Huge (empty) folder | The Coffeehouse

CannotResolveSymbol
Microsoft: Who do you want to execute today?

I'm looking through my hard disk trying to find out where I can save space and I notice this:

C:\Documents and Settings\{user}\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Messenger\{address}

Size: 8.01GB
Size on disk: 20.2 MB

Inside:
* Contacts: Size: 82.3 KB, On Disk: 132 KB
* Assorted files and folders in Contacts, none unusually large
* Sharing Folders: Size: 0 B, On Disk: 0 B

The folder is otherwise empty, with "Show hidden files and folders" turned on.

Anyone else seen this? It's not too concerning since it's not really taking up that much space, but still...

I'm running Messenger 8 beta.

JohnAskew
9 girl in pink sweater

Well I wouldn't want that to be a covert surveillance from Uncle Sam, but that's the stuff fiction is made of.

Why would Messenger 'reserve' 8 gigs of space?

mVPstar
I'm white because I smelt an onion.

I noticed that awhile ago too when my computer started acting sluggish.

It has to do with the sharing folders feature. After turning that off, my computer has been fine.

alwaysmc2
It's not stupid; It's advanced!

Well if the massive file(s) are system file's, simply showwing "hidde files and folders" won't show them. In addition to that, you have to uncheck "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)".
Is would only be, of course, if messenger 8 put ".sys" on the end of some of their files.

In any case, that's just strange.

CannotResolveSymbol
Microsoft: Who do you want to execute today?

Sleuth work:

I turned "ShowSuperHidden" (registry tweak) on, and another folder appears: SharingMetadata. The massive file in question is located at .\SharingMetadata\Working\SimilarityTable_2. It's marked as System, so it won't show up in Explorer at all by default. It isn't compressed, so it must be a sparse file. It would be nice if Explorer would show you these things instead of making you think you've gotten a rootkit or something on your computer.

Sharing Folders are turned off, and the file is still there.

(edit: oops, I didn't realize "Hide protected operating system files" was an option in Folder Options still. Oh well. Now I feel stupid.)

mVPstar
I'm white because I smelt an onion.

Just delete the folder. Messenger will just recreate it at normal size.

CannotResolveSymbol
Microsoft: Who do you want to execute today?

mVPstar wrote:
Just delete the folder. Messenger will just recreate it at normal size.

That did the trick. Messenger runs fine without it (with Sharing Folders off). I still may file a bug report-- no application should be marking its files as "system," especially when they're nonessential.

SlackmasterK
I write my OWN blogging engines

If Autoexec.bat and Config.sys are empty, they aren't needed. Would you suggest marking them -s ?

[EDIT]: N/m, they're already -r-s-h. odd.

Scheyal

Sharing Folders used the similarity table to optimize unecesseary replication of similar files with different names. It used 8GB sparse file. In practice the file only took about 1MB of disk space (you can see that by looking at the actual disk space in the folder properties).

It is harmless.

However because of user concerns this optimization step was completely removed. The file isn't created any longer. Also there is no loss of functionality for 99% of the cases (this addressed an edge case).

The February beta release and the upcoming release do not use or create this file. If you still find this file on your machine after the upgrade, you can delete it safely and it should not get re-created.

Btw - sharing folders is using an encrypted p2p transport.

cheong

Autoexec.bat and config.sys was never made system, hidden nor read-only by default in my memory.

I regard them as a type of ini file - a config file that loads drivers you need and a startup file loads applications after boot.

They're not needed now... they exist only for backward compatibility.

If you manually edit them, any change will be lost on next reboot. (System will recreate them based on your startup settings.)