I have no idea what these are & they "seem" to contain sensitive password and log-in information, though most of it is in some sort of code. They are ALL the same size at about 1.65 MB each and were all created within a 2 day span and at approximately 2-3 minutes apart from one another (back in August of 2006).
The name of the first file is AAACCFCP and the last in the sequence is BHDKDCFK.

I know that it's not generally wise to delete anything in the Windows folder, but I'm concerned about all of these being in there. Can I safely delete them? I have several other add-on programs installed, so I know they may somehow be needed, but with all the apparent sensitive information in them I'd rather get rid of them if at all possible.

I've ran AdAware, Spybot and Super AntiSpyware with only a few cookies detected. I've also just uninstalled Norton Systemworks 2002 and cleaned up the Registry with Eusing Free Registry Cleaner (found over 900 entries needing fixed), and am getting ready to do several tweaks to ME to get it running faster/smoother.

Does anyone know if I can safely get rid of these files?

Thanks!
:-)
Mary

Hi Mary.

If these files have no recognisable extension then it would be safe to delete them in the ReCycle Bin. Then just check that all your programs still work before you empty the ReCycle Bin.

A very good program that I've been using for years and I would recommend poeple to use is Uninstall Manager. Its name is a bit confusing as it suggests that it will uninstall anything, it won't. It maps all the files on your HD. You can set certain folders to be ignored like Cookies, Internet Temporary Files, Recent Files etc.

This way you can keep a check on what files with the date and time they were added to your system without you knowing.

http://umhome.cjb.net

The beauty of Uninstall Manager is you can also do a registry restore, depending on when you save your settings.

Another program I would recommend is RegClean

If you have any problems with Uninstall Manager then let me know.

1. What is the file type ( extension)?
2. Precisely where are these files located (path)
3. Are these files "hidden"?

Be extremly careful if you use ANY registry cleaning tool, as these can often do more harm to your computer than good, be sure to create a backup of your registry before making any changes to it.
Regards,
John

Keith....Thanks! I'll take a look at Uninstall Manager. I've seen how most programs leave things behind and clutter up the registry, so this would be good to have. I've used Symantec's cleanup program in the past, but am now officially finished with them since uninstalling their expensive, system-hogging products yesterday!

John: To answer your questions, there are no extensions in the properties of any of the files; they simply have the 8 characters/letters for names. I viewed them within Notepad. They were all located in my C:\Windows folder originally with only the Archive attribute checked (none were hidden).

Thanks for the reminder on backing up the registry. I actually did this before making all the changes. So far, so good. But believe me, I get a little nervous any time I have to modify it.

Mary