Strange files in System 32

Quasar

Hello,

Recently I have noticed an unexplained increase in memory use. I have run Ccleaner, SuperAntispyware, ad-aware, AVG and everything I have, but to no avail.

I have spent some time in window explorer and although I tend to leave System 32 well alone, I have had a look and there are loads of files that are not programs. When I click on a program file the dialog box warns me it is a program files, but the ones I'm talking about are files that Windows tells me it cannot open without knowing which program created them. Examples of the files are:

igfxhfiu.lhp
igfxhfra.lhp
....... (loads more)

then after a few legit program files

SET1E.tmp
SET2E.tmp
....... (loads more) I know these are temporary files.

There are other such items (where the dialog box asks me for the program which created them) embedded here and there among the program files.

My question is - are the above safe to delete? And how do I delete them en bloc, rather than one by one which is time consuming? Or am I just being silly?

Any suggestions gratefully received.

Conor_3

FOR GOD SAKE get the hell out of that folder. The files in there are system files, executables, dynamic link libraries, help filed, information files etc.

I suggest you delete all shortcuts to Explorer because you sound as if you're one of those people who just go ronud the system deleting stuff you "think" isn't needed then wonders why stuff doesn't work properly.

The igfx** files happen to be for your graphics card.

You're not being silly so much as downright stupid. THere's a saying: "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing."

Chippy_Minton

It's safer to leave the .lhp and any files in C:\windows well alone.

When you say 'memory' increase, do you mean hard drive space? Last Tuesday was the MS updates day and Office SP3 occurred recently, so that may account for the increase in drive usage.

Do a search for files bigger than say 100 MB if you delete stuff. Run Disk Cleanup to delete all but the last System Restore point, assuming you're happy you won't need to revert to an earlier point.

Quasar

Conor wrote: »

FOR GOD SAKE get the hell out of that folder. The files in there are system files, executables, dynamic link libraries, help filed, information files etc.

I suggest you delete all shortcuts to Explorer because you sound as if you're one of those people who just go ronud the system deleting stuff you "think" isn't needed then wonders why stuff doesn't work properly.

The igfx** files happen to be for your graphics card.

You're not being silly so much as downright stupid. THere's a saying: "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing."

Nope I'm not "one of those people" who go round deleting stuff. Before even considering that I ask more knowledgeable peeps, in case I have spyware of some nasties taking up my disc space. Which is what I have just done. And both my lappies work very well and the only time one had a problem was when the hard drive was dying - after 5 years of heavy use.

And those who know me also know that I'm not downright stupid, for the reason I gave above, among other things....

Quasar

Chippy_Minton wrote: »

It's safer to leave the .lhp and any files in C:\windows well alone.

When you say 'memory' increase, do you mean hard drive space? Last Tuesday was the MS updates day and Office SP3 occurred recently, so that may account for the increase in drive usage.

Do a search for files bigger than say 100 MB if you delete stuff. Run Disk Cleanup to delete all but the last System Restore point, assuming you're happy you won't need to revert to an earlier point.

Thanks for your constructive reply and for not resorting to pointless insults. Yes one evening there was a decrease in memory of about 500MB - no updates. CCleaner got rid of about 200MB if I remember correctly.

Red_Rose_Exile

Keep an eye on system restore, as it will take up to 12% of your hard drive if you haven't changed your settings

xJonny

I suggest you try googling all files that you think might be suspicious but don't touch them until it has been said more than once that it is in fact dangerous.

Here is a quote from Wikipedia:

Some programs create temporary files and then leave them behind - they do not delete them. This can happen because the program crashed or the developer of the program simply forgot to add the code needed to delete the temporary files after the program is done with them. The temporary files left behind by the programs accumulate over time and can take up a lot of disk space. System utilities, called temporary file cleaners or disk cleaners, can be used to address this issue.

.tmp files are supposed to be able to be deleted safely after use without any problems.

But, the tricky part is sometimes temporary files shouldn't be deleted though, since it might be relied on for use with an installer on reboot, etc. Generally it should be safe though.

About memory usage, have you installed any new programs, any new hardware, anything or is it just out of the blue?

Alfie_E

Let’s get out the big boy’s toys.

Kaspersky Lab Free Virus Scan
F-Secure Free Online Scanner

Kaspersky’s offering is a very deep inspection, and could take quite some time. Select My Computer for a complete scan. Ignore the fact that it’s described as a “Virus Scan”; it scans for a wide rage of potentially malicious software. If it starts picking things up, don’t panic. Let it complete and look at what it’s found. It’ll pick up quite minor things that are ad or privacy related, and they may be for programs you’ve made a willing choice to have on your system.

F-Secure have a particularly good rootkit detector. Rootkits are malicious programs that try to hide themselves from everything, including Windows itself.

If, after both of those along with AVG, you can’t find anything untoward, just put it down to the general build up of stuff that happens. Also, remember files are getting bigger these days. If you have a fast Internet connection, you can eat through hard disk space like there’s no tomorrow. If I look for big files... latest episode of the current series of Top Gear, one file, 615MB.