WinAppMigratorThis page lists every folder and file the app, an installer, an uninstaller, and WinAppMigrator Client create, and why. Paths use Windows' usual short forms: %ProgramData% is normally C:\ProgramData, %ProgramFiles% is C:\Program Files, %LOCALAPPDATA% is C:\Users\You\AppData\Local, and %USERPROFILE% is C:\Users\You.
Most of it lives in one folder, %ProgramData%\WinAppMigrator, which only administrators can open. That matters, because what is kept there decides what runs with full rights later, and can hold secrets.
The app needs no install. It does not add itself to Settings, the Start menu, or anything else.
| What | Where | Why | When it goes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your light or dark choice | %LOCALAPPDATA%\WinAppMigrator\theme.txt |
Holds one word, light or dark. Written only when you click the sun or moon button. Installers and uninstallers run on that same account read it too. |
Stays. Delete it to go back to following Windows. |
| A log of each run | %ProgramData%\WinAppMigrator\logs\app-<date>-<time>-<number>.log |
What the app did, for when something goes wrong. Paths and key names only. | Only the last 20 logs, of all kinds, are kept. Each stops growing at 16 MiB. |
| The installer you built | The output folder, by default %USERPROFILE%\WinAppMigrator\<app name>
|
What you asked for. A big app adds a .wamdata file beside it. |
Stays until you delete it |
| The build's working folder | A folder named .winappmigrator-build- and some random letters, beside the output folder on the same drive. On a FAT32 or exFAT drive, in Windows' temp folder instead. |
Reports, the package's manifest, license files, drivers, and downloaded runtimes, while the installer is being written. Only administrators can open it. | Removed when the build ends, whether it worked, failed, or was cancelled |
| Copies of registry files | %ProgramData%\WinAppMigrator\hives |
Made when reading a connected drive, another PC over the network, or another account that is not signed in. Reading copies keeps the drive untouched. They can hold secrets. | Removed when the look is done. If the app was stopped part-way, it removes them the next time it starts. |
| Where a disk image is opened | A folder named i- and some random letters, in %ProgramData%\WinAppMigrator\images
|
Made when reading a disk image. Each volume on the image is opened on a folder inside it. It also holds a note of which image it is, and a lock file that says the app is still using it. Only administrators can open it. | Removed when the image is detached, which is when you pick another source or close the app. If the app was stopped part-way, it detaches the image and removes the folder the next time it starts. A restart of Windows detaches the image anyway. |
| The client, when you save it | The USB drive or folder you chose under Network PC… |
WinAppMigrator Client.exe, and WinAppMigrator Client - start here.txt, which says how to use it. Saving again there replaces them. |
Stays until you delete it |
The app also removes, when it starts, a temporary folder older versions left in %TEMP%, named winappmigrator-stub- and a number.
The client needs no install, and adds nothing to Settings or the Start menu. While it runs, it keeps four things on the old PC. See Moving from a PC over the network.
| What | Where | Why | When it goes |
|---|---|---|---|
| A copy of the client |
%ProgramFiles%\WinAppMigrator Client, named like WinAppMigrator Client 1234.exe, which is also its name in Task Manager |
The client runs from this copy, not from the USB drive or folder you started it from. Only an administrator can change this folder, so no DLL someone put beside the client can be loaded into it. | When the client stops, with the folder. After you close its window, or if it is ended another way, a moment later. If the PC shut down while the client ran, when the client next runs on that PC. |
| A snapshot of the Windows drive | Where Windows keeps its shadow copies | What the app reads, so that nothing is locked or changing while it does | When you press Enter in the client's window, or close it. If the PC shut down while the client ran, when the client next runs on that PC. |
| Two Windows Firewall rules, "WinAppMigrator Client (link)" and "WinAppMigrator Client (discovery)" | Windows Firewall | Let the client's own ports, TCP 47732 and UDP 47731, through, from the local network only | The same |
| Its record | %ProgramFiles%\WinAppMigrator Client\running.txt |
Names the snapshot, so that it and the rules can be removed even if the client was stopped part-way. Held open while the client runs, which is how a second one knows not to start. | When you press Enter or close the window. If the PC shut down while the client ran, the next run removes what it names, and starts a new record. Version 0.6.0 kept it in a WinAppMigrator Client folder in ProgramData instead, which stays, empty. |
| What | Where | Why | When it goes |
|---|---|---|---|
| The app itself | The install location you chose | The program files | When you uninstall |
| User data, with the User Data box ticked | The signed-in account's AppData, Documents, Saved Games, and ProgramData | Where the app expects it | It stays when you uninstall, unless you ask for it to go. |
| User data that could not go to its usual folder |
_external, inside the install location |
User data with the box unticked, and Documents or Saved Games files when this PC keeps that folder outside your profile. The installer says so before it starts. | It stays when you uninstall, unless you ask for it to go. |
| Settings, services, tasks, shortcuts, and the rest | Where each belongs | What the list in the installer's window said it would set up | When you uninstall |
| The app's entry in Settings | The registry's list of installed apps | So you can uninstall it like any other app | When you uninstall |
| The record of the install | %ProgramData%\WinAppMigrator\installs\wam-<id>\journal.jsonl |
The journal: what each change replaced, so it can be undone. It can hold registry values and environment variables as they were, which can be secret, so it is closed to everyone else. | When you uninstall |
| Files the install replaced | %ProgramData%\WinAppMigrator\installs\wam-<id>\backups |
The originals, with their permissions, so they can come back | When you uninstall, as they go back |
| The uninstaller | %ProgramData%\WinAppMigrator\installs\wam-<id>\uninstall.exe |
A bare copy of the installer stub, which the entry in Settings runs. Kept where only administrators can change it, never in the install folder. | It removes its own folder after it has finished. If it cannot, the next install removes it. |
| The unpacked package | A folder named winappmigrator-install- and some random letters. It goes in the first of these that can be used: %ProgramData%\WinAppMigrator\staging, if that is on the install location's drive with room for twice the package; then the install location's drive; then %ProgramData%\WinAppMigrator\staging on its own drive; then beside the installer, and then the temp folder, which are usually refused, and then the install does not go ahead |
The package, unpacked somewhere no one else can change it while it installs | Removed when the install or preview ends. One left by a crash is removed by the next installer run, once it is an hour old. |
| A runtime installer's working folder | %ProgramData%\WinAppMigrator\tool-temp |
A private temporary folder for a runtime's setup program, DISM, or winget | Removed afterward, or by the next installer run |
| A lock | %ProgramData%\WinAppMigrator\busy.lock |
Held while an install or uninstall runs, so only one runs at a time | The file can stay. It does nothing once nothing is running. |
| A log, when it installs | %ProgramData%\WinAppMigrator\logs\install-<date>-<time>-<number>.log |
What it did. A preview starts none. | Only the last 20 logs are kept. |
| A log of your own | Wherever --log said |
Only if you asked for one on the command line | Stays |
| Runtimes | Where Microsoft's installers put them | So the app can run | They stay, even when you uninstall. |
While a file is being written or removed, an install or uninstall holds the folder it is in by keeping a hidden file named .wam-pin- and some random letters open in it. It removes that file straight after. Only a power cut at that moment can leave one, empty and harmless.
| What | Where | Why | When it goes |
|---|---|---|---|
| A log | %ProgramData%\WinAppMigrator\logs\uninstall-<date>-<time>-<number>.log |
What it did | Only the last 20 logs are kept. |
| Originals beside changed files | Next to the changed file, named like settings.ini.before-install
|
A file the install replaced, where you have changed the file that replaced it since. Your change stays, and the original is not lost. | Stays until you delete it |
| Files you changed or added | Where they are | They are yours | Stay |
Logs are plain text. The date and time in each name are in UTC. Open one from an administrator's account. They name paths and registry keys, and never what a registry value, license file, or environment variable holds, which a test in the project checks.
- To remove everything the app keeps for itself: delete
%LOCALAPPDATA%\WinAppMigrator, and the logs under%ProgramData%\WinAppMigrator\logs. -
Do not delete
%ProgramData%\WinAppMigrator\installswhile an app installed this way is still on the PC. It is what that app's uninstaller works from, and each install'sbackupsfolder holds the only copies of the files that install replaced. Uninstall the app first, from Settings.
Last changed 2026-11-11. Describes WinAppMigrator as of its latest release, 0.6.0.