Xbox Controller being used for PC Gaming.
Hannah Stryker / How-To Geek

The .GamingRoot file is created by the Xbox app on Home windows 10 and Home windows 11. The Xbox app makes use of a .GamingRoot file to determine drives it will possibly set up video games on. You’ll have a number of .GamingRoot information in case you use Xbox Sport Cross.

The .GamingRoot file is created by Microsoft’s Xbox app on Home windows 10 and Home windows 11. This can be a actual file—not a virus—and also you shouldn’t delete it. The Xbox app makes use of this file to determine drives it will possibly set up video games on.

What Is the .GamingRoot File?

The Xbox app makes use of the .GamingRoot file to determine drives you’ll be able to set up video games on. For instance, if in case you have Xbox Game Pass and use the Xbox app to put in PC video games for Home windows 10 or Home windows 11, you will notice certainly one of these information on every drive you put in video games on.

The .GamingRoot file is often hidden. You gained’t see it until you’ve chosen to show hidden files in File Explorer.

Should you do present hidden information you’ll doubtless see a .GamingRoot file in your C: drive in addition to another drives you’ve chosen to put in Xbox video games on. This can be a secondary inner drive or an exterior drive. For instance, if in case you have a D: drive you put in Xbox video games on, additionally, you will have a .GamingRoot file in your D: drive.

The file is positioned within the “root” of your drive. In different phrases, it’s in C: or D:, not in one other listing on that drive. Whereas the Xbox app could also be putting in video games to the C:XboxGames folder, it creates a .GamingRoot file at C:.GamingRoot.

The GAMINGROOT file on a C: drive on Windows 11.

To see which drives you’ve configured to put in video games, open the Xbox app, click on your title, click on “Settings,” and choose the “Common” class. Beneath “Sport Set up Choices,” you’ll see a dropdown menu with a listing of drives. All of the drives on this listing can have a GamingRoot file created on them by the Xbox app.

Choosing a drive to install games on in the Xbox app.

Can You Delete the .GamingRoot File?

We suggest towards deleting this file. Should you don’t use the Xbox app or play video games put in by way of the Xbox app in any respect, there’s no draw back to deleting it. Nevertheless, in case you do use the Xbox app or have Xbox Sport Cross video games put in, deleting the file could trigger issues with launching your put in video games or with putting in new video games.

The .GamingRoot file could be very small and barely takes up any house. Home windows reviews it takes up 28 bytes of house on our system—it’s nearly an empty file. You gained’t unlock any usable disk house by deleting it.

Since file doesn’t take up a lot house, so we suggest ignoring it. Should you discover it distracting, you’ll be able to all the time inform File Explorer to cover hidden information as soon as once more. (We hear you, although: We want Microsoft’s Xbox app wasn’t cluttering our drives up with this file, too.)

Whereas this file isn’t a virus, we suggest scanning your PC with a trustworthy antivirus program in case you’re involved it has a virus or different malware.

However Why Is It .GamingRoot and Not GamingRoot?

By the best way, in case you’re questioning why the file has a interval in entrance of it—in different phrases, why it’s “.GamingRoot” and never simply “GamingRoot”—this conference is from UNIX-like working methods like Linux and macOS moderately than Home windows. On Linux and different UNIX-like working methods, files with a period in front of their name are hidden by default.


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