Windows 7: Strange folders

Two strange folders have turned up in my computer with names like "a7efbda6ce88607414d6f635beaad494", and I do not have authorization do do anything with them. I suspect this has something to do with the fact that I have turned off the computer by simply pulling the plug a couple of times because I didn't have time to wait for the updates to finish installing.

These folders don't seem to do any harm, but I was wondering whether I should (and can!) do something about them or not...

Most likely, they are leftovers from a recent Windows Update. You are lucky you didn't run into any issues by shutting down during the update process, but they probably weren't cleaned up since that process was halted.

It's never good practice to pull the plug to shut down your computer at any time, let alone during updating.

You can easily damage your motherboard or RAM with the power spike that could occur by shutting down in this manner.

However, if you really can't wait for updates to finish installing, just click Start>Shutdown and your computer will shut down when the updates are installed or configured as the case may be.

As for the two folders you should be able to delete them, but create a restore point first in case you get problems afterwards.