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#1
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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 |
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#2
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yet another temp directory
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 |
#3
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yet another temp directory
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 |
#4
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yet another temp directory
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 |
#5
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yet another temp directory
". . .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. |
#6
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yet another temp directory
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. |
#7
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yet another temp directory
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 |
#8
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yet another temp directory
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 |
#9
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yet another temp directory
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 |
#10
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yet another temp directory
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... |
#11
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yet another temp directory
"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 |
#12
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yet another temp directory
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 |
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