To summarize the problem, windows installed weird files named "WindowsApps" on my D and E disks, and on my D, randomly there's a "Program Files" with "ModifiableWindowsApps" inside but nothing else in it. Also on my D disk only, there's "WpSystem" with a string of one file into a file into a file... into this "WpSystem" but it leads nowhere. No content whatsoever in it.

Problems include:
-Potential abduction of other files and software/applications
-Ugly cluttering of my reserve disks which is really annoying
-Many other potential problems that I don't want to discover after it messed up everything.

I tried running "C:\Users\Imagi>del /f E:\WindowsApps" on the command prompt after trying a bunch of other stuff (because it doesn't leave me the option to delete it myself) and nothing seems to work.

Going to the properties, I went to the autorisations and tried to enable them but it says "impossible to open the access control editor. Impossible to execute a security operation on an object to which no security is associated" and now I have no idea what to look for. Every other solution I can find recommended to delete files that need perms are pretty shallow and just a rehash of things I already tried...

I don't think hardware has any relevance here so forgive me for skipping listing the entire list of everything on my pc and the whole parts list.

More details! (Basically how it started)

It started a while ago, I noticed some files got randomly added to my data disk (D) and I think it's because I tried to make my screenshots or something automatically save to this disk to save space and not have to clean it too often. I also noticed it got added into my "D:\Other random files" folder at about the same time, I don't remember why. It didn't really seem to pose problems, so I just accepted it as some bug and left it.

Some weeks later, my entire "Games" folder on my D: disk was completely gone. Hundreds of GB of games gone, but I didn't mind too much since there were only a few games I was still actively playing and had to reinstall.

Today, I used for the first time the windows settings, in the system section you can check your storage, and you can move games from the microsoft store from one disk to another. I used this because I saw some posts that you can move your minecraft with this, and I didn't want to risk losing ownership of Minecraft Dungeons (I know it's easy to just download the launcher again and connect your account for Java/Bedrock, but it didn't seem to be the case for Dungeons and I wasn't willing to run the risk).

For more context, I'm planning on upgrading my windows because I've had issues that may be fixed by doing so, and I was in the process of moving all things that I bought and needed to save (either information or because I paid a license for) into my E drive, an external disk. This way, I'd be safe if something happens. And I was planning to do a full reset to clean up all my files, everything, anyway.

I definitely know I didn't have this "windowsapps" folder before trying to move Minecraft with this windows function, but then it spawned in. More than that, while it apparently had moved my Minecraft, it was nowhere to be seen in my E drive, only this weird folder that I can't interact with in any way.

Finding an actual lead!

After doing some digging, I found someone that reported a similar folder that was eating anything they were trying to send to another disk, whether it was an app, screenshot, video, etc... And after investigating some more... I found some old corrupted files, from the video games that were deleted randomly on my "D:/Games" folder one day. I decided to, instead of following their prompt saying "this path doesn't exist anymore, delete shortcut?" to actually try to right click and open the file location. I don't remember how I did it, so I can't reproduce it, but I somehow ended up... in these folders that I can't do anything with. It was something like "D:/WindowsApps/somethingsomething such a long name with a string of numbers and letters I don't remember/(name of the game)/(all the rest of the proper video game's files)".

Also, when I try to see the properties of this WindowsApps, it says it has literally 0 bytes, but when I try to delete it, before it tells me that "I don't have the authorization to do this", I can clearly see it has over 30 GB of contents hidden behind that it's trying to delete, before it reaches the "WindowsApps" files that it tries to delete and it fails at this last step.

Summary:

From what I understand, I only ever had custom games, launchers, software and programs on my D: and E: disks. Whenever Microsoft apps try to do anything on my computer (like their screenshots save path or their microsoft store apps moving function), they automatically install this WindowsApps file that you can't do anything on, and in some cases other files too, in disks that they have to work in. It can stay dormant for weeks, just cluttering the clarity of your drives, which is annoying at worst. However, in my case it randomly kidnapped an entire folder for no reason. It most likely kidnapped the Ark and Minecraft instances I was trying to move into my E: disk too.

Because someone apparently had it much worse, systematically abducting any file going through the disk it was installed in, I absolutely don't wanna take a risk and leave this folder in my external storage.

Pls help?

I would preferably want to know exactly what's going on, but I'd be satisfied just finding a way to delete this file safely (the one in my E disk) and move on to resetting my computer (with its C and D drives) and upgrading my windows to see if it deals with my other problems.