What are These

[BobH]

alot.PNG

Using Everything to display my files, I find that have hundreds - if not thousands - of folders like the ones in the screen print. Each folder seems to have one or a few files with no identifiable extension taking about 5kb of space.

What are these folders? I can't tell from reading the path or looking at the files in them. Some seem to be associated with Windows and others with apps. Given the very large number of them, I wonder if they can be removed to recover disk space without causing problems. I could sort them by date and remove only the oldest ones - dating back to 2009. CCleaner and Glary Utilities have left them unmolested. Perhaps I should as well.

Suggestions?

[Rudi]

You could try the following (at your own risk)

Empty your recycle bin
Then delete all those folders to the recycle bin
Continue working on your PC as per normal over the next few days
Reboot your PC at some point during this time

-- If nothing complains or nothing is affected over this time you can empty your recycle bin
-- If errors occur or problems pop up that could be associated with these folders, go to the bin and restore its contents

Its just my Its the first thing that comes to my mind.
Others might have better suggestions, so I recommend to wait for other replies.

PS: Restoring from the recycle bin will send the folders back to their original locations, hence this being my test suggestion.

[Ted Myers]

Hello BobH, I got 190,096 entrys when I typed 0 (zero) not the alphabet character. I got a completely different result when I tried the same using 'Swiftsearch' portable app.

[stuck]

First thing that comes to my mind is, "If it ain't bust, don't fix it.", especially if Glary and Ccleaner leave them in place. Have you also run:
- Malwarebytes
- a full scan within your AV application
Again ,if they come out clean, why worry?

Ken

[BobH]

Thank you, all, for the information and suggestions.

I have left this situation alone, but I have limited HDD space and would like to all possible space available for use by applications.

I'm going to continue to research the issue. If I find definitive solutions I'll repost here.