Mysterious files

[Col_Boogie]

I was backing up my user folder to a flash drive. Saw it was backing up a lot .dat files (normally started with a letter followed by a long string of numbers. Went back to user folder and searched for *.dat files and only found one. When copy was complete, I searched and found all those files. What is going on? I do use show hidden files in my folder icons. There is a second discrepancy on size of folder. Properties say 1.86GB, but looking at contents, it only adds up to tad over 1GB. Most of the size is in AppData\Local. Seems to be an awful lot. Any suggestions how to clean that file?

 

[Wolfie]

Hi Col_Boogie,

try the following which may help?:

https://www.windows10forums.com/threads/how-to-use-disk-cleanup-on-windows.15876/

 

[Col_Boogie]

Do that a lot. Need an intelligent program to determine what I can dump from <user>\AppData\Local. Backed up folder recently. Thinking of deleting all I can and see what happens.

 

[Wolfie]

Do you have any unwanted apps on your system?, remove (un-install) any apps you don't use and that should reduce the amount of data in the App/Data folder?.

 

[davehc]

Quote from MS."The Local folder mainly contains folders related to installing programs. The data contained in it (%localappdata%) cannot be moved with your user profile since it is specific to a PC and therefore too large to sync with a server"
Internet Explorer , for example, stores temporary files in the Temporary Internet files or the Cookies folder. From my own frequent experience, these two folders can be emptied periodically, but they will take you internet browsing history and stored passwords etc, with them.There is also a MICROSOFT folder ,where you can find the all Windows activities.

iif you delete Appdata folder then it will cause problem with application installed on the computer. some programs write to this folder, and are constantly referring to it during their activities.

But whilst you are investigating, if you find reference to any programs which you are certain you have uninstalled then, again from my own experience, it is quite safe to delete it
Whilst cookies and history do not take up a lot of soace, you may find that if you have neglected it over a long period, it could make a significant difference to your "byte" count