See:
https://www.windowscentral.com/familiar-folder-bug-makes-its-way-windows-11-10

I had over 3,000 on my system!

This script deletes them: save as Clear_junk_folders.cmd or whatever you like.

ECHO OFF
Title Clear_junk_folders.cmd
CD C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local
ECHO ####### Listing files...
ECHO.
DIR /A:D tw-*.tmp
ECHO ####### CTRL-C to skip deletion
PAUSE
ECHO ####### Deleting files...
ECHO.
FOR /D %%f IN (tw-*.tmp) DO RMDIR "%%f"
ECHO ####### Done: ready to exit.
PAUSE
--

Phil, London

On 11/4/21 8:29 AM, this is what Philip Herlihy wrote:
> See:
> https://www.windowscentral.com/familiar-folder-bug-makes-its-way-windows-11-10
>
> I had over 3,000 on my system!
>
> This script deletes them: save as Clear_junk_folders.cmd or whatever you like.
>
> ECHO OFF
> Title Clear_junk_folders.cmd
> CD C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local
> ECHO ####### Listing files...
> ECHO.
> DIR /A:D tw-*.tmp
> ECHO ####### CTRL-C to skip deletion
> PAUSE
> ECHO ####### Deleting files...
> ECHO.
> FOR /D %%f IN (tw-*.tmp) DO RMDIR "%%f"
> ECHO ####### Done: ready to exit.
> PAUSE
>
I saw that in my How-To-Geek newsletter this week too.

--
Linux Mint Cinnamon 20.2 64bit, Dell Inspiron 5570 laptop
Quad Core i7-8550U, 16G Memory, 512G SSD, 750G & 1TB HDDs

On 04/11/2021 13:29, Philip Herlihy wrote:
> See:
> https://www.windowscentral.com/familiar-folder-bug-makes-its-way-windows-11-10
>
> I had over 3,000 on my system!
>
> This script deletes them: save as Clear_junk_folders.cmd or whatever you like.
>
> ECHO OFF
> Title Clear_junk_folders.cmd
> CD C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local
> ECHO ####### Listing files...
> ECHO.
> DIR /A:D tw-*.tmp
> ECHO ####### CTRL-C to skip deletion
> PAUSE
> ECHO ####### Deleting files...
> ECHO.
> FOR /D %%f IN (tw-*.tmp) DO RMDIR "%%f"
> ECHO ####### Done: ready to exit.
> PAUSE
>

I'll see your 3000, and raise you 15,651. I found 18,651 of the
motherfuckers on my system.

Thanks for the script.

Philip Herlihy <thiswillbounceback@you.com> wrote:

> See:
> https://www.windowscentral.com/familiar-folder-bug-makes-its-way-windows-11-10
>
> I had over 3,000 on my system!
>
> This script deletes them: save as Clear_junk_folders.cmd or whatever you like.
>
> ECHO OFF
> Title Clear_junk_folders.cmd
> CD C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local
> ECHO ####### Listing files...
> ECHO.
> DIR /A:D tw-*.tmp
> ECHO ####### CTRL-C to skip deletion
> PAUSE
> ECHO ####### Deleting files...
> ECHO.
> FOR /D %%f IN (tw-*.tmp) DO RMDIR "%%f"
> ECHO ####### Done: ready to exit.
> PAUSE

I found the tw files polluting that folder, too. I only had 722 of them
dating back to 10/21/2020 with the latest one dated 3 days ago.

I'll add an inclusion to CCleaner which is scheduled to run every night
before backups to eliminate garbage in the backup files. CCleaner might
need to run with elevated privileges, so I configured that option in
CCleaner. What it actually does is add an event in Task Scheduler that
is configured to run with elevated privileges. ccleaner.exe then runs
the scheduled event which gets elevated privileges to do the cleaning.
In addition, I can configure CCleaner for the inclusion to only delete
files or folders that are older than N hours old. The default is 24
hours, if the option is enabled, but you can change it to something
else. That way, you don't squash files or folders that may be in
current use, like installers that use the %temp% folder to store
something that gets used after the install is mostly complete, but which
are used after a restart of Windows. Any installer that does that
should prompt a Windows restart is required to complete the
installation.

Drive/folder: C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\tw-*.tmp
Options: Include files, subfolders and the folder itself
Only delete files or folders older than: 24 hours

Alternatively, I could use the for-loop from your script (the only part
needed) to add an event to Task Scheduler to delete the matching
folders. Wouldn't really need a batch file (.bat or .cmd), just the for
command as an argument to the cmd.exe program. Alas, that will flicker
a console window on the screen while the command runs, so I'd create a
shortcut to cmd.exe that runs the for-loop, and configure the shortcut
to run minimized. All I'd see is a momentary button appear on the
Taskbar rather than have a console window momentarily obliterate other
windows when ran. I'd also configure the scheduled event to run with
highest privileges.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/configuration/provisioning-packages/provisioning-packages

My home PC, laptops, and netbooks are not logging onto a PDC in a
corporate network. There's no pushing anything onto my computers from
logging into a domain, because I don't have a domain setup. Active
Directory is not involved on any of my intranet hosts. However ...

https://www.wintips.org/delete-provisioned-apps-installation-package-files-windows-10-8/

Yep, I've installed apps from the Microsoft store. Not many, but some.
There are also the pre-installed apps that Microsoft foists, er, bundles
in the Windows 10/11 installation. When there is a Win32 version of a
program, I use that, especially if they are well proven. App versions
are new, written by different coders than the original, so the apps are
more buggy with different code, and are often crippled compared to the
win32 version. For example, it can get tricky trying to figure out how
to add an app to run as a Windows startup program during logon. I had
an e-mail app that took a couple days to figure how to get it to load as
a startup item, and then found it was more buggy than the Win32 version,
and had missing features. I discarded the app version and went to the
more mature and more robust Win32 version.

In alt.comp.os.windows-10 occam <nobody@nowhere.nix> wrote:
> On 04/11/2021 13:29, Philip Herlihy wrote:
> > See:
> > https://www.windowscentral.com/familiar-folder-bug-makes-its-way-windows-11-10
> >
> > I had over 3,000 on my system!
> >
> > This script deletes them: save as Clear_junk_folders.cmd or whatever you like.
> >
> > ECHO OFF
> > Title Clear_junk_folders.cmd
> > CD C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local
> > ECHO ####### Listing files...
> > ECHO.
> > DIR /A:D tw-*.tmp
> > ECHO ####### CTRL-C to skip deletion
> > PAUSE
> > ECHO ####### Deleting files...
> > ECHO.
> > FOR /D %%f IN (tw-*.tmp) DO RMDIR "%%f"
> > ECHO ####### Done: ready to exit.
> > PAUSE
> >

> I'll see your 3000, and raise you 15,651. I found 18,651 of the
> motherfuckers on my system.

> Thanks for the script.

I had 893 of these since I installed W10 on 5/29/2021! :O Dang it, MS!
--
Dang crazy life! :/
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
\ _ /
( )

On 11/4/2021 8:29 AM, Philip Herlihy wrote:
> See:
> https://www.windowscentral.com/familiar-folder-bug-makes-its-way-windows-11-10
>
> I had over 3,000 on my system!
>
> This script deletes them: save as Clear_junk_folders.cmd or whatever you like.
>
> ECHO OFF
> Title Clear_junk_folders.cmd
> CD C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local
> ECHO ####### Listing files...
> ECHO.
> DIR /A:D tw-*.tmp
> ECHO ####### CTRL-C to skip deletion
> PAUSE
> ECHO ####### Deleting files...
> ECHO.
> FOR /D %%f IN (tw-*.tmp) DO RMDIR "%%f"
> ECHO ####### Done: ready to exit.
> PAUSE
>

Only about 223 folders here.

Doesn't anyone use %temp% any more ???

IReallyShouldntBeDoingThis.tmp
IReallyReallyShouldntBeDoingThis.tmp
NinetyNineBottlesOfBeerOnTheWallNinetyNineBottlesOfBeer.tmp

Paul

In article <sm2ikd$t6$1@dont-email.me>, nospam@needed.invalid says...
>
> On 11/4/2021 8:29 AM, Philip Herlihy wrote:
> > See:
> > https://www.windowscentral.com/familiar-folder-bug-makes-its-way-windows-11-10
> >
> > I had over 3,000 on my system!
> >
> > This script deletes them: save as Clear_junk_folders.cmd or whatever you like.
> >
> > ECHO OFF
> > Title Clear_junk_folders.cmd
> > CD C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local
> > ECHO ####### Listing files...
> > ECHO.
> > DIR /A:D tw-*.tmp
> > ECHO ####### CTRL-C to skip deletion
> > PAUSE
> > ECHO ####### Deleting files...
> > ECHO.
> > FOR /D %%f IN (tw-*.tmp) DO RMDIR "%%f"
> > ECHO ####### Done: ready to exit.
> > PAUSE
> >
>
> Only about 223 folders here.
>
> Doesn't anyone use %temp% any more ???
>
> IReallyShouldntBeDoingThis.tmp
> IReallyReallyShouldntBeDoingThis.tmp
> NinetyNineBottlesOfBeerOnTheWallNinetyNineBottlesOfBeer.tmp
>
> Paul

%temp% is a temp folder in the current user's profile. These folders are
dumped in a temp folder under the Windows hierarchy (%windir%).

For anyone unfamiliar with what used to be called 'environment' variables, open
a command window (cmd) and type:
set +ENTER-KEY

--

Phil, London

On Fri, 5 Nov 2021 02:23:01 -0400, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:

>On 11/4/2021 8:29 AM, Philip Herlihy wrote:
>> See:
>> https://www.windowscentral.com/familiar-folder-bug-makes-its-way-windows-11-10
>>
>> I had over 3,000 on my system!
>>
>> This script deletes them: save as Clear_junk_folders.cmd or whatever you like.
>>
>> ECHO OFF
>> Title Clear_junk_folders.cmd
>> CD C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local
>> ECHO ####### Listing files...
>> ECHO.
>> DIR /A:D tw-*.tmp
>> ECHO ####### CTRL-C to skip deletion
>> PAUSE
>> ECHO ####### Deleting files...
>> ECHO.
>> FOR /D %%f IN (tw-*.tmp) DO RMDIR "%%f"
>> ECHO ####### Done: ready to exit.
>> PAUSE
>>
>
>Only about 223 folders here.

I used Autoruns to search.
228 instances, with creation dates from 6/20 to 11/03.

ALL of them show 11/03 as Last Accessed date.

--
Protect your civil rights!
Let the politicians know how you feel.
Join or donate to the NRA today!
http://membership.nrahq.org/default.asp?campaignid=XR014887
(use cut and paste to your browser if necessary)

Gun control is like trying to reduce drunk driving by making it tougher for sober people to own cars.

On 5 Nov 2021 at 06:23:01 GMT, "Paul" <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:

> On 11/4/2021 8:29 AM, Philip Herlihy wrote:
>> See:
>> https://www.windowscentral.com/familiar-folder-bug-makes-its-way-windows-11-10
>>
>> I had over 3,000 on my system!
>>
>> This script deletes them: save as Clear_junk_folders.cmd or whatever you like.
>>
>> ECHO OFF
>> Title Clear_junk_folders.cmd
>> CD C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local
>> ECHO ####### Listing files...
>> ECHO.
>> DIR /A:D tw-*.tmp
>> ECHO ####### CTRL-C to skip deletion
>> PAUSE
>> ECHO ####### Deleting files...
>> ECHO.
>> FOR /D %%f IN (tw-*.tmp) DO RMDIR "%%f"
>> ECHO ####### Done: ready to exit.
>> PAUSE
>>
>
> Only about 223 folders here.
>

1400 here, on a machine that's only used for occasional gaming.

--
Cheers, Rob

slate_leeper wrote:

> Paul wrote:
>
>> Only about 223 folders here.
>
> I used Autoruns to search.
> 228 instances, with creation dates from 6/20 to 11/03.
> ALL of them show 11/03 as Last Accessed date.

zero wt-*.tmp here

In article <m3elxkdkdvpb.dlg@v.nguard.lh>, V@nguard.LH says...
>
> Philip Herlihy <thiswillbounceback@you.com> wrote:
>
> > See:
> > https://www.windowscentral.com/familiar-folder-bug-makes-its-way-windows-11-10
> >
> > I had over 3,000 on my system!
> >
> > This script deletes them: save as Clear_junk_folders.cmd or whatever you like.
> >
> > ECHO OFF
> > Title Clear_junk_folders.cmd
> > CD C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local
> > ECHO ####### Listing files...
> > ECHO.
> > DIR /A:D tw-*.tmp
> > ECHO ####### CTRL-C to skip deletion
> > PAUSE
> > ECHO ####### Deleting files...
> > ECHO.
> > FOR /D %%f IN (tw-*.tmp) DO RMDIR "%%f"
> > ECHO ####### Done: ready to exit.
> > PAUSE
>
....
>
....

> In addition, I can configure CCleaner for the inclusion to only delete
> files or folders that are older than N hours old.
....
>
> Alternatively, I could use the for-loop from your script (the only part
> needed) ...

The script is fairly crude; in a business environment there would be all sorts
of checking for exception situations, but here it's written to be a little more
useful than the bare FOR-loop. It lists any of these folders that do exist,
and prompts the user to CTRL-C to skip deletion if preferred, so readers not so
familiar with scripting could be a little more confident in using it.

I note the desire (not unreasonable) to exclude very recent instances. I
thought (!) I'd be able to cobble together a ROBOCOPY-based script that would
do this. I have a script here I can't get to work. I'll keep it to myself, as
ROBOCOPY can do an awful lot of damage in unskilled hands!

In outline:
* List any folders that are there.
* Use ROBOCOPY to /MOVE them to a newly-created JUNKFOLDER in the user's %TEMP%
folder, optionally directing ROBOCOPY to use /MINAGE:7 (days) and /MAX:1 (byte)
* List the contents of JUNKFOLDER, prompting to skip deletion if preferred.
* If continuing, just remove JUNKFOLDER and its contents.

I couldn't find any other utility which would select or delete files/folders
based on age (any ideas?)

ROBOCOPY wouldn't play ball, and that's the first time I've failed to get it to
do something I want. I've concluded that it's because it's designed to work on
files, not folders. It has all sorts of options to traverse/not folders in
order to do this, but won't seem to operate only on empty folders, and in
trying to get it to do that it reverted to interpreting the specified item
specification as *.* because it couldn't find any files (!) which matched tw-
*.tmp. This, in some circumstances, could be disastrous where /MOVE, /MOV,
/MIR or /PURGE are being used - stories are out there of people seeing vast
amounts of their data go up in smoke through artless use of this very powerful
utility!

I *really* must learn PowerShell. Unix scripting was so much more powerful
than the ancient command-line in Windows. But who has time, when you can
(usually) just hack a command-line script?

--

Phil, London

Philip Herlihy <thiswillbounceback@you.com> wrote:

> I couldn't find any other utility which would select or delete files/folders
> based on age (any ideas?)

Already mentioned CCleaner, when you add a rule to specify a path for
file to delete, that lets you specify age. I figure if an app install
has hung for 24 hours that it is hung or crashed, so I don't need to
keep any tw-*.tmp files longer than that.

For a shortcut, it runs "ccleaner.exe /auto". The argument is to have
it clean as configured instead of bothering me with its GUI to prompt if
I want to clean or not. I use the same command in a scheduled event to
clean out the junk before my scheduled backups run.

I've used robocopy, in the past, too, but made sure to use its demo or
test mode that shows what it would do before I let it actually commit
its actions.

> I *really* must learn PowerShell. Unix scripting was so much more
> powerful than the ancient command-line in Windows. But who has time,
> when you can (usually) just hack a command-line script?

Actually I've written some rather complicated batch scripts. One time,
I wrote one that would eliminate the company from having to buy a
commercial file management program. However, the boss didn't want to
use it because the commercial program was easy to configure while not
requiring anyone to do any coding while he was concerned my batch script
would be beyond the skill set of anyone that came after me that had to
maintain the script (I was contracting at the time, not a permanent
employee). I could see his point: a new employee could more easily use
a config GUI than figure out how to modify a complex batch script.

I kept using the batch script, because it could do more than the
commercial GUI tool for boobs.

Philip Herlihy wrote:

> * Use ROBOCOPY to /MOVE them to a newly-created JUNKFOLDER in the user's %TEMP%
> folder, optionally directing ROBOCOPY to use /MINAGE:7 (days) and /MAX:1 (byte)
> * List the contents of JUNKFOLDER, prompting to skip deletion if preferred.
> * If continuing, just remove JUNKFOLDER and its contents.
>
> I couldn't find any other utility which would select or delete files/folders
> based on age (any ideas?)

forfiles /d -7

In article <iuldk5Fjp9tU1@mid.individual.net>, usenet@andyburns.uk says...
>
> Philip Herlihy wrote:
>
> > * Use ROBOCOPY to /MOVE them to a newly-created JUNKFOLDER in the user's %TEMP%
> > folder, optionally directing ROBOCOPY to use /MINAGE:7 (days) and /MAX:1 (byte)
> > * List the contents of JUNKFOLDER, prompting to skip deletion if preferred.
> > * If continuing, just remove JUNKFOLDER and its contents.
> >
> > I couldn't find any other utility which would select or delete files/folders
> > based on age (any ideas?)
>
> forfiles /d -7

Perfect!

I simply type HELP in the command window and see what's listed. But there are
utilities like this that aren't included, though it's there on my W10 machine.
What else is there, I wonder?

Aha:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-
commands/windows-commands

--

Phil, London

Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:

> forfiles /d -7

While that provides for a list on matching files on which a command can
get exercised on each item in the list, how does that work for folders?
There is no switch to find matching directories (aka folders). There is
no 'fordirs' command.

I know Philip said "files/folders", but the tw-*.tmp objects of interest
in this discussion are folders, not files. I thought forfiles might be
usable, but not on folders. Robocopy is harder to figure out, and you
should use the /L switch to list what will happen before actually having
robocopy commit its actions, but it will work on folders or files.
forfiles looks to match on files only.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/forfiles

Since the search results include both files and folders, maybe having
forfiles executing an 'if' command using @isdir (see in "forfiles /?")
would help, as in:

forfiles /d -7 /p "C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\" /m "tw-*.tmp" /c "cmd /c if @isdir==TRUE rmdir @path"

That finds objects under the AppData\Local folder that are older than 7
days whose names match on tw-*.tmp, pipes the list into the 'if' command
which checks if the piped in item is a directory to then delete it.
Since I wouldn't be interested in the time spent to generate stdout to
show all the 'rmdir' commands, I'd check if I could pipe the output to
NUL by adding "> nul" to the cmd command. For a few dozen files, the
lag to show stdout in the console window wouldn't be long, but to
display stdout in the console window for thousands of rmdirs would be a
waste of time while leaving the console window open.

I haven't tested the above command, just wrote it from what I know about
the commands and their syntax. Instead of the 'rmdir' command, you
might want to use 'echo' as a demo mode to the command. If the list of
targets looks correct, then change 'echo' to 'rmdir'.

forfiles is different than other internal commands. *.* for match
criteria will not include files or folders without an extension, so use
just * instead. In "forfiles /?", you'll see the default search mask is
*, not *.* (noted for the /M switch). Here we're looking for those tw
folders.

In article <1gd2n8rss2p97$.dlg@v.nguard.lh>, V@nguard.LH says...
>
> Philip Herlihy <thiswillbounceback@you.com> wrote:
>
> > I couldn't find any other utility which would select or delete files/folders
> > based on age (any ideas?)
>
> Already mentioned CCleaner, when you add a rule to specify a path for
> file to delete, that lets you specify age.
....
>
> I've used robocopy, in the past, too, but made sure to use its demo or
> test mode that shows what it would do before I let it actually commit
> its actions.

100% !!
>
> > I *really* must learn PowerShell. Unix scripting was so much more
> > powerful than the ancient command-line in Windows. But who has time,
> > when you can (usually) just hack a command-line script?
>
> Actually I've written some rather complicated batch scripts. One time,
> I wrote one that would eliminate the company from having to buy a
> commercial file management program. However, the boss didn't want to
> use it because the commercial program was easy to configure while not
> requiring anyone to do any coding while he was concerned my batch script
> would be beyond the skill set of anyone that came after me that had to
> maintain the script (I was contracting at the time, not a permanent
> employee). I could see his point: a new employee could more easily use
> a config GUI than figure out how to modify a complex batch script.
>
> I kept using the batch script, because it could do more than the
> commercial GUI tool for boobs.

Generally I'll prefer something built-in if it's available. And wasn't there a
scandal (privacy?) over CCleaner a few years ago?

Scripting can be hugely powerful. I've written a pretty complex batch file to
run backups in one organisation, and though command-line scripting is clunky,
you can do quite a lot with it if you know your way round.

Unix scripting is something else. I once put into production a one-liner (very
long line!) in a file with 200 lines of comment. I met my successor a few
months later, and he was very, very grateful for the comments!

One time my department head in a large well-known corporation called me into
his office. He wanted to give me 6 months to produce a design and coding-time
estimate for a utility to analyse some new data becoming available via a new
network connection. I asked him if I could come back in an hour, and when I
did, I had the whole thing working. I'd seen this requirement coming, and
every now and then I'd pull together a few fragments of script. Once I had the
requirement spec all I needed to do was combine the appropriate fragments with
a tweak or two. Half of the hour was spent testing it. The problem was, he
just didn't trust it (or me, clearly). Six months later, the colleague who had
quietly been given the job after me was still struggling to come up with his
design/estimate. My script worked perfectly, and with perfectly adequate
performance. But it was a script!

Another boss (a much more annoying one) had asked me to design something using
C++ and an object-oriented database. Without checking with me, he invited the
(internal) customer in to see a demo, and only told me about it at 10:00 for a
16:00 demo. I was speechless - I'd spent four weeks trying to get this (then)
arcane database to do what the manual said it could, and not a line of real
code had been written. I sat there, fizzing, for two hours, before I got
bored, and started to wonder if I could script it. By 15:30 I had a fully-
working script, with just enough time to test it. The demo was a breeze, and
then I sat back while the boss explained how this could *only* have been done
with the "advanced technology" he was pushing. Client was delighted. I only
told the boss the next day, and he was livid. Silly sod.

Then another time (same organisation) I came in to find my then boss sitting in
a sweat editing (manually) a many-thousand-line file. One database generated
location codes in one format, and another needed them - same info - in a very
slightly different format. He'd been working flat out for two hours, and the
progress indicator still showed 0%. I asked him if he'd like me to take over,
and he shot out of his seat. Having exhaustively grokked the fullness of the
task, I shut down his editor (discarding his changes - a bit mean, actually).
Ten minutes later I had a SED script ready; ten minutes of testing on sample
copy data, then a ten-minute run on the file. Job done!

In that organisation it was once recognised (in a course for managers that I
attended) that there was a culture of discounting the people who knew how to
get the job done in favour of those who could talk about how important it was
to get the job done (etc). I wonder if it ever changed?

Scripting rules, OK. So I really should get on top of Powershell...

--

Phil, London

Philip Herlihy <thiswillbounceback@you.com> wrote:
[...]

> Unix scripting is something else.

[Several success stories deleted.]

> Scripting rules, OK.

That's why I've always had Unix tools on my private - non-Unix -
systems! Started with MS-DOS and from Windows 1.0 to this Windows 8.1
system. (From XP on, I'm using Cygwin tools.)

> So I really should get on top of Powershell...

With my shell and .bat scripts I've not yet needed PowerShell, but you
never know. One can never have too many tools.

Philip Herlihy <thiswillbounceback@you.com> wrote:

> In article <1gd2n8rss2p97$.dlg@v.nguard.lh>, V@nguard.LH says...
>>
>> Philip Herlihy <thiswillbounceback@you.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I couldn't find any other utility which would select or delete files/folders
>>> based on age (any ideas?)
>>
>> Already mentioned CCleaner, when you add a rule to specify a path for
>> file to delete, that lets you specify age.
> ...
>>
>> I've used robocopy, in the past, too, but made sure to use its demo or
>> test mode that shows what it would do before I let it actually commit
>> its actions.
>
> 100% !!
>>
>>> I *really* must learn PowerShell. Unix scripting was so much more
>>> powerful than the ancient command-line in Windows. But who has time,
>>> when you can (usually) just hack a command-line script?
>>
>> Actually I've written some rather complicated batch scripts. One time,
>> I wrote one that would eliminate the company from having to buy a
>> commercial file management program. However, the boss didn't want to
>> use it because the commercial program was easy to configure while not
>> requiring anyone to do any coding while he was concerned my batch script
>> would be beyond the skill set of anyone that came after me that had to
>> maintain the script (I was contracting at the time, not a permanent
>> employee). I could see his point: a new employee could more easily use
>> a config GUI than figure out how to modify a complex batch script.
>>
>> I kept using the batch script, because it could do more than the
>> commercial GUI tool for boobs.
>
> Generally I'll prefer something built-in if it's available. And wasn't there a
> scandal (privacy?) over CCleaner a few years ago?

As I recall, and soon after Avast acquired Piriform (who made CCleaner),
Avast bundled something with CCleaner. Simple enough, and should be
done with EVERY install: select to perform a *custom* install. Don't
let the install shove in everything it can. YOU pick what to install.
That's if the installer has a custom option.

Besides, it's real easy to disable CCleaner from network access. There
is no function in CCleaner that needs network access other than checking
for updates. In the Windows firewall, I block ccleaner.exe,
ccleaner64.exe, and ccupdate.exe from getting outbound connections.
This eliminates those popup ads (part of the adware platform Avast added
to Piriform's CCleaner used in their other Avast products) trying to
lure users to other Piriform/Avast products. It does also mean no
alerts when there are new updates, but that's an easy job for me to do
separately and manually.

> Scripting can be hugely powerful. I've written a pretty complex batch
> file to run backups in one organisation, and though command-line
> scripting is clunky, you can do quite a lot with it if you know your
> way round.
>
> Unix scripting is something else. I once put into production a one-liner (very
> long line!) in a file with 200 lines of comment. I met my successor a few
> months later, and he was very, very grateful for the comments!

When my company attempted to switch from platform-specific assembly for
their enterprise product to using Java, one of the requirements was that
every line (except for comment-only lines) was commented. It had to
explain the code, not some vague description. In the weekly code review
meetings, commenting was checked. I was the software librarian, so I'd
scan in the modified or new code before checking it in. I also refused
to check-in any changes without creating a new code branch for a new
version. Sometimes they were checking in code that they found was
flawed, and wanted to cover their tracks by correcting the code without
a version change. Nope, I didn't allow that. The developers didn't
like me as code librarian, but the managers liked my attitude. There
was no guarantee that the corrected code that removed a flaw wasn't
flawed itself, and we needed the ability to revert to a branch before
flawed code and the flawed fix got applied.

As for Linux scripting (bash, c-shell), I remember having to bring in a
lot of external tools that were hopefully available across multiple *NIX
platforms, and across many old OS versions. I had to do the same with
the Windows batch scripts. If whatever the batch was exercising upon
was only available after a certain version of the OS, I had to ensure
any external calls to programs had those programs back to the old
version(s) of the OS. That is, I'd try (not always successfully) to
make the scripts backward compatible. I'd only use internal commands
(to cmd.exe) or tools that came bundled with the OS. There had to be a
special situation to be calling 3rd-party tools although some of the
scripts where front- or back-end data handlers to another program.

> One time my department head in a large well-known corporation called
> me into his office. He wanted to give me 6 months to produce a
> design and coding-time estimate for a utility to analyse some new
> data becoming available via a new network connection. I asked him if
> I could come back in an hour, and when I did, I had the whole thing
> working.

Had a project coded in IBM's REXX for enterprise backups using various
storage media, including automatic cartridge loaders. Took around 5
months along with the sysadmin (I was better at the coding, he was
better at knowing the hardware) to code and thoroughly test. I remember
we had a small sniggle at the end to fix, but the customers wouldn't
experience (we built in lots of "just in case" scenarios). We were a
week away from presentation to mgmt, and the project got yanked. All
that work for nothing. Well, not really. Turns out one of the
company's owners stole the project to have his wife sell under their
separate company identity. Our company paid for the effort (as our
salary for the time) while an owner stole it for sale by his own
company. Never trusted that asshole again. He was above my manager (he
was a part owner), but I thereafter refused anything he requested unless
it came through my manager, and she said to me she wouldn't trust him as
far as she could throw him. She had more experience with his
shennanigans. This was my first with this guy.

Back then, I got hired as the backup operator. Oh what fun ... not! I
automated everything using REXX which was available on all their IBM
mainframes. I liked how I could run parallel scripts, but sync them at
points where a script had to wait for output from another. With
parallelization, the backups that took 14 hours came down to 6 hours,
and after adding a couple cartridge loaders came down to 2 hours. Gave
me lots of time to automate checking the logs for errors, doing
verifies, and other tasks during the night. Some folks were there until
11 PM and others came in around 6 AM, so shortening the backups meant
less impact on the other users. I'd keep nagging my boss that I was
bored, got more tasks, those were automated, I'd get bored and nagged my
boss again, and kept expanding my duties until I was the sysadmin. One
sysadmin was there for 2 years. The next one hired didn't even show up
after he found out all the tasks he had to do. I was temporary, but
became the permanent sysadmin. Then I worked on an e-mail system. Then
yadda-yadda. I hate being bored, and I don't want easy jobs. I'm
happiest when I'm frustrated as hell.

> Scripting rules, OK. So I really should get on top of Powershell...

Not sure why, but I still don't like Powershell. Perl was bad enough.

On Fri, 5 Nov 2021 at 15:40:20, VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote (my
responses usually follow points raised):
[]
>after he found out all the tasks he had to do. I was temporary, but
>became the permanent sysadmin. Then I worked on an e-mail system. Then

Many years since I've seen it, but there used to be a saying - UNIX
vintage, I think - something like "every program expands until it can do
email." I guess the same applies to programmers.

>yadda-yadda. I hate being bored, and I don't want easy jobs. I'm
>happiest when I'm frustrated as hell.

If we worked together, I think I'd make you very happy (-:
>
>> Scripting rules, OK. So I really should get on top of Powershell...
>
>Not sure why, but I still don't like Powershell. Perl was bad enough.

I've never really seen why we need two (four, if you count whether they
have administrator privileges or not) apparently-similar things -
Command Prompt and Powershell. (And yes, I'm aware they are very
different; they just don't _look_ it.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Anyone can do any amount of work provided it isn't the work he is supposed to
be doing at the moment. -Robert Benchley, humorist, drama critic, and actor
(1889-1945)

On 11/5/2021 3:00 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
> Philip Herlihy <thiswillbounceback@you.com> wrote:
>
>> I couldn't find any other utility which would select or delete files/folders
>> based on age (any ideas?)
>
> Already mentioned CCleaner, when you add a rule to specify a path for
> file to delete, that lets you specify age. I figure if an app install
> has hung for 24 hours that it is hung or crashed, so I don't need to
> keep any tw-*.tmp files longer than that.
>
> For a shortcut, it runs "ccleaner.exe /auto". The argument is to have
> it clean as configured instead of bothering me with its GUI to prompt if
> I want to clean or not. I use the same command in a scheduled event to
> clean out the junk before my scheduled backups run.
>
> I've used robocopy, in the past, too, but made sure to use its demo or
> test mode that shows what it would do before I let it actually commit
> its actions.
>
>> I *really* must learn PowerShell. Unix scripting was so much more
>> powerful than the ancient command-line in Windows. But who has time,
>> when you can (usually) just hack a command-line script?
>
> Actually I've written some rather complicated batch scripts. One time,
> I wrote one that would eliminate the company from having to buy a
> commercial file management program. However, the boss didn't want to
> use it because the commercial program was easy to configure while not
> requiring anyone to do any coding while he was concerned my batch script
> would be beyond the skill set of anyone that came after me that had to
> maintain the script (I was contracting at the time, not a permanent
> employee). I could see his point: a new employee could more easily use
> a config GUI than figure out how to modify a complex batch script.
>
> I kept using the batch script, because it could do more than the
> commercial GUI tool for boobs.
>
maybe FORFILES ?

On 11/5/2021 1:04 PM, Philip Herlihy wrote:

> Generally I'll prefer something built-in if it's available.

My view is completely different from yours. I select programs by how
well they work, how much I like them, and how much they cost. Whether
they are built-in is irrelevant to what I choose.

However I'll add that in my opinion, it's a rare built-in program that
as good as third-party choices. I use very little that's built-in.

--
Ken

Ken Blake <ken@invalidemail.com> wrote:

> On 11/5/2021 1:04 PM, Philip Herlihy wrote:
>
>> Generally I'll prefer something built-in if it's available.
>
> My view is completely different from yours. I select programs by how
> well they work, how much I like them, and how much they cost. Whether
> they are built-in is irrelevant to what I choose.
>
> However I'll add that in my opinion, it's a rare built-in program that
> as good as third-party choices. I use very little that's built-in.

If I use what comes with the OS, the scripts are portable. If I have a
lot of tools clinging onto the teats, I have to bring the kids along
with the scripts. At the enterprise level, it's rare to get free
licenses for commercial use. And the cost for all those teat-clinging
tools is infinitely more expensive than the OS included tools. For the
scripts, you one one point for support: in-house with whomever wrote the
script or has to support it. With a myriad of tools, you have multiple
sources for support.

There's also the problem is that many commercial tools are either to
limp to do all your tasks, or they're far bloated beyond your needs.
You have to bend around their limitations instead of not incorporating
them in your target-specific solution.

Zaidy036 <Zaidy036@air.isp.spam> wrote:

> On 11/5/2021 3:00 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
>> Philip Herlihy <thiswillbounceback@you.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I couldn't find any other utility which would select or delete files/folders
>>> based on age (any ideas?)
>>
>> Already mentioned CCleaner, when you add a rule to specify a path for
>> file to delete, that lets you specify age. I figure if an app install
>> has hung for 24 hours that it is hung or crashed, so I don't need to
>> keep any tw-*.tmp files longer than that.
>>
>> For a shortcut, it runs "ccleaner.exe /auto". The argument is to have
>> it clean as configured instead of bothering me with its GUI to prompt if
>> I want to clean or not. I use the same command in a scheduled event to
>> clean out the junk before my scheduled backups run.
>>
>> I've used robocopy, in the past, too, but made sure to use its demo or
>> test mode that shows what it would do before I let it actually commit
>> its actions.
>>
>>> I *really* must learn PowerShell. Unix scripting was so much more
>>> powerful than the ancient command-line in Windows. But who has time,
>>> when you can (usually) just hack a command-line script?
>>
>> Actually I've written some rather complicated batch scripts. One time,
>> I wrote one that would eliminate the company from having to buy a
>> commercial file management program. However, the boss didn't want to
>> use it because the commercial program was easy to configure while not
>> requiring anyone to do any coding while he was concerned my batch script
>> would be beyond the skill set of anyone that came after me that had to
>> maintain the script (I was contracting at the time, not a permanent
>> employee). I could see his point: a new employee could more easily use
>> a config GUI than figure out how to modify a complex batch script.
>>
>> I kept using the batch script, because it could do more than the
>> commercial GUI tool for boobs.
>>
> maybe FORFILES ?

Another subthread on forfiles was started 3 hours before your reply.
Looks like it can be used on folders, and not just on files. The
tw-*.tmp objects are folders, not files.

VanguardLH wrote:
>
> As I recall, and soon after Avast acquired Piriform (who made CCleaner),
> Avast bundled something with CCleaner. Simple enough, and should be
> done with EVERY install: select to perform a *custom* install. Don't
> let the install shove in everything it can. YOU pick what to install.
> That's if the installer has a custom option.

If using the full CCleaner installation file, then yes, the Custom
option should be used for avoid whatever is currently bundled.
- in the past, shortly after Avast acquired, the bundled items weren't
always the same app. Today the bundled is usually an offering for AVAST
free AV program(with an agreement to use instead of Defender) or a Toolbar.

The bundle-ware can be easily avoided.
....Just download and install(as new instal or an update) the CCleaner
'Slim build' .
<https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/builds>
- No toolbar, no AVAST, nothig.

Some time ago, CCleaner 32 bit version was hacked by malware purveyors
accessing the AVAST servers and injecting malware into the installer
app. The impacted version was 5.33.6162 X32.
- included an a multi-stage payload that rode on top of the installation
of CCleaner 32 bit version 5.33.6162

--
....w¡ñ§±¤ñ

In article <ytp6bf1jg7ji.dlg@v.nguard.lh>, V@nguard.LH says...
>
> Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:
>
> > forfiles /d -7
>
> While that provides for a list on matching files on which a command can
> get exercised on each item in the list, how does that work for folders?
> There is no switch to find matching directories (aka folders). There is
> no 'fordirs' command.
>
> I know Philip said "files/folders", but the tw-*.tmp objects of interest
> in this discussion are folders, not files. I thought forfiles might be
> usable, but not on folders. Robocopy is harder to figure out, and you
> should use the /L switch to list what will happen before actually having
> robocopy commit its actions, but it will work on folders or files.
> forfiles looks to match on files only.
>
> https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/forfiles
>
> Since the search results include both files and folders, maybe having
> forfiles executing an 'if' command using @isdir (see in "forfiles /?")
> would help, as in:
>
> forfiles /d -7 /p "C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\" /m "tw-*.tmp" /c "cmd /c if @isdir==TRUE rmdir @path"
>
> That finds objects under the AppData\Local folder that are older than 7
> days whose names match on tw-*.tmp, pipes the list into the 'if' command
> which checks if the piped in item is a directory to then delete it.
> Since I wouldn't be interested in the time spent to generate stdout to
> show all the 'rmdir' commands, I'd check if I could pipe the output to
> NUL by adding "> nul" to the cmd command. For a few dozen files, the
> lag to show stdout in the console window wouldn't be long, but to
> display stdout in the console window for thousands of rmdirs would be a
> waste of time while leaving the console window open.
>
> I haven't tested the above command, just wrote it from what I know about
> the commands and their syntax. Instead of the 'rmdir' command, you
> might want to use 'echo' as a demo mode to the command. If the list of
> targets looks correct, then change 'echo' to 'rmdir'.
>
> forfiles is different than other internal commands. *.* for match
> criteria will not include files or folders without an extension, so use
> just * instead. In "forfiles /?", you'll see the default search mask is
> *, not *.* (noted for the /M switch). Here we're looking for those tw
> folders.

That looks good. I won't now have time to test this (I'm happy with my blunt
script, and I've blown all my 'spare' time on the failed ROBOCOPY attempt!).
Important to test carefully, though: I suspect @path may be the folder
*containing* the matched files, and RMDIR on that might be a bit drastic!
There's a separate token @FILE. So the safer way to proceed is to CD into the
folder containing the bad stuff, and where @FILE will be enough.

I'm really pleased at all the interesting and helpful contributions to this
thread.

--

Phil, London