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  2. $WinREAgent
FolderRisk: Caution
  • Hidden

$WinREAgent C:\$WinREAgent

Hidden working folder created during a Windows update or upgrade, tied to updating the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE).

Updated on By AltF4 Formation

What it’s for

$WinREAgent is a hidden folder created at the root of the drive during a Windows update or upgrade. The Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) agent uses it as a workspace when WinRE is updated or replaced, and keeps what it needs there to roll back if the operation fails. Its name echoes the agent (REAgent) that the reagentc command drives.

What it contains

  • Temporary files related to the WinRE update.
  • It may remain after the update ends, sometimes large.

Risks and best practices

  • Leave it in place during an update and until the restart that completes it. Once updates are finished and the system has restarted, it is generally no longer needed, so free the space with Disk Cleanup rather than by hand.
  • Do not confuse it with C:\Recovery or the recovery partition, which must be kept.
  • If a WinRE update fails, check WinRE status (reagentc /info) and the free space on the recovery partition before deleting anything.

Useful commands

Fenêtre de terminal
# As administrator: WinRE status
reagentc /info


# Presence and contents (hidden folder)
Get-ChildItem 'C:\$WinREAgent' -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-Object Name, LastWriteTime


# As administrator: simulated deletion (remove -WhatIf to run)
Remove-Item 'C:\$WinREAgent' -Recurse -Force -WhatIf

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