When Win 10 updates, it leaves temp files behind.   Might be mostly empty, but the file listings it used in unpacking and executing the update action remain behind as the husks of the update.   Sad thing is that they aren't always empty ---- and they do mount up over time.

Use good clean up software on your Win 10 machine and it keeps COUNT of (and reports) all the temp files, orphans and husks that it scrubs each time you use it.

https://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/    my favorite defragger

I routinely use Auslogic Disk Defragmenter (free and safe to use) to keep my Windows machines both defragmented and file compressed as it is far quicker acting than the built in defragmenter that is in the Windows Maintenance Utilities.   I routinely crank it up then minimize the window and check it after 10 minutes to see what it did -- it requires no "personal management" and it does both of the defrag and optimization jobs automatically.

One of the settings in Auslogic is "Remove Temp files before defragmenting" and when clicked Auslogic scrubs and deletes all the broken orphan files and husks and temp files before resorting everything very neatly with all the file blocks contiguous and whole again.   This is where the numerical count data comes from, btw.   Window's built in defraggers (the two of them) does NOT routinely do this (nor does it keep count of the husks and temps it kills) which is why it is slower and more cumbersome to use the built in MS tools.  

(Does wasting clock cycles actually defragging the orphan fragments and empty husks and temp files make any sense to you ???   Not to me .....      )

Windows is a seriously messy camper, it simply slings file bits and husks and temp files all over the place as it goes about doing it's nightly update routine.    It leaves your campsite as a trash covered mess in other words ........

Why does Windows breaks new file stuff up into chicklets during its normal operations and does not lay the partial files even close to each other on the hard drive is beyond me but Windows doesn't make any effort to clean this up.   The new file data just gets dumped in the next available slot that is big enough to hold it.  

So,  each file that has to grow gets fragmented by Windows and the Windows NTFS File Allocation Table (FAT) spends time and processor cycles keeping track of all the little bits and fragments that make up the entire Windows file.   Each unnecessary hard drive "seek" is wasted time which mounts up by the partial seconds into whole minutes inside a few days worth of hard drive activity.

Linux hard drive file systems operate completely differently.   Linux spreads your files over your entire hard drive space EVENLY with an equivalent amount of free space preserved between each separate file.   Then if one file changes or grows, the file simply changes or grows into that free space quietly, using up some of the free space between the files but all the while staying continuous and whole.   If a file grows enough to actually hit the following file, then the entire growing file gets moved as a whole to the next free space that is big enough to hold the whole thing.  

Linux routinely completely deletes the husks of any temporary files just as soon as each action is completed -- such things never build up by the thousands like they do in Windows.

Eegore, give this post to your IT guy and see what he has to say about it.





Ask him about the "confetti effect" (Windows nightly update chopping up your NTFS file allocation table finer and finer each time it pulls an update or upgrade) and then ask him "What causes Windows to run slower and slower over time?"

Ask him about file name "zdkjhsywwdusqqaavbvnmtyuioqq.***" and all its monolithic brothers and sisters sticking up out of the hard drive hilltop outline like Stonehenge.

Then ask him about these   very sizeable   chunks of wasted space -- the even bigger things that do not get deleted very well and leave HUGE ICEBERGS behind them eating up your hard drive space big time.

https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/anniversary-update-wasting-space

https://www.komando.com/happening-now/425661/windows-latest-update-leaves-beh...

 He sent this:

"You do have large file cleanups after an update from Windows, I can't say for sure without going down and accessing the save logs. Its possible that it could be in the thousands but this is not a nightly thing.

You are scheduled for full system cleanups every 14 days so you shouldn't experience any clutter ssues related to updates."

NOTE: The following text is a representation only and may not be accurate in size, color, font or other defining features in comparison to their original posted format:

"Ask him about the "confetti effect" (Windows nightly update chopping up your NTFS file allocation table finer and finer each time it pulls an update or upgrade) and then ask him "What causes Windows to run slower and slower over time?"

 "You do not have a nightly Windows update."

Ask him about file name "zdkjhsywwdusqqaavbvnmtyuioqq.***" and all its monolithic brothers and sisters sticking up out of the hard drive hilltop outline like Stonehenge.

 "I will make not of that file name and look for it on Friday when I come in."

Then ask him about these   very sizeable   chunks of wasted space -- the even bigger things that do not get deleted very well and leave HUGE ICEBERGS behind them eating up your hard drive space big time.

 "You don't have these issues, but we can continue to look for them. Your Windows usage lifetime is under two years since you purchase a new software package with each new PC unit so there is little reason to have concern, you will have discarded the product before it has had time to accumulate static issues even if you didn't have bi-monthly sytem-wide maintenance done."


 So I guess if I made more long-term use out of Windows, with an active account, I would experience more of the problems listed above.

Been on the phone with Brother USA customer service.   My question was "Why does MS delete your drivers off my machine within a week of me putting it all back together again?"  

My motus operandi was to ask to be forwarded to their boss when the help person ran out of answers.

I worked at it fairly diligently, at least an hour a day with periods of several days between elevation responses.

Brother is a supplier of printers that come with a Brother Driver setup CD which installs and configures the Brother drivers which are required for proper function.   MS leaves them alone unless MS has a built-in driver that supposedly does the job for the Brother printer in question.   Then MS defaults to their driver ...... and scrubs away the Brother driver during a nightly update.

The original HL-L3205 Brother laser printer communicated through a parallel port.   Then USB came on board.   Then later, wireless printing came on board.   Mine uses USB 2.0 ports and wireless communications.

MS keeps plugging in their generic Brother driver, the one which assumes a parallel port.

Brother, at all levels, is helpless to stop what MS does to my Win 10 machines at night.  

You can always ask a question on any thread that I have started, I don't think you can hijack a thread on a computer topic.

Microsoft has issued the Extended Support death notice on Win 7 for January 14th, 2020.

Primary support has ended already, so MS is just patching "severe problems, large security problems" at this point anyway.

If your old Win 7 machine is working well, I would leave well enough alone.   Letting MS review your machine any at all means they will load up with their nightly review stuff on your hard drive and then they will attempt to roll you over to Win 10 against your wishes using a variety of methods.   Example:  Mickey will send you a security alert message about an issue and offer to fix whatever it is by YOU signing up for nightly updates and YOU signing up for Win 10 whatever --- so don't do this.

Do you have your Linux picked out yet?   Have you started to use it part time verging on full time yet?

You will soon get to the point where you need to be "fully functional" on Linux because that is your future pathway going past the end of Win 7 at this point.

Some VERY SMALL very mild hope still exists for the new planned Windows 10 Lite, but you will not be able to use your existing programs the way it is planned out now, Mickey will want you to go buy all new stuff from the MS store if you go that way.  

Mickey wants your money, if not A then B -- it all costs a lot of money.

Linux Mint Mate works better (really, it does) and it is free of charge, including all updates and upgrades to ALL the software.

I have mint installed in my old xp machine, you helped me set it up. I've been using it , I'm on it now.  I don't know how to use the terminal, and mint seems harder to do a disk cleanup .I'm interested in the win 10 lite, for my win 7 laptop.  Thanks.

Just keeping you posted OF, I'm using Linux at least 90% of the time now, will probably get rid of Windows next January, as an illiterate like me is still in a learning curve. Drive for photos didn't work out that well, but I've learned to upload to Google Photos, photos off my phone which demonstrates my level of tech illiteracy. Sanning and printing are ok, but I'm still learning how to print double sided. That'a printer thing and not Linux.
I did note the other day when I had a power cut, Linux wouldn't connect to the internet once the cut was over. Went to Windows and internet was back on, immediately closed Windows, back to Linux, internet ok.

I haven't used the terminal at all, ever, except to copy and paste REAL EXPERT instruction strings from a support web page directly into the terminal box, type in my password and execute the instruction string to go fix things that I want fixed.

As far as I am concerned, that is the only reason why the terminal is still in Linux Mint, so it can be used for copy and paste by folks like us.

Now that you have crossed the Rubicon and have a pure Linux machine, is there anything that isn't working right for you or are you green across the board ?

Have you been getting a series of small updates (keeping an eye on your little green checkmark shield in the bottom right hand corner of the Mint desktop screen?)

Both Chrome and Firefox got updated this past week, fixing some DRM oddities and giving Firefox a leg up on Chrome for playing Hulu movies because of a more modern DRM set.

When Chrome lags behind Firefox, I will use Firefox for the week or so until Chrome catches up, or vice versa as the case may be.  

Having a backup good browser is a nice thing to have ....


===================================================


Now this is for all the Windows users out there --- it takes us Linux Mint people less than 2 minutes to go get our upgrades and to install them ---- and then just works right from then on, it never requires REBOOTING at all.   No time wasted, no fuss.   Seriously done inside 2 minutes or less.  

Oh, and I bet by now you have also figured out why I said to have a dirt simple VERY short password because this is one of the few times you ever have to use it.

We NEVER come back to use our machine and find our stuff is not working at all like you Windows guys can remember having happened to you a time or 5 in the past year or so.   We never have to wait 5-10 minutes for our machine to go auto shut down, download a bunch of stuff and then reboot itself to install it all, then reboot itself again so it can go back to work ......

Getting Windows completely off our machines signals a period of peaceful existence that we cannot really express to you poor Windows sufferers in words.