Solved Hundreds of thousands of folders in %Temp% cause really slow logons

Wynona · Feb 12, 2022

ThrashZone said:
Hi,
Just shows win-11 isn't all that great once again.

Welp, ya gotta throw in Windows 10, then. I got as many temp files from 10 as I did with 11.

ThrashZone · Feb 12, 2022

Wynona said:
Welp, ya gotta throw in Windows 10, then. I got as many temp files from 10 as I did with 11.

Hi,
Yeah there really is so few real differences between the two os's
Funny someone posted the 11 storage options for temp files

Issue is protected system files are exempt from being included using that option lol otherwise they wouldn't be there after clearing temp files.
Seems windows.old is barely included :lmao:

Wynona · Feb 12, 2022

f14tomcat said:
View attachment 21653

I just cleaned 'em all out. We'll see if my computer continues to respond as I go about my daily tasks.

ThrashZone · Feb 12, 2022

Wynona said:
I just cleaned 'em all out. We'll see if my computer continues to respond as I go about my daily tasks.

Hi,
Don't worry that process does not work anyway lol

Wynona · Feb 12, 2022

ThrashZone said:
Hi,
Don't worry that process does not work anyway lol

Ummm, they're all gone. Except for a couple or three. Gonna go look again.

hsehestedt · Feb 12, 2022

Funny thing is that I previously posted about this same issue, but at the time I didn't know what the solution to the slow logon problem was. I eventually ended up reinstalling Windows from scratch (I wanted to do so anyway because I had other issues I wanted to address).

When it happened to me again this time, and also happened on my laptop, I was determined to find the underlying cause of it.

Through a series of tests, I knew for sure that it was something in my user profile. After eliminating everything else, the fact that my temp folder had several hundred thousand folders really caught my attention.

What just surprises me is whatever is creating these doesn't clean up after itself.

I may eventually do some work to track down what causes this, but for now I'm just thrilled that I went from several minutes to logon to near instant.

glasskuter · Feb 12, 2022

Ghot said:
mainly, this one

I wouldn't have noticed that location since I run ccleaner every few days and pay no attention to where it removes temporary files from.

Duly noted, Ghot. You don't need a pass. You go straight to GO.
@ThrashZone Damn, I thought we had him. Guess we're going to have to keep looking for something to catch him on.

Bree · Feb 12, 2022

hsehestedt said:
Has anyone else observed anything like this or does anyone know what a cause for this is?

No, both my %temp% and C:\Windows\Temp are nearly empty in Win11. Yours may be due to some software you have installed that's not very good at cleaning up after itself.

thomaseg1 · Feb 12, 2022

I use a program called System Ninja....gets rid of some the others don't see.
But with all such programs Be Careful so you don't delete something vital.

humbird · Feb 12, 2022

I had the problem with the ones in C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local. Disabled the logon task for provisioning tool and that solved that. I am not having the problem in the other two locations.

Edit. Actually, I do have the folders in C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp . They are the Guid folders mostly. Some are empty which I deleted but some have lots of files including .dll files. Are those safe to delete also? I don't have many and the dates are scattered, (not being created everyday). Are these also safe to delete? One was created this morning that is loaded with .dll files

humbird · Feb 14, 2022

I did delete them and have not had a problem. I left them in recycle bin for a few days just in case. All gone last night. Booted right up (fast) this morning.

Wynona · Feb 14, 2022

humbird said:
I had the problem with the ones in C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local. Disabled the logon task for provisioning tool and that solved that. I am not having the problem in the other two locations.

Edit. Actually, I do have the folders in C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp . They are the Guid folders mostly. Some are empty which I deleted but some have lots of files including .dll files. Are those safe to delete also? I don't have many and the dates are scattered, (not being created everyday). Are these also safe to delete? One was created this morning that is loaded with .dll files

View attachment 21790

I see you have deleted these and have no problems so far.

The only files I will delete are .tmp and .temp. Once I had them all listed, I did a Ctrl-A then hit the delete button. Gone. I've never had a problem with deleting temporary files, but I am a bit paranoid about .dll files . . .

hsehestedt · Feb 14, 2022

Just an update: I've been running for a couple days since deleting the contents of my %Temp% folder and have experienced zero problems on my desktop and laptop. The only effect it has had is that I now have blazingly fast logons :)

humbird · Feb 14, 2022

Wynona said:
The only files I will delete are .tmp and .temp. Once I had them all listed, I did a Ctrl-A then hit the delete button. Gone. I've never had a problem with deleting temporary files, but I am a bit paranoid about .dll files . . .

Yes, me too. All of them were the same dll files in each of the folders I was concerned about. I deleted all but the most recent one. So far I haven't had even a hiccup, but am waiting to see if there will be any problems.

humbird · Feb 14, 2022

hsehestedt said:
Just an update: I've been running for a couple days since deleting the contents of my %Temp% folder and have experienced zero problems on my desktop and laptop. The only effect it has had is that I now have blazingly fast logons

So far so good for me too. Did your folders contain .dll files like mine did?

thomaseg1 · Feb 14, 2022

Just a note ( for newbies ) You don't have to be too afraid of deleting temp files. Though you should " back up your files "
regularly . Windows will not let you delete files in use.

hsehestedt · Feb 15, 2022

thomaseg1 said:
Just a note ( for newbies ) You don't have to be too afraid of deleting temp files. Though you should " back up your files "
regularly . Windows will not let you delete files in use.

That's exactly what I experienced and this also answers @humbird question. I did have a small number of folders that had .DLL files, but Windows would not allow me to delete those.

humbird · Feb 15, 2022

hsehestedt said:
That's exactly what I experienced and this also answers @humbird question. I did have a small number of folders that had .DLL files, but Windows would not allow me to delete those.

Yeah, temp is temp but .dll files is another thing. Windows did not give me a hard time about deleting them though. It did say I would need to give admin permission, then proceeded to delete them.

CornishRattler · Feb 15, 2022

humbird said:
Yeah, temp is temp but .dll files is another thing. Windows did not give me a hard time about deleting them though. It did say I would need to give admin permission, then proceeded to delete them.

I had 3 of 4 folders with exactly the same .dll files in, kept the latest ones as I think you mentioned earlier. I booted Windows earlier and switch immediately to the %temp% folder, you can catch entries being created in there if your quick enough

nomsdictate · Aug 17, 2022

Microsoft has always been bad at housekeeping and scatters log and temp files all over the place.
Other applications also like to write to %temp% without doing any cleanup.
If you have a small SSD as a system drive, like me, you may want to relocate the windows temp folder to another drive.
I use an elevated command prompt and remove the %temp% folder on the system drive.
Then I create a temp folder on another drive and use sysinternals junction tool to redirect the system temp folder elsewhere.
e.g. junction.exe c:\windows\temp D:\TMP