Windows 10: 9.2 GB Folder with unknown purpose in %programdata%

Hello,

I've been doing some hard disk cleanup and I ran into this folder in %programdata%. The folder itself consists of multiple sub directories of multiple sizes/content.

I can't seem to remove the folder(s) in any way allthough I'm admin on this machine. I tried to use FileShredder but that didn't work either. It just "shreds", pops up a message like "Some files couldn't be shredded" and says it's finished, but the folder content/size never changes.

I have a usable disk size of 118GB so 9.12GB wasted space is pretty significant/frustrating.

Any one who knows what I could try further?









:)

 

Really tough DNS hijacker

Nope, no suspicious/unknown programs at all in fact. Nor is there a program files folder, ProgramData folder, or registry entry for DNSUnlocker. Which is really annoying.

 

Unknown folder

Am using 7230 V 9.83.I have found an unknown folder 'cherry_conf' in collection after updated to 9.83.What's the purpose of that folder?Is there any problem in deleting it?

 

If you're sure - really really sure- you want to delete it you can press the shift key and left click restart, and reboot to a command prompt, and do it from there if you know how to use that.

Or boot your system from a boot disk such as Kyhi's (top of the Software and Apps section) and do it from file explorer. I.e. without Windows running from your internal disk.

 

Deleting folders that you don't know what there for, What could possibly go wrong.

 

Agreed. Caveat user, I guess. And unfortunately I can't make anything of the Dutch.

 

If you follow down the sub-folders, what are the actual files which are taking up the space?

 

@sml156 I know, right? No but all jokes aside, I made a restore point and my important documents are back upped online. I can't say I'm afraid to mess anything up, and if I do: just another lesson learned.

 

A WinSxS folder (about 4GB), which seems important but could be decreased in size according to Microsoft.
Clean Up the WinSxS Folder

Problem is, that doesn't work. The last time it ran was apparently "30-11-1999", and clicking "run" in the task scheduler doesn't seem to do anything. Note: the system is a Dell Lattitude E5450, so 1999 doesn't add up.

 

Hi there

I'd advise taking a proper backup say with Macrium (Free) BEFORE messing around -- The Windows save image isn't 100% reliable and isn't of much use if the machine doesn't boot !!!!!.

Save the macrium image to external device -- With macrium you can make bootable recovery media so you can restore image even if your HDD / Windows syystem gets totally hosed up.

No good also having data on the cloud if you can't get to it either.

I'd always like really important stuff to be available locally too. Nothing wrong in having duplicate copies in different places though.

Sometimes some of those weird numbers are just various (Windows) KB updates that have been applied.

Check also you haven't got some Windows.old files around - these can be deleted via the properties (eigen**** I think in your diagram) when mapping the HDD's.

My advice here - if you've the time is to re-install Windows again. Note though always take regular backups --with good FREE programs and cheap media there's no excuse these days NOT TO. !!!! Macrium is probably the most popular on this site but there are others as well if you don't like that one.



Cheers
jimbo

 

Thanks for the reply Jimbo.

Weird thing is, that I have a second E5450 laptop updated to the same Windows version (just did the Creators update last friday) and that one doesn't have any of those weird folders.

 

Hi there

@AJM94

You can then using Macrium image the second laptop and restore to the first --it will restore to different hardware.
On boot the first laptop will probably hunt around if it needs new drivers but it should work OK.

Probably far easier and quicker than re-installing Windows again. After boot change the computers name otherwise it will have same name as the second laptop -- even though on a network it will have a different IP address it's confusing if you have computers with the same name when browsing.

The digital licence will be maintained so you won't have to re-activate Windows again.

Tot Ziens !!!!!

Cheers
jimbo.

 

Just in case anyone here does not know - WinSxS is not the size it says it is, it lies, it tells fibs *Wink

WinSxS is actually a part of the Windows system that is in place to reduce the size of the operating system

I know this may seen strange but Windows has an issue due to it's long working life and the need to be backwards compatible with as many previous versions as possible

Over windows versions there are many versions of each Windows and related system files such as .DLL, and each program will look for it's own version that was there when it was designed, if it's not there it will install it either overwriting the current file or creating it's own local copy. .

What Windows does, (since Vista). is creates a symbolic link to the latest compatible .DLL and stores the Link in WinSxS, rather than install a Copy of the old DLL, ( which would cause either system issues for other programs or bloat from several very similar files scattered across the system ). As the program is instructed to find the .DLL in the WinSxS folder it always gets access to the Latest best file. It also applies to other system files

That explains the reasons behind WinSXS, but there is one major flaw in the system - Windows Explorer - this sees a Symbolic Link to have the size of the link target, this results in, e.g. ten symbolic links showing as different variations of a 50MB .DLL file to display in explorer as 500MB of files, when in reality the actual symbolic links are less than 1Mb in size in total - they are simple text files stating the address of the correct .DLL

If you check the size of the WinSxS folder with a file utility that displays actual file size not windows file size ( try something on a linux live disk), you should have a pleasant surprise

I have seen WinSxS folders that actually reported sizes that suggested that it and the rest of Windows was larger that the disk it was on - now that gets you thinking *Wink

 

Normally WinSxS is in C:\Windows, but your screenshot seems to be within ProgramData though.
That cleanup process will be working on the C:\Windows version I'm guessing.

 

C:\Program Data folder is mostly used by third party softwares to store info's such as: settings/preferences/Linsense Info/software updates/log files etc...
For example:
Revo Uninstaller by RS Revo group stores the lisense under RS Revo group\Revo Unstinstaller Pro
Macrium stores log files about each backup, PE files used to create Rescue disk etc...

It is strange that you have folders with just numbers nested so you either have some kind of malware or some badly written third party software. Try to see what's in the last nested folder to find out which software creates these folders.

Anyway, it is safe to delete these folders except you might have problem deleting them since the path is too long for these nested folders.