yet another temp directory

Hi All,

While hunting down junkware on a customer's computer, I
found yet another Temp directory where junkware was hiding
(I whacked it):

C:\Windows\SysWOW64\config\systemprofile\AppData\L ocal\Temp

I had no idea such a thing existed.

-T

T wrote:
Hi All,

While hunting down junkware on a customer's computer, I
found yet another Temp directory where junkware was hiding
(I whacked it):

C:\Windows\SysWOW64\config\systemprofile\AppData\L ocal\Temp

I had no idea such a thing existed.

-T

Try putting "Temp" in the Search box. I've found three here.

Ed

John wrote:
On Sat, 02 May 2015 12:36:20 +0100, Ed Cryer
wrote:

T wrote:
Hi All,

While hunting down junkware on a customer's computer, I
found yet another Temp directory where junkware was hiding
(I whacked it):

C:\Windows\SysWOW64\config\systemprofile\AppData\L ocal\Temp

I had no idea such a thing existed.

-T

Try putting "Temp" in the Search box. I've found three here.

And when you've finished with "Temp", try "tmp".
Also, some temporary directories are just randomish strings starting
with $ - the USDollar symbol.
There are other variations, too.
Isn't this *fun*!
J.


Ed

I think it's dangerous territory. There are a lot of people who love
cleaning up. That's a good thing in itself, but with IT -- beware!!!

The Temp ones hold the larger stuff. But some files are open to Windows,
and can't be deleted.

Ed

T wrote:
Hi All,

While hunting down junkware on a customer's computer, I
found yet another Temp directory where junkware was hiding
(I whacked it):

C:\Windows\SysWOW64\config\systemprofile\AppData\L ocal\Temp

I had no idea such a thing existed.

-T

It's like tribbles, pretty soon they're everywhere.


--
...winston
msft mvp consumer apps

". . .winston" wrote in message
...
T wrote:
Hi All,

While hunting down junkware on a customer's computer, I
found yet another Temp directory where junkware was hiding
(I whacked it):

C:\Windows\SysWOW64\config\systemprofile\AppData\L ocal\Temp

I had no idea such a thing existed.

-T

It's like tribbles, pretty soon they're everywhere.


--
...winston
msft mvp consumer apps

That's the trouble with tribbles.

There is most often nothing tricky or sinister involved at all.

A program frequently needs to communicate with another one started off by
the software of which it is part. Processes are asynchronous, that is they
do not run in order they are started, and one might need to know what
another one is up to. They can communicate for example using system or
environment variables, but a usual method is to create a file and put things
on it, which can be read by the other process.

Software needs to ensure that it is not interfered with by other software,
and so of course whatever it names the files must be unique and to make
things doubly safe, it creates a separate directory so that the files are
safer from clashes.

Obviously the programmer imagines her stuff will be constantly run by keen
followers so there is little point in removing the files and directories at
the end, (and asynchronicity might mean that 'the end' is not easy to
determine.) So she leaves them there.

The programmer is well aware that people go round deleting them, and it is
always safe to do so if you like, be aware that if the thing is running
while you do it you might cause funny results.

Thip wrote:
". . .winston" wrote in message
...
T wrote:
Hi All,

While hunting down junkware on a customer's computer, I
found yet another Temp directory where junkware was hiding
(I whacked it):

C:\Windows\SysWOW64\config\systemprofile\AppData\L ocal\Temp

I had no idea such a thing existed.

-T

It's like tribbles, pretty soon they're everywhere.


--
...winston
msft mvp consumer apps

That's the trouble with tribbles.

And even if there were a million %temp% folders,
a .NET update would still select a random partition
and put a folder with a long string of numbers and
letters in it. Who needs a %temp%, when your
installers can "crap anywhere" :-)

Paul

On Sat, 02 May 2015 20:28:40 -0400 "Paul" wrote in
article

And even if there were a million %temp% folders,
a .NET update would still select a random partition
and put a folder with a long string of numbers and
letters in it. Who needs a %temp%, when your
installers can "crap anywhere" :-)

Paul

LOL

Paul wrote:
Thip wrote:
". . .winston" wrote in message
...
T wrote:
Hi All,

While hunting down junkware on a customer's computer, I
found yet another Temp directory where junkware was hiding
(I whacked it):

C:\Windows\SysWOW64\config\systemprofile\AppData\L ocal\Temp

I had no idea such a thing existed.

-T

It's like tribbles, pretty soon they're everywhere.


--
...winston
msft mvp consumer apps

That's the trouble with tribbles.

And even if there were a million %temp% folders,
a .NET update would still select a random partition
and put a folder with a long string of numbers and
letters in it. Who needs a %temp%, when your
installers can "crap anywhere" :-)

Paul
It's like defrosting a fridge.
Frost eventually reappears on something.

I haven't seen on of those .Net generated folders in some time.
The only similar one I can find on this Win7 Pro system is the one
related (and known and expected) to GEARAspiWDM.sys which directly ties
to the date iTunes was installed.


--
...winston
msft mvp consumer apps

On Sun, 3 May 2015 01:17:49 +0100, Johnbee wrote:
A program frequently needs to communicate with another one started off by
the software of which it is part. Processes are asynchronous, that is they
do not run in order they are started, and one might need to know what
another one is up to. They can communicate for example using system or
environment variables


CAN they? I might be mistaken, but my understanding is that a program
inherits environment variables when it starts, and that it doesn't
know about subsequent changes. That's the case with the command
prompt, at least -- I just checked.

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
Shikata ga nai...

"Stan Brown" wrote:
On Sun, 3 May 2015 01:17:49 +0100, Johnbee wrote:

A program frequently needs to communicate with another one started off by
the software of which it is part. Processes are asynchronous, that is
they
do not run in order they are started, and one might need to know what
another one is up to. They can communicate for example using system or
environment variables

CAN they? I might be mistaken, but my understanding is that a program
inherits environment variables when it starts, and that it doesn't
know about subsequent changes. That's the case with the command
prompt, at least -- I just checked.

That's correct if you change "program" to "process," although the two often
appear to be the same to the user.
When a new process is started (e.g., by starting a new CMD window) it is
usually given a copy of the environment of the parent process, but any
subsequent changes to the environment data made by the child process through
the normal APIs is invisible to the parent. The distinction between
"program" and "process" is that a process can have multiple threads, which
might be running code within the thread-creating program or which might be
running code from another program loaded by the parent.

("Usually" because a parent creating a child process can optionally specify
a non-default environment block.)

Getting back to the OP's question: far too many programs create folders for
their own use in places where they shouldn't be making changes but unless
you know for sure that a TEMP folder doesn't need to exist I don't recommend
deleting it. However...if the computer is essentially doing nothing I
consider every file in a TEMP folder (and any lower-level folders) to be
fair game for deletion. The deletion will fail if the file is in use, but
I've yet to see any problems caused by deleting deletable files in a TEMP
folder.

Joe

On 05/02/2015 05:17 PM, Johnbee wrote:
There is most often nothing tricky or sinister involved at all.

Which is why junkware like to hide amongst them