Bork Tuesday, Any Problems Yet?

Whoa

Did you end up deleting them all?

 

I just left them there. I am not worried about it right now.

 

Does anyone know what the provisioning scheduled task does? I could not find much information from a quick Google search.

 

this
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/configuration/provisioning-packages/provisioning-packages
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/w...ovisioning-packages/provisioning-how-it-works

provisioning creates in bad case a lot of tw-folders
see https://www.der-windows-papst.de/2021/06/15/disable-provisioning-logon-task/

download the pdf file to get detailed instructions (several options available)

 

I could never find the explanation of what this task does so thank you and thanks for the batch file, makes it much simpler to disable on multiple systems

 

I set the Provisioning task to disabled and left the 4,500 folders.

 

I could not deal with that--it would always bug me with that high number. But I guess if you see it like: I have 4500 empty boxes stashed in my attic--it would be like: out of sight, out of mind maybe.

 

I found 6,562 folders in that location, all of which are empty.

 

Unfortunately, those empty .tmp folders return.... despite having Provisioning set to 'Disabled'.

 

Yeah, how about that! I have that task disabled too and found about 100 new ones there. This time, I let HiBit delete them--it has an empty folder finder in its Tools section.

 

Great! Thanks plat. I didn't know about that feature in HiBit Uninstaller. Much easier and quicker than deleting them manually.

 

I just deleted them. I sorted the type and deleted what i wanted. I am not a computer professional, but just a backyard mechanic.

 

i had ~3800 empty folders, at least dont care, task disabled and folders deleted.

i have read this issue elsewhere longer ago and did not care because it did and do not harm my system. its just another annoying thing without any impact.

 

Cool.

 

Even if you disable all entries in the Provisioning folder?

 

With Provisioning task set to ‘disabled’…. Yes, they were back shortly after.
@pegas
When you say ‘all’…. Did I miss other options that could be disabled?

 

In my Win 10 installation, the folder contains the items listed below, all of which I disabled and no new tmp folders have appeared since then.

 

Weird. I found this folder on a Windows 10 machine and there were almost 7000 empty folders. Still can't find this path on Windows 11. Not even from an elevated command prompt.

Edit: Ok, I can see the files and folders with WizTree. Must be super hidden for some reason. Obviously I am showing hidden files and folders as I have since the days of Windows 95.

 

Edit 2: Even weirder. After I disabled the service that creates them I was able to see them.

 

same tree as windows 7, and for sure it also creates such empty folders.
ofc it may be hidden, and it need to confirm access with UAC to get access because it's a system folder.

%windir%\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local

for x86 and x64 same.

 

Thanks but after disabling the service it came up. Previous to disabling the service it told me that path did not exist. Which makes me wonder how much we should be messing with this stuff. Though no doubt it should not be leaving thousands of empty folders behind.

 

Hi everybody
After manually cleaning thousands of files I tried this program and it made me cleaning work easier

 

its a task, no service. and for private use it has no benefits, its for admin jobs.

 

It is amazing that this issue with empty folders in this particular folder is still around. I recall learning about this issue about 2 years ago. After research I found nothing conclusive so I let it be. I personally do not delete any files inside my System32 folder and recommend against doing it. However, if these folders annoy you then deleting them should not cause any problems.

This is one of those issues that creep into a software when each bit of code/sub code is not tested by the QA department before making it into the final build, and MS is well known for not having a QA dept in the first place and doing all their QA testing on consumers.

By the way, right now I have 20,314 folders in this \System32....\Local\ folder.

The earliest one is from 12/14/21, the day I did a fresh format and reinstall of Windows. I usually do a clean format and fresh install every 1-1.5 years, and my next one is due in a couple of months, so this folder will be reset to zero and restart accumulating from that point onward until the next format.

While you guys are discussing useless files, I seem to remember another folder called LCU (last cumulative update) C:\Windows\servicing\LCU\

On my system, even after using Windows update cleanup, it is about 1.3 GB in size and has 94,774 files and 39,050 folders.

This folder is apparently a temp folder that just has useless info on the last update service roll-up. If you don't intend to revert back after an update, or have your own backup software, then you do not need this folder. People have deleted this folder safely and have not encountered issues, but as usual, I let it be, and recommend against deleting it or anything inside it.

Windows is littered with such useless files and folders...