Unknown nsfp Temp Files

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hi folks,

I’ve noticed I have many files in the Avast Temp folder, these all begin with nsfp and are proceeded with numbers and letters, for example nsfp000000B8.tmp or nsfp00000A18.tmp.

These all appear to be from within the last week or so and can’t be deleted as explorer says ‘The action can’t be completed because the file is open in Avast Antivirus’.

I’ve been using Avast for a long time now and have never seen these before.

Can anyone shed some light on what they are and why they’ve only appeared recently please?

I’m worried it may be due to a problem.

2

They are related to Web Shield scanning, and their number may somehow correspond to the number of simultaneous connections your computer is/was doing at some point.
Some of them are kept open (as empty files, i.e. they don’t occupy any space) and reused for future work.

In other words, I wouldn’t worry. Out of curiosity, how many are there in the folder?

3

Which temp folder are you referring to, out of curiosity. What’s the file path?

4

@igor, Thanks, there are 650 so far and about 500 of them are from today alone.

@Dinobot2, This PC > Windows (C:) > Windows > Temp > avast

5

C:\Windows\Temp is blocked off. Did you have to take ownership of the folder and play around with the permissions to get into it?

6

@Dinobot2, No, it’s just the location which has always opened when I right click ‘Run’ and type ‘temp’.

7

Ok, so you’re not navigating to it via File Explorer.

Are you talking about the Run command on Windows? Are you running as administrator?

8

@Dinobot2, Yes via ‘Run’ although I can also navigate to it via File Explorer. Also yes, running as administrator.

9

Look, there’s a lot of mine here. Now I’m thinking that’s it. hahahaha

10

I guess I’m curious how you got to it via File Explorer? I’m on an Admin account and it’s currently blocked off, and the only way to get into that folder would be to take ownership of the folder and/or change the permissions on it. This appears to be the default and by design for a lot of users after googling.

These are the security permissions on that folder for me, maybe they’re different for the rest of you?

11

Can you believe mine didn’t ask for these permissions, here it opened normally.

12

I mean I guess I could believe that, but did you ever change any settings in the past?

Mine doesn’t even do anything on a double click. And I’m afraid to use the Run command in case that changes things further.

Whatever, i’m sure my avast temp folder is the same as both of yours and i’ll just stick to using Disk Cleanup to clear stuff out.

13

Answering your question, I never needed permission to enter the Windows temporary folder.

14

Ok well whatever I’ll just leave it as is until there’s an issue or I need to get in there.