Strange directories appearing on disk D like 5c432ec5d4cdb34ef7ab9089b

Megahertz07 · 12 Feb 2017

Koles said:

I know this. My question was HOW CAN I STOP COMPUTER FROM RE-CREATING THESE DIRECTORIES ALL OVER AGAIN ? Thanks...

Disable updates

Koles · 14 Feb 2017

So, noone knows how to stop these nonsence directories to show up ?

Koles · 14 Feb 2017

Megahertz07 said:

As mentioned by Lance, these folders were created by Win update as temporary folders.
If they are empty, it's safe to delete them.
Do a cleanup with %windir%\system32\cleanmgr.exe and select all option.

This didn't help. Beside it is not about deleting them, but stopping them from being re-created.

Koles · 14 Feb 2017

Megahertz07 said:

Disable updates

First - are you sure that Windows automatic updates are causing this ?
Second, I don't want to disable Windows updates, I want to keep my Windows up to date. Also I remember that few years ago these stupid folders didn't show up. Why? I am really not sure it is about Windows updates. And why do they show up to partition D, not C?

Lance1 · 14 Feb 2017

That's a valid point. Update folders are created on the C:\ Root. You say that they are empty. When you right click properties on one of the folders does it's size come up as 0? Have you run malware scans on your system?

lehnerus2000 · 14 Feb 2017

Those folders can show up on any partition (not limited to C).

In my case, they used appear on the partition that has the most free space available.
I have seen them on a completely different HDD (to the one that has the OS on it).

I haven't noticed any of the weird update folders, since I started using the Security-Only updates.

Callender · 14 Feb 2017

lehnerus2000 said:

Those folders can show up on any partition (not limited to C).

In my case, they used appear on the partition that has the most free space available.
I have seen them on a completely different HDD (to the one that has the OS on it).

I haven't noticed any of the weird update folders, since I started using the Security-Only updates.

Check this post:

Manual Win Update folder remnants - safe to delete?

If ROOTDRIVE is not set at a command line or authored into the Property table, the installer sets this property. During an administrative installation the installer sets ROOTDRIVE to the first connected network drive it finds that can be written to. If it is not an administrative installation, or if the installer can find no network drives, the installer sets ROOTDRIVE to the local drive that can be written to having the most free space.

Make sure you have the most free space on windows partition compared with free space on other partitions.
Make sure that there are no failed updates.
Run advanced disk cleanup to include windows update cleanup.
When installing windows updates make sure that you temporarily disable any security software that could interfere with the update process.

Koles · 16 Feb 2017

Still I don't see any clear solution how to stop this crap from appearing all over again. Which idiot in Microsoft implemented this mechanism? I'm going to shoot him o.O I've been Googling for ROOTDRIVE info, but still I don't know what to do with it and even where to found it... in the last resort I want these folders to appear on C: instead, but no, this is not a drive that has most free space and it will NOT be.

Callender · 16 Feb 2017

Koles said:

I want these folders to appear on C: instead, but no, this is not a drive that has most free space and it will NOT be.

Your choices appear to be: Dismount those other drives or partitions when downloading and installing windows updates (not sure if this works) or create more free space on your windows partition than exists on other partitions.

ROOTDRIVE is set by the ~~msi~~ msu installer and as far as I know you cannot change this.

There is a discussion here:

Microsoft Updates And External Drives

In my opinion you should just manually delete those folders once the updates have installed.