Windows warning: Don't delete that weird 'inetpub' folder. Already did? Here's your fix

Windows 10 and Windows 11 users who installed last week’s April Patch Tuesday updates may have noticed a strange new folder appear on their system drive, or C drive. 

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Named “inetpub,” the folder is associated with Microsoft’s IIS (Internet Information Services), a component for hosting a website on your PC.  If you do not use IIS, you may think the new folder is unnecessary and simply delete it. Not so fast.

Leave it alone

The new folder is needed, though not for IIS. Instead, it is part of a security fix designed to squash a bug that could leave your PC vulnerable to attack. Specifically, the CVE-2025-21204 security flaw involves a scenario in which symbolic links are not handled properly and, therefore, could be exploited by an attacker to access or modify certain files and folders.

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That certainly sounds like a glitch that needed to be patched. The problem is that Microsoft failed to communicate why the inetpub folder was added. That led to confusion among Windows users and likely prompted many to delete the folder, thinking it had been created by mistake.

To address the confusion, Microsoft told Windows Latest that users should not remove the folder. The company also updated its advisory to clarify the purpose of the folder.

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“After installing the updates listed in the Security Updates table for your operating system, a new %systemdrive%inetpub folder will be created on your device,” Microsoft said. “This folder should not be deleted regardless of whether Internet Information Services (IIS) is active on the target device. This behavior is part of changes that increase protection and does not require any action from IT admins and end users.”

If you see the inetpub folder in Windows, just leave it alone. 

What if you already removed it? 

No problem. You can restore it by turning on IIS as follows:

1. Launch Control Panel in icon view, and select the applet for Programs and Features.
2. On the left side of the window, click the option for “Turn Windows features on or off.”
3. In the Windows Features box, check the option for “Internet Information Services.”
4. Click OK, and allow Windows to apply the changes.
5. Afterward, check your system drive, and you should see the inetpub folder back in place.

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Adding the folder by enabling IIS will create some files and subfolders, but they take up very little disk space. More importantly, turning on IIS creates the same folder with the same protection, Microsoft told Windows Latest.

So far, Microsoft has not publicly explained why the folder needed to be named inetpub. The company should have known that this would create confusion among Windows users. Hopefully, Microsoft will be more cautious and communicative the next time it adds a mysterious folder to Windows.

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