I appeared to be running out of storage but a lot of digging came up with a 50GB (!) file: AppData\Local\Temp_avast_\unpF05C.tmp
I assume this can be deleted without causing any harm. Can anybody confirm this? Does anyone at Avast either own this or can suggest how it came about???
Thanks
Richard
The real question is why it remains in the windows\temp_avast_ sub folder.
The avast is where avast scans files, on successful completion of the scan avast should remove the contents of the avast folder.
One possible issue is another security based program, locking that file and not allowing avast to remove after completing the scan. Do you have any other security based applications, e.g. anti-spy/malware programs.
Have (or did) you another Anti-Virus installed in this system, if so what was it and how did you get rid of it ?
This is not windows\temp_avast_ folder, it’s AppData\Local\Temp_avast_\unpF05C.tmp… so the TMP file doesn’t come from AvastSvc, but rather from something running under the user’s account. Weird… I find it unlikely that AvastUI would create such files; maybe a browser or an email client (where Avast plugin does something)?
Is the file recent (so you may be able to guess if you have done anything unusual… special web pages with streaming content, something like that), or is it old?
Thanks for the inputs, in particular the link to a previous query. In view of what was said, I’ve deleted the file, restarted with no ill effects and have now got 50GB more storage than I had 24 hours ago!
The spurious file was dated 1 January 2015 but I have no idea whether that is genuine or what action might have prompted it. At least if I suddenly run out of storage again, I’ll know where to look, what to do and where to report it.
Thanks again for the very prompt and helpful responses.