7/16/16 Mystery files

mrghast101

Commendable
Sep 21, 2016
2
0
1,510
I have been browsing my computer's files trying to find useless things to delete to free space, when I noticed there were hundreds of files either created or edited on July 16th, 2016.
I was wondering if this is a normal thing like a windows update, or if it is a virus that has manifested in my system.
Please help!
 

mrghast101

Commendable
Sep 21, 2016
2
0
1,510


They are pretty much everywhere in C:\Windows and C:\Windows\WinSxS, as well as being scattered pretty much everywhere else.
 

j0hnnyf1ve

Prominent
Aug 12, 2017
1
0
510


Any news? I have these 7/16/16 files, too. Lots of 'em.

Just this week, on a HP G6 1.93 Ghz processor that previously ran Windows 8.1 Home without any problems, at least none that I perceived, I installed:

NEW hard 750GB drive,
NEW ram cards 2 x 4GB, and
did a clean install of Windows 10 Home. NOT an upgrade from 8.1.

NO backup data.

Before install, I went to command line and looked in the directory of X:\sources and it contained a large amount of files from 7/16/16. Obviously part of the boot, but why? At the time I thought it may have ben part of a previous update . . .

Windows 10 is running, but it's quirky.

Permissions don't seem right; there are permissions granted to accounts in the local file that did not create. I'm not talking about "SYSTEM" and "Users" and such. These are strange usernames in the local folder like "IIS_IUSR" and "BATCH."

A "Windows.old" file folder exists. Boot time varies dramatically for no particular reason. Sometimes, control panel network adapter folder just says "this folder is empty" and other times it contains the ethernet and wifi adapter info.

Firewall settings change, but I do not change them.

Task manager doesn't open sometimes - no error message, nothing - just doesn't open as if I had never selected it. Other times, it does open.

I formatted and tried install again. Same issues. I even bought another hard drive and tried again. Same issues. Every time, X:\ had these weird 7/16/16 files.

I know it is a fairly old post, but any knowledge you may have gained since then would be much appreciated.

I found this. It seems on point, but I haven't had time to try the recommended actions yet: https://forums.malwarebytes.com/topic/190886-weird-findings-weird-issues-not-sure-if-win10-profile-corruption-or-malware-logs-attached/

Please let me now if you found out what these 7/16/16 files are and if you've experienced any of the other issues I mentioned? And if by some chance you found a solution, that'd be great, too :)

Thanks for reading. - J
 

JoshRoss

Estimable
Jul 11, 2017
228
0
5,260
Revived topic! In any case, that is how Windows updates work. Deleting system files is not particularly healthy. If you do want to clean up your space, make sure you delete your temporary files, %appdata% files, and any games you are not playing :) As they usually contain 50gb's+ of data that you don't need.