On a computer's hard drive, an orphan file is a support file (such as a DLL file) that no longer serves a purpose because the "parent" application it is associated with has been moved or uninstalled. Orphan files can be deleted manually if the user is confident that the file is not being used by any other application.

Is it safe to delete orphan files?

While you can delete those orphaned files right away with a click on the "delete" button, you may want to move them instead. ... If you delete the files without backup, you may run into serious update issues on the system that are not easy to fix.

What does Recovering orphaned file mean?

A parent program will attempt to recover orphan files when it is reinstalled. The installer searches the hard drive for the orphaned file that was left behind when installing again. This recovery attempt occurs when a necessary data file or user data was not uninstalled when the parent program was.