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Question on empty folders in appdata folder
Hey gang,
I recently noticed I had several empty folders in my username-appdata-local folder. These empty folders, and there were several, were named with a sequence of letters/numbers enclosed in parenthesis- nothing that really easily identified what program put them there. I am assuming these same empty folders are probably safe to delete out of there? I am guessing some apps put them there for temporary usage, and when done just leave behind an empty folder? I know they take up no space as each folder shows as 0 kb, but I like a clean folder if you know what I mean. I deleted all of these around 4-5 days ago - they are still in my recycle bin "just in case", but so far have seen no evidence they were in fact required to remain in there. Since deleting the several that were there, there have been two new ones put in, that are empty as well. Any thoughts on this? Thanks, -- Don |
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#2
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Question on empty folders in appdata folder
They are safe to delete.
Are you buy any chance using a Windows Live Essential application (Mail, Messenger, PhotoGallery etc.) ? -- ....winston msft mvp mail "Don B" wrote in message ... Hey gang, I recently noticed I had several empty folders in my username-appdata-local folder. These empty folders, and there were several, were named with a sequence of letters/numbers enclosed in parenthesis- nothing that really easily identified what program put them there. I am assuming these same empty folders are probably safe to delete out of there? I am guessing some apps put them there for temporary usage, and when done just leave behind an empty folder? I know they take up no space as each folder shows as 0 kb, but I like a clean folder if you know what I mean. I deleted all of these around 4-5 days ago - they are still in my recycle bin "just in case", but so far have seen no evidence they were in fact required to remain in there. Since deleting the several that were there, there have been two new ones put in, that are empty as well. Any thoughts on this? Thanks, -- Don |
#3
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Question on empty folders in appdata folder
On 3/22/2012, Don B posted:
Hey gang, I recently noticed I had several empty folders in my username-appdata-local folder. These empty folders, and there were several, were named with a sequence of letters/numbers enclosed in parenthesis- nothing that really easily identified what program put them there. I am assuming these same empty folders are probably safe to delete out of there? I am guessing some apps put them there for temporary usage, and when done just leave behind an empty folder? I know they take up no space as each folder shows as 0 kb, but I like a clean folder if you know what I mean. I deleted all of these around 4-5 days ago - they are still in my recycle bin "just in case", but so far have seen no evidence they were in fact required to remain in there. Since deleting the several that were there, there have been two new ones put in, that are empty as well. Any thoughts on this? Thanks, You're lucky, I don't have any of those in my AppData\Local directory. Are they enclosed in parentheses "()" or in curly braces "{}"? If the latter, they are most likely GUIDs left over from some installation or uninstallation process, and are harmless, AFAIK. Especially since they are empty. GUIDs (Globally Unique IDentifiers) are supposed to be random hexadecimal values grouped with hyphens, and they look like this made-up example: {01234567-89ab-cdef-0123-456789012345} They are sometimes randomly generated. They have many characters to minimize the possibility of coincidences. Thirty-two hex digits corresponds to 128 bits, hence can take on around 3e38, or 3 times 10 to the 38th, different values. There are probably hundreds in the Registry. You could copy the value from one of your folders and search within the registry for entries containing that value. That might give you a clue, but there are no guarantees, unfortunately. Or just ignore the above & follow ...winston's advice :-) -- Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch) |
#4
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Question on empty folders in appdata folder
On 3/22/2012 1:12 PM, ...winston wrote:
They are safe to delete. Are you buy any chance using a Windows Live Essential application (Mail, Messenger, PhotoGallery etc.) ? Thanks Winston - and while I have Windows Live installed, have not used it in quite some time... Thanks, -- Don |
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Question on empty folders in appdata folder
On 3/22/2012 1:23 PM, Gene E. Bloch wrote:
You're lucky, I don't have any of those in my AppData\Local directory. Are they enclosed in parentheses "()" or in curly braces "{}"? If the latter, they are most likely GUIDs left over from some installation or uninstallation process, and are harmless, AFAIK. Especially since they are empty. GUIDs (Globally Unique IDentifiers) are supposed to be random hexadecimal values grouped with hyphens, and they look like this made-up example: {01234567-89ab-cdef-0123-456789012345} They are sometimes randomly generated. They have many characters to minimize the possibility of coincidences. Thirty-two hex digits corresponds to 128 bits, hence can take on around 3e38, or 3 times 10 to the 38th, different values. There are probably hundreds in the Registry. You could copy the value from one of your folders and search within the registry for entries containing that value. That might give you a clue, but there are no guarantees, unfortunately. Or just ignore the above & follow ...winston's advice :-) Actually yes, upon looking again, the are enclosed in curley brackets, and certainly look like the GUID's you mention... I have installed a few programs of late, probably explains them. Thanks , -- Don |
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Question on empty folders in appdata folder
To fill in some blanks regarding the hex named Zero-byte AppData/Local/ e.g.
{2F4F9A60-....} folders WL Essentials: WL Essentials will create these folders (when in use) since it has the ability to do at least three 'phone-home' type hard coded 'features' - Technically a bug in the program (unresolved at least through 2011 QFE2) since the files should be placed in the AppData/Local/Temp folder for Windows to cleanup (but they're not). - The suite is version aware and has the ability to determine if an update is available (i.e. a current version request), if available the program(s) are capable of displaying an 'Update' prompt (outside of Windows/Microsoft Update) - The mail client will auto-poll (regardless of user configuration settings disabled - Send immediately/Send every x minutes). I.e. It's 'Live' and by design intended for use with Live services (i.e. Hotmail type accounts to ensure mail, contacts, calendar are in sync)...the use or not use of a Live ID to sign on to Live services is not relevant to the polling and likewise it does not matter if present mail accounts are pop3/IMAP/HTTP...it auto-polls regardless approx. every hour (afaics about 71 min) - The Messenger client (since it requires a Live ID signon) when in use, is always communicating back and forth to ensure that contacts and social connected services data is current. While very little info is publicly available on exactly what in WLE creates them, they are created...one may also notice that sometimes they are in groups of two (with similar time stamps). WLE QFE3 was released a few days ago and I don't know (haven't really looked either) if the annoyance is still present. Like everyone else, I delete them if I happen to open that folder, if not I just ignore them (zero byte folders from WLE while a nuisance have yet to be proven to create problems). Other application softwa - Other programs (install/uninstall etc.) may also incorrectly place folders in the same location instead of the AppData/Local/Temp folder (sometimes due to not being coded to accommodate the differences between XP and Vista/Win7). The registry: Attempting to find those {DCBC2A71..} like folder name values in the registry may be fruitless (they just don't exist)..since not being written to the *.dat file I.e. If zero bytes, delete them to the Recycle bin, then empty at a later time. If one of those is in use (unlikely) Windows will usually complaint with a message (e.g. Access Denied, Try Again, etc.) -- ....winston msft mvp mail "Don B" wrote in message ... On 3/22/2012 1:23 PM, Gene E. Bloch wrote: You're lucky, I don't have any of those in my AppData\Local directory. Are they enclosed in parentheses "()" or in curly braces "{}"? If the latter, they are most likely GUIDs left over from some installation or uninstallation process, and are harmless, AFAIK. Especially since they are empty. GUIDs (Globally Unique IDentifiers) are supposed to be random hexadecimal values grouped with hyphens, and they look like this made-up example: {01234567-89ab-cdef-0123-456789012345} They are sometimes randomly generated. They have many characters to minimize the possibility of coincidences. Thirty-two hex digits corresponds to 128 bits, hence can take on around 3e38, or 3 times 10 to the 38th, different values. There are probably hundreds in the Registry. You could copy the value from one of your folders and search within the registry for entries containing that value. That might give you a clue, but there are no guarantees, unfortunately. Or just ignore the above & follow ...winston's advice :-) Actually yes, upon looking again, the are enclosed in curley brackets, and certainly look like the GUID's you mention... I have installed a few programs of late, probably explains them. Thanks , -- Don |
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Question on empty folders in appdata folder
"...winston" wrote in message ... - The mail client will auto-poll (regardless of user configuration settings disabled - Send immediately/Send every x minutes). I.e. It's 'Live' and by design intended for use with Live services (i.e. Hotmail type accounts to ensure mail, contacts, calendar are in sync)...the use or not use of a Live ID to sign on to Live services is not relevant to the polling and likewise it does not matter if present mail accounts are pop3/IMAP/HTTP...it auto-polls regardless approx. every hour (afaics about 71 min) - The Messenger client (since it requires a Live ID signon) when in use, is always communicating back and forth to ensure that contacts and social connected services data is current. Some time ago I noticed that every time I ran Windows Live Mail it phoned home to he config.messenger.msn.com Since I don't use any of the 'Live sign-in' crap or Messenger and I don't want it to phone anywhere behind my back I edited msmail.dll with a hex editor to mangle the address to something like this: confug.messenger.mzn.com That seems to stop it. |
#8
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Question on empty folders in appdata folder
Dave-UK wrote:
Some time ago I noticed that every time I ran Windows Live Mail it phoned home to he config.messenger.msn.com Since I don't use any of the 'Live sign-in' crap or Messenger and I don't want it to phone anywhere behind my back I edited msmail.dll with a hex editor to mangle the address to something like this: confug.messenger.mzn.com That seems to stop it. Someone at Microsoft has read this message, and is busy this morning, adding a "confug.messenger.mzn.com" to their servers. After all, we don't want any of that fine, sweet, information to get lost. It's like in earlier OSes, where you go to do a local file search, and the computer sends a few packets off to Microsoft as well. One way to do this without a hex editor, is to put some entries in the "host" file. Something like this. This remaps a given symbolic address, to the local loopback address, so the packet never leaves the computer. nosey.microsoft.com 127.0.0.1 You could handle your problem that way, as long as the program making the report to Microsoft, doesn't wait two minutes for a timeout in software to occur. If there was a pronounced delay because of that, then your "whack a mole" hex editor solution sounds good :-) The only entries I have in my "hosts", are as many Facebook tracking addresses as I could add to the table. I don't have a Facebook account, and I also don't appreciate being tracked by virtually every web site I visit. There are web sites, that provide copies of "host" files with all sorts of nuisances redirected to 127.0.0.1 loopback address, to reduce tracking. You can take one of those lists, and edit it to suit your own tastes in redirection. The "host" file, is basically a local DNS lookup, which overrides the network DNS, and provides your own local definition of a limited set of addresses. http://www.windowsreference.com/wind...windows-vista/ http://www.tweaksforgeeks.com/window...s-file-ignored Paul |
#9
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Question on empty folders in appdata folder
"Paul" wrote in message ... Dave-UK wrote: Some time ago I noticed that every time I ran Windows Live Mail it phoned home to he config.messenger.msn.com Since I don't use any of the 'Live sign-in' crap or Messenger and I don't want it to phone anywhere behind my back I edited msmail.dll with a hex editor to mangle the address to something like this: confug.messenger.mzn.com That seems to stop it. Someone at Microsoft has read this message, and is busy this morning, adding a "confug.messenger.mzn.com" to their servers. After all, we don't want any of that fine, sweet, information to get lost. It's like in earlier OSes, where you go to do a local file search, and the computer sends a few packets off to Microsoft as well. One way to do this without a hex editor, is to put some entries in the "host" file. Something like this. This remaps a given symbolic address, to the local loopback address, so the packet never leaves the computer. nosey.microsoft.com 127.0.0.1 You could handle your problem that way, as long as the program making the report to Microsoft, doesn't wait two minutes for a timeout in software to occur. If there was a pronounced delay because of that, then your "whack a mole" hex editor solution sounds good :-) The only entries I have in my "hosts", are as many Facebook tracking addresses as I could add to the table. I don't have a Facebook account, and I also don't appreciate being tracked by virtually every web site I visit. There are web sites, that provide copies of "host" files with all sorts of nuisances redirected to 127.0.0.1 loopback address, to reduce tracking. You can take one of those lists, and edit it to suit your own tastes in redirection. The "host" file, is basically a local DNS lookup, which overrides the network DNS, and provides your own local definition of a limited set of addresses. http://www.windowsreference.com/wind...windows-vista/ http://www.tweaksforgeeks.com/window...s-file-ignored Paul Thanks, I hadn't considered a hosts file solution. I was so ****ed off I just had a knee-jerk reaction and decided to blast away at the dll! :-) |
#10
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Question on empty folders in appdata folder
In message , Dave-UK
writes: [] Some time ago I noticed that every time I ran Windows Live Mail it phoned home to he config.messenger.msn.com Since I don't use any of the 'Live sign-in' crap or Messenger and I don't want it to phone anywhere behind my back I edited msmail.dll with a hex editor to mangle the address to something like this: confug.messenger.mzn.com That seems to stop it. As well as the hosts file solution someone mentioned, wouldn't a firewall also have caught it? With my (very ancient) firewall, whenever something tries to call out, I get a popup, which has permit and deny buttons, as well as the option to select always permit or deny for that particular application/site combination. -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf "Mr. Notlob, there's nothing wrong with you that an expensive operation can't prolong!" - Monty Python |
#11
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Question on empty folders in appdata folder
"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in message ... In message , Dave-UK writes: [] Some time ago I noticed that every time I ran Windows Live Mail it phoned home to he config.messenger.msn.com Since I don't use any of the 'Live sign-in' crap or Messenger and I don't want it to phone anywhere behind my back I edited msmail.dll with a hex editor to mangle the address to something like this: confug.messenger.mzn.com That seems to stop it. As well as the hosts file solution someone mentioned, wouldn't a firewall also have caught it? With my (very ancient) firewall, whenever something tries to call out, I get a popup, which has permit and deny buttons, as well as the option to select always permit or deny for that particular application/site combination. -- Possibly, but I've had a quick look at the Windows firewall settings and although I can block wlmail.exe (which I don't want to block) I can't see a way of blocking config.messenger.msn.com which is called by msmail.dll via wlmail.exe . |
#12
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Question on empty folders in appdata folder
In message m, Dave-UK
writes: "J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in message ... In message , Dave-UK writes: [] Some time ago I noticed that every time I ran Windows Live Mail it phoned home to he config.messenger.msn.com Since I don't use any of the 'Live sign-in' crap or Messenger and I don't want it to phone anywhere behind my back I edited msmail.dll with a hex editor to mangle the address to something like this: confug.messenger.mzn.com That seems to stop it. As well as the hosts file solution someone mentioned, wouldn't a firewall also have caught it? With my (very ancient) firewall, whenever something tries to call out, I get a popup, which has permit and deny buttons, as well as the option to select always permit or deny for that particular application/site combination. -- Possibly, but I've had a quick look at the Windows firewall settings and although I can block wlmail.exe (which I don't want to block) I can't see a way of blocking config.messenger.msn.com which is called by msmail.dll via wlmail.exe . Ah, since it (Kerio Personal Firewall alias KPF, 2.1.5) is a very old version even for XP, I doubt it'll work on 7 (-:! However, its descendant - Sunbelt somethingorother (I think it's called VIPRE now, but that's a complete suite, not just a firewall) probably does, though, as it's a current project. -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf Quantum particles: the dreams that stuff is made of - David Moser |
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