What is creating the hex folders (hex names in curly braces) that are piling up in my user's appdata/local folder?

Question

I am running Windows 7 on a recently bought HP PC (AIO-200-Quad).  I only have one user name defined on this PC.  I have one printer installed, plus Windows Live Mail, IE8, and Office 2010 H&S, and Norton Internet Security 2011.

The appdata/local folder for that user keeps getting new hex folder names (Long names containing Hex digits and dashes, surrounded by curly braces) created in it.  From 1 to 3 folders are created each day since the day after this PC was first powered up.  All of these folders are empty.  I haven't been able to directly correlate it to any specific activity that I'm doing yet, although there is some evidence that Norton scanning for spam e-mails is one of the culprits.

What application(s) or OS function(s) are creating these folders?  Can something be set so they are deleted when they are no longer needed? (Disk Cleanup does not delete them)  Are they safe to delete directly via Windows Explorer?

Answer 1

I think you'll find that at least some of these folders are created each time Windows Live Setup performs its twice-daily version check. You can compare the timestamps on the folders with the log files created at the same time at %localappdata%\Microsoft\WLSetup\Logs.

The product team say (via PM) that the folders are supposed to be deleted when setup is finished, and if they aren't, it might be because AV software has a lock on them. I don't believe that.

So long as they're empty, they can safely be deleted.

Answer 2

These folders are created by Windows Live Essentials programs. There is not fix yet.

I did a VB Script to clean this mess.

Enjoy it.

E.F.

Copy and paste into a VBS file.

'Script to clean bug folder - Windows Live Essentials Programs.Dim oShellSet oShell = CreateObject( "WScript.Shell" ) strLOCALAPPDATA=oShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%LOCALAPPDATA%") Dim objFSOSet objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")Dim objFolderSourceDim objFoldersDim objFolderSet objFolderSource = objFSO.GetFolder(strLOCALAPPDATA)Set objFolders = objFolderSource.SubFoldersFor Each objFolder in objFoldersIf Left(objFolder.Name,1) = "{" ThenIf objFolder.Files.Count = 0 And objFolder.SubFolders.Count = 0 ThenobjFSO.DeleteFolder objFolderSource & "" & objFolder.NameEnd IfEnd IfNextSet objFolderSource = NothingSet objFolders = NothingSet objFolder = NothingSet objFSO = NothingSet oShell = Nothing

Answer 3

This behaviour is corrected with the release of Windows Essentials 2012 on 7 August. The WLSetup process now properly uses the Temp folder for its temporary storage. They still need manual clearing-up, though.

Answer 4

Please can someone create a bug ticket for the developer team that is working on Windows Live Mail, thanks!

This particular bug, along with dozens of others, was reported more than a year ago. There have been no bugfixes for Windows Live Essentials since last May, and at most 36 since WLE 2011 was released in September 2010. I don't think there is a developer team that is working on Windows Live Mail, any more than there is one for Outlook Express or Windows Mail. Perhaps when W8 goes gold?

Noel

Answer 5

Copy one of them / paste it in google