Suspicious folder named "a" inside the root directory of my C drive?

SilichipX · Oct 5, 2025

Hi, just wondering what I should do! It has a bunch of sketchy files in the folders, and I have scanned with Malwarebytes, and it came out clean. Just wanted to know if I could delete it without my laptop getting messed up and causing me to reinstall Windows 11 again.

Thanks for your time!

pseymour · Oct 5, 2025

Looks like the Edge User Data folder from the local AppData folder (%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Edge). Either you or some program probably copied it there.

glasskuter · Oct 5, 2025

The folder named "A" and about 25 other strange folders were written to the root of C on 5/10/25 with the exact same timestamp.
Go to control panel. Open programs and features. Look for an application with that same date and timestamp. If you don't have anything listed. Open the folders and see what files are there that might tell you exactly what the folders are related to.

You can also open settings>apps>installed apps and look for 5/10/25

A thought. One of those folders is named Origintrials and another is named Safe Browsing. Have you installed an ad blocker?

pseymour · Oct 5, 2025

glasskuter said:
A thought. One of those folders is named Origintrials and another is named Safe Browsing. Have you installed an ad blocker?

Those are there in my Edge data, and I only ever use Edge when I click it accidentally. :)

SilichipX · Oct 6, 2025

Hi again, I spent a good portion of the day going through your suggestions and here's what I found...

I've gone through all the Microsoft Edge browser settings, and the only recent change was the enhanced security settings as recommended by ThioJoe's video a week ago, but I don't think this was the issue, and I disabled them for now.

I recently installed AdGuard on the timestamp 5/10/25 and went through all the settings and couldn't find anything related to this issue, but just to be sure, I uninstalled AdGuard using Revo Uninstaller Pro and checked through the leftover files and found nothing.

The one thing remaining to do is to open both the Edge User AppData directory and the folder named A, individually check each folder and file, but it seems the folder named A is inactive, as shown in the Edge Wallet folder directory above, and presumed to be safe to delete from my C drive. I have now re-enabled the enhanced security settings in Microsoft Edge and reinstalled AdGuard again, but the mysterious folder named A never returned, and all is working well.

Thank you very much, fellows, for your assistance! Most appreciated. John

OAT · Oct 6, 2025

SilichipX said:
Hi again, I spent a good portion of the day going through your suggestions and here's what I found.

I've gone through all the Microsoft Edge browser settings, and the only recent change was the enhanced security settings as recommended by ThioJoe's video a week ago, but I don't think this was the issue, and I disabled them for now.

View attachment 147951

I recently installed AdGuard on the timestamp 5/10/25 and went through all the settings and couldn't find anything related to this issue, but just to be sure, I uninstalled AdGuard using Revo Uninstaller Pro and checked through the leftover files and found nothing.

View attachment 147957

The one thing remaining to do is to open both the Edge User AppData directory and the folder named A, individually check each folder and file, but it seems the folder named A is inactive, as shown in the Edge Wallet folder directory above, and presumed to be safe to delete from my C drive. I have now re-enabled the enhanced security settings in Microsoft Edge and reinstalled AdGuard again, but the mysterious folder named A never returned, and all is working well.

Thank you very much, fellows, for your assistance! Most appreciated. John

Thanks for your useful feedback.

dacrone · Oct 6, 2025

just zip the 'a' folder, move the zip somewhere, then delete 'a'. if it has any impact on anything you can just restore it via the zip

SilichipX · Oct 6, 2025

OAT said:
Thanks for your useful feedback.

Sorry, OAT. I will do that next time.

SilichipX · Oct 6, 2025

dacrone said:
just zip the 'a' folder, move the zip somewhere, then delete 'a'. if it has any impact on anything you can just restore it via the zip

I did consider doing it that way, but I'm just being cautious. Thanks for the advice!

OAT · Oct 6, 2025

SilichipX said:
Sorry, OAT. I will do that next time.

No, I did mean that, it was a compliment.

Ghot · Oct 6, 2025

SilichipX said:
Sorry, OAT. I will do that next time.

@OAT was thanking you for all the feedback you DID supply.

You did an excellent job. Very few people go to the effort you did. ^^

SilichipX · Oct 6, 2025

OAT said:
No, I did mean that, it was a compliment.

Oh yeah, I didn't notice the compliment. My mistake!

Ghot · Oct 6, 2025

SilichipX said:
Hi, just wondering what I should do!

You should enjoy the ten points I've given you for filling out your computer specs.

spapakons · Oct 7, 2025

SilichipX said:
Hi again, I spent a good portion of the day going through your suggestions and here's what I found...

I've gone through all the Microsoft Edge browser settings, and the only recent change was the enhanced security settings as recommended by ThioJoe's video a week ago, but I don't think this was the issue, and I disabled them for now.

View attachment 147951

I recently installed AdGuard on the timestamp 5/10/25 and went through all the settings and couldn't find anything related to this issue, but just to be sure, I uninstalled AdGuard using Revo Uninstaller Pro and checked through the leftover files and found nothing.

View attachment 147957

The one thing remaining to do is to open both the Edge User AppData directory and the folder named A, individually check each folder and file, but it seems the folder named A is inactive, as shown in the Edge Wallet folder directory above, and presumed to be safe to delete from my C drive. I have now re-enabled the enhanced security settings in Microsoft Edge and reinstalled AdGuard again, but the mysterious folder named A never returned, and all is working well.

Thank you very much, fellows, for your assistance! Most appreciated. John

No need to check each one individually. I would make another folder and copy all of A folder there. Then copy all Microsoft Edge folder there. File Explorer will detect duplicates and ask you what to do. Select "Let me decide for each file". Then make sure you check the box to automatically exclude all files with the same name, same date and same size. If File Explorer just skips quickly through the files without copying anything, it means they are identical. To see if there is any change, select all files (CTRL+A) right-click and select Properties. Do the same for the original A folder. See if there are any differences in the number of files, number of folders and the actual size of each selection.

Suspicious folder named "a" inside the root directory of my C drive?

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