W7 Automatic update is creating folders

[AndrewMozley]

Every time I shut down the computer , W7 reports that updates are being installed (never less than 5, usually 6 or 7).

On next startup I notice that five folders with long hexadecimal names are being created in the root C: folder. These names are different each time. Rightly or wrongly I have eventually renamed and deleted these folders. The system appears to restart and run properly.

However a utility that I have used successfully on other machines, SC-DiskInfo, reports that it is unable to open a large number of directories; many names begin Critical_KB2894854 or Critical_KB2931368; there are others.

I have used a utility CCleaner to tidy the registry; again, I had used this successfully before. However this does not resolve the original problem of the recurring creation of folders.

Apart from this the system appears to be running correctly. I would be grateful for guidance.

 

[nclouston]

Those are the folders where the individual updates are stored. I do not know exactly what is in them but I guess they may be needed if an update needs to be re-applied. I guess, also, that as long as you have no problems then it is not a problem deleting them. I tend to delete if they are more than 1 year old.

The real experts will be able to tell us how stupid we are in doing this!


Nic

 

[goombawaho]

You need to find out if the SAME updates are trying to install each time and failing. Look at the history of the updates and see if some are failing. If so, try to install each one separately (select one/deselect all others, allow update, reboot) and see if it's the one that's failing.

Follow these steps to see which Windows updates are installed on your computer.
Open Windows Update by clicking the Start button. In the search box, type Update, and then, in the list of results, click Windows Update.
In the left pane, click View update history.


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[AndrewMozley]

Thank you both. Gombawahoo : could you elaborate, please.

I looked at the Windows log, and see that there are 6 updates which fail regularly, and ( I believe) cause the creation of 6 extra folders on the C:drive each time I reboot.

Five of them are
Security Update for Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5, 4.5.1 and 4.5.2 on Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 x86 (KB2972107 and 4 others)

Error details: Code 66A

If I click on "Get help with this error" I get a message offering several Windows update error numbers; however there is no useful indication of what may have caused the error - it might have been a connection problem, it might not have liked my AVG antivirus or other programs (like Dropbox, GoogleSync). And so on.

Am I able to install the updates in Safe mode?

 

[FI0L]

AVG has been known to block some Windows Updates.

If you've not already tried, try turning off your "Online Shield". You shouldn't need to turn the "Resident Shield" off completely.

If that works for you, then once you have the updates, turn "Online Shield" back on and repeat should the problem occur with further updates.

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