Unknown folder appeared suddenly

Question

A folder named "5a821702617226dcc1745c" has been created automatically today on my hard drive.

Windows has created it or what ? Is my pc hacked ?

What should be the reason behind the sudden appearance of this unknown folder ?

Answer 1

Hi AbhayShah, if this folder is found on the root of your C Drive, it is caused by Windows Update.

It can be safely removed, though to remove it you may need to take ownership of that folder

if you have problems changing the Security settings on that folder, click the link below to download a reg file from DropBox.

When the file downloads, right click it and choose 'Merge', then confirm the merge

Then you can right click that folder on your C Drive and choose 'Take Ownership'

Once that command completes, you can then delete it!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ek5gmtjmjf6d49r/Insta...

Answer 2

Hey there, AbhayShah78

Welcome to the Microsoft Community forums.

Whereabouts is that folder that has been created?

When did it get created?

What has been saved in the folder?

What was the last thing you did before that folder was created, or before you had noticed it?

This is quite puzzling. However, lets eliminate the possibility of a virus by getting you to run a full virus scan.

If you have Anti Virus software installed on your PC, please open it and run a full system scan on your computer and see if this brings up anything.

If you haven't installed Anti Virus Software yet, not to worry, Windows 10 has one built into it called Windows Defender. Please go to Start > Windows Defender security Centre and open it.

From here please run a full system scan of your machine by clicking onto Scan. If Windows does find something, it should try and remove the threat.

Please let me know the outcome, and hope this helps.

Regards,