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Just ran Disk Cleanup on a computer here (Windows Vista), and saw 3 items in the list I haven't seen before:

  • Per user archived Windows Error Repo... | 402 MB
  • System archived WIndows Error Repor... | 18,0 KB
  • System queued Windows Error Reporti... | 533 MB

What are those? I assume it is safe to delete, but should I do something with it first? Should I for example be kind to Mircosoft and send all that queued stuff? How would I do that?

Note: Wish I knew what was after those dots. Assume it is "Reporting", but no idea if there is more after it. Hate dialogs that can not be resized... (or at least lets me know what is behind truncated text in a tooltip)

Marco Demaio
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Svish
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2 Answers2

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Yes it is safe to delete these files, they are files generated by Windows Error Reporting when an application error occurs. The per-user data is saved to:

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\wer

the system data is saved to:

%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\WER\

THose two folders are split into ReportArchive which is historical reports, and ReportQueue which are reports that have not been sent yet.

This applies to both Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Richard Slater
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  • Are they used for anything? Can I use them for anything? Can I somehow tell Windows to send the reports that have not been sent yet? – Svish Jun 08 '09 at 11:27
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    windows retains information about how, what, why and when an application or driver has crashed. Depending on the configuration, found in (Vista: Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Problem Reports and Solutions > Change settings > Advanced settings) windows will periodicly download a file which it will compare the crash data with and then notify you if it finds a solution. If you have no ongoing problems with your computer and you need the space delete them, if you don't need the space leave them there. – Richard Slater Jun 08 '09 at 12:58
  • For Windows7: Control Panel > Action Center > Maintenance (drop down arrow) > Check for solutions. See also https://www.quora.com/How-can-we-process-the-Windows-Error-Reporting-queue – JohnLBevan Dec 02 '15 at 16:34
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These files contain debug information which Windows gathers and saves when there are problems with the system or with programs. They are part of the "Windows Error Reporting (WER) and Crash Data" which was introduced with Windows XP and captures product crash data. This way it's possible for end-users to report the information to Microsoft or the manufacturer of the program/driver etc.

If you run out of space on your system disk, you can delete the files using the Disk Cleanup tool.

The full lines are

  • Per user archived Windows Error Reports
  • Per user queued Windows Error Reports
  • System archived Windows Error Reports
  • System queued Windows Error Reports

The directories are

  • %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive
  • %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue
  • %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive
  • %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue

Here is a link to Microsoft's Windows Quality Online Services (Winqual) site.

P.S.: There are some known issues which can lead to very large files (several GBs). Read this blog post if you experience the same problem.

splattne
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  • How would keeping them help resolving a problem in the future? – Svish Jun 08 '09 at 10:34
  • I meant, if somebody wants to have a history for a very detailed debug session, it could be useful... but you're right. maybe I delete that section. – splattne Jun 08 '09 at 10:37
  • Presumably another option may be to move them somewhere (e.g. file share) for a while; then put them back in those directories before manually running "check for solutions" periodically; so they don't use up space generally, but you still get the benefit. Likely not worth it, but it's an option for those wanting to get full value out of those logs... – JohnLBevan Oct 25 '17 at 10:25