Why does Windows have so many files?

[Tim H]

Ok I am sure this has come up from someone before but I dont care .. I will scream it here anyway.

WTF .. I work on my computer all day everyday .. have for 15 years or more .. and all my work combined
could not be more than 300,000 files - and that would be an optimistic estimate. And since I only have at most 4 years of work actually on the computer the actual number is far less, I have maybe 2500 songs and maybe 1000 pictures
..
I am currently doing a scan using Defender .. its at 1.4+ mil files scanned and does not appear to be even 10% complete (judging by admittedly - Microsoft's laughable progress indicator)

Again - WTF ... millions of files WTF ???????? What the hell do they have to put on a machine to amount to MILLIONS of files???????

THIS IS INSANE!

now 1.5+ mil in the time to run this

 

[Tim H]

oh, and "Feel free to continue working..." also more than laughable .. the service running this crap .. 93%-99%use of CPU resources

 

[Tim H]

2 mil+

 

[Tim H]

2.5 mil+

 

[Tim H]

3 mil+ (not half done) .. before someone asks - this not connected to other computers - no hard wired rj45 and wifi and bluetooth disconnected ..and I ran a clean disk with system files included prior to running this.

 

[Tim H]

5.7 MILLION FILES 5.7 MILLION FILES !!!! What the ......??????

 

[Wolfie]

Hi Tim,

did you clean your PC recently?:

https://www.windows10forums.com/threads/how-to-use-disk-cleanup-on-windows.15876/

Do you have the latest version of W10?:

https://www.windows10forums.com/threads/how-to-upgrade-windows-10-to-the-latest-version.13015/

 

[BigFeet]

The last full scan I did, Bitdefender scanned 161,000 files over two 1 tb hard drives. That includes a vast genealogy archive, all my racing history files, thousands of pictures. No idea how you're getting that many files.

 

[Tim H]

Hi Tim,

did you clean your PC recently?:

https://www.windows10forums.com/threads/how-to-use-disk-cleanup-on-windows.15876/

Do you have the latest version of W10?:

https://www.windows10forums.com/threads/how-to-upgrade-windows-10-to-the-latest-version.13015/

 

[Tim H]

Always have the latest Win10 sends am cleaning the machine regularly

 

[Tim H]

The last full scan I did, Bitdefender scanned 161,000 files over two 1 tb hard drives. That includes a vast genealogy archive, all my racing history files, thousands of pictures. No idea how you're getting that many files.

 

[Tim H]

results

 

[davehc]

I don't have a great deal accumulated mon my computer. Usually transfer it in good time to a safer place. But, just ran a Defender scan. Took about 5 minutes

 

[Norton]

Tim 5.7 million! That's a lot of files. Could this be a glitch with Bit Defender, how long have you been using the program? I would attempt to scan with Windows Defender to see if it reports the same number of files scanned. If not I would uninstall and reinstall Bit Defender.

 

[davehc]

? Woops. Am I on the wrong foot again. I thought the thread was about Windows defender?

 

[Wolfie]

Hi Tim,

this might help?, it has a couple of links to check out:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...-to-scan/2c3930b1-b2c4-4d20-b41c-a7a0ebdb1b9b

 

[Tim H]

This thread is about Windows Defender. I thought that would be clear especially after the photo post.

I use the properties tab on the c: drive and use clean files and go thru the clean system files process and blow everything I can including previous versions of windows etc

I also search the computer to clean up files with known file name parts I create during my work so I am only keeping the raw material (files) I need to reproduce work and the final deliverables - again , as I tried to indicate even with ridiculously large factors in estimation would not amount to more than 200k files

This IS NOT about the TIME it takes to run the scan - it took about 2-3 hours - nothing I'd consider crazy given the number of files.


THIS IS ABOUT THE NUMBER OF FILES. 5.7 MILLION FILES - WHERE THE HECK IS THAT COMING FROM???? I sure as hell am not responsible for even a fraction of that! I WANT TO KNOW

1) CAN MICROSOFT COUNT??
2) IS MICROSOFT THE REASON FOR THESE FILES IF ACCURATE??

(Oh, I do not use other AV software only WD - I do have Malwarebytes - but it has been disabled for a long time since Windows didnt seen to wanna work with it running - thanks Microsoft for the WASTED MONEY for that)

The last thing that entered my mind - I do have Virtual Machine using VMware running a version of XP loaded . though not running for any of this

 

[Norton]

Sorry Tim my apologies. It was @BigFeet reference to Bit Defender that kind of threw (not hard) me OFF track. Scanning 5.7 million files is absurd, I think you must be scanning the cloud for MS.

 

[Tim H]

All I can say is there are no network cables plugged in and both wifi and bluetooth are off - so unless it is doing something I aint aware of ...

 

[davehc]

Long story, cut short. You have a nasty virus somewhere. Download a program (Malwarebytes?) and do a scan.