find one, which is what's giving me some pause.

Is this 27 GB folder safe to delete?

 

[Lutfij]

I recently upgraded my PC with a new motherboard, CPU, RAM and SSD (it was a big upgrade).
You should reinstall your OS.

and have been moving everything onto my new PC
Move personal files only, not OS files.

 

[hotaru.hino]

You don't need to keep it, but at the same time, it contains a lot of things in there that could be useful for avoiding the hassle of needing to set up apps.

For instance, I backup the Firefox folder in AppData regularly. If I reinstall Windows or want to avoid needing to set up Firefox on another computer, I can copy the folder back in and it'll be like nothing happened when I launch Firefox.

I also have profiles and settings for other apps that I do this with so I can avoid needing to set it up.

 

[Grobe]

In the past I used to back up appdata and similar folders, but I figured re-configure any apps would wor just as good in most cases.

Much of the issues that comes when backing up appdata to a new Windows installation is there tends to be many list of recent files, image/thumbnail cache (for photo viewing apps topically) where all the links gets broken because cleaning temporary files or relocating personal files etc.

 

[USAFRet]

You can't see the AppData folder in your new OS, because it has Show Hidden Files still unchecked.

From your OLD drive and OS, you should really wipe the whole thing clean and continue with a blank drive.
Not just delete parts of it.