Is it safe to delete empty folders in Windows?

[Bogdan]

I want to ask. Is it safe to delete empty folders in Windows 7? I have a lot of them splattered around on my disk, some from uninstalled software and some in the windows folder.

[hackerman1]

it should be safe, but do NOT delete folders in the system folder (windows).

[HappyAndyK]

Well, generally speaking, it is safe to delete empty folders, although you would make no real space savings as they occupy 0 bytes. Nevertheless if it is just good house-keeping you are looking, you may go ahead.

You will in any case not be able to delete system generated folders. And even if you are able to delete Windows created empty folders, they will be re-created after a system reboot.

In some cases you may get a dialog box stating that you required permissions to do so. Best to skip or avoid forcefully deleting such folders.

Again, if Windows asks to provide administrative permissions to delete any folder, I recommend you say no or choose Skip.

In case the folders are from uninstalled Program Files folders, you can safely go ahead.

In case they are from current Program folders, you could still delete them. If the particular program requires it at any time, they will be re-created.

As matter of abundant precaution, for the first time, I'd suggest you empty your Recycle Bin, create a system restore point and then, if the software, allows you to, opt to delete the empty folders to the Recycle Bin, rather than just directly deleting them.

There are several free software available to delete empty folders - will blog about them soon.

UPDATE: Four free software to delete empty folders in Windows 7.

[Matrix]

This made me search for a similar old post of mine where I had asked if you could delete empty 0 byte files. Found it. So you cannot delete those files but you can delete the folders.

[Bogdan]

Thank you all for your answers. I wil do as you suggest.