Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (x64)

In [C:\Windows\winsxs\Temp\PendingDeletes], I have four files that are 2
years old. They occupy about 3MB of disc. The folder PendingDeletes is
a "hidden" system folder that I exposed while cleaning up temporary
folders prior to a system-wide backup.

I know I can set my backup application to ignore the contents of
PendingDeletes, and I still have plenty of unused disc. However, I
would like to be rid of those four files. I have tried using Eraser,
Unlocker, and Take Ownership. I tried command-line deletion. None of
those allowed me to delete the files. I marked them to be deleted on
the next reboot, but they were still there after rebooting.

How can I get rid of them?

--
David E. Ross
"A Message to Those Who Are Not Vaccinated"
See my <http://www.rossde.com/index#vaccine>.

On Tue, 21 Sep 2021 15:11:44 -0700, David E. Ross wrote:
> However, I
> would like to be rid of those four files. I have tried using Eraser,
> Unlocker, and Take Ownership. I tried command-line deletion.

I don't know if this will be helpful, since you didn't tell us your
error message, but:

attrib -r -h -s {filename}
del {filename}

ought to do the job. You need to specify the full filename including
extension in the first command; the Tab key for auto-complete doesn't
work on hidden files. Unless the first command fails, Tab for
auto_complete should work in the second command.

If you get an error message about privilege in the attrib command,
you may need to take ownership of the file first. Google for "take
ownership of file" for the procedure.

--
Stan Brown, Tehachapi, California, USA https://BrownMath.com/
https://OakRoadSystems.com/
Shikata ga nai...

David E. Ross wrote:
> Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (x64)
>
> In [C:\Windows\winsxs\Temp\PendingDeletes], I have four files that are 2
> years old. They occupy about 3MB of disc. The folder PendingDeletes is
> a "hidden" system folder that I exposed while cleaning up temporary
> folders prior to a system-wide backup.
>
> I know I can set my backup application to ignore the contents of
> PendingDeletes, and I still have plenty of unused disc. However, I
> would like to be rid of those four files. I have tried using Eraser,
> Unlocker, and Take Ownership. I tried command-line deletion. None of
> those allowed me to delete the files. I marked them to be deleted on
> the next reboot, but they were still there after rebooting.
>
> How can I get rid of them?
>

If you Google "windows pendingdeletes why not deleted",
you'll find plenty of examples where those won't clean up.

DISM /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup # With TrustedInstaller service
# started manually, in place of
# Windows Update having started it.
# Start TI a few seconds before
# hitting return in
# admin command prompt.

Using DISM ensures any dependencies are being honored,
and nothing is thrown in the trash that does not
belong in the trash.

DISM differs from one OS to the next, and the Windows 7
one is missing some features. And they never bothered
to backport the stuff, to do a good job.

There are apparently all sorts of little things you
can do, to muck up the works. Pros who maintain pools
of VMs for a living, frequently ask questions about
stuff like this, as they struggle to make the VM container
file smaller. Those people are less likely to worry
about the tradeoffs of making WinSXS "ultra-clean".
For them, wasted space is all that matters.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/clean-up-the-winsxs-folder

In any case, doing it with "del *.*" is not recommended.
Those items are in the WinSXS tree, which means
side by side owns them. The topic needs more research
to guarantee safety in your assumption of the usage
model of that folder.

You might not even discover, until the next windows
Update, that you've broken something. That would be
my fear - latent damage not realized until WinSXS content
is stressed.

And yes, I've tried the experiment of deleting the entire
WinSXS. And no, it does not end well. The theory was, you could
delete WinSXS and it would "only break Windows Update",
but that doesn't seem to be true. I was toast after that,
and then I had to restore from backup. I don't need to
try that a second time now.

Paul

On Tue, 21 Sep 2021 15:11:44 -0700, David E. Ross wrote:
> Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (x64)
>
> In [C:\Windows\winsxs\Temp\PendingDeletes], I have four files that are 2
> years old. They occupy about 3MB of disc. The folder PendingDeletes is
> a "hidden" system folder that I exposed while cleaning up temporary
> folders prior to a system-wide backup.
>
> I know I can set my backup application to ignore the contents of
> PendingDeletes, and I still have plenty of unused disc. However, I
> would like to be rid of those four files. I have tried using Eraser,
> Unlocker, and Take Ownership. I tried command-line deletion. None of
> those allowed me to delete the files. I marked them to be deleted on
> the next reboot, but they were still there after rebooting.
>
> How can I get rid of them?

They're likely temporary files which are constantly accessed or at least
kept open when the owner application is running. e.g. which either contains
predefined data, or are temporary DLLs/EXEs.

On 9/21/2021 6:11 PM, David E. Ross wrote:
> Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (x64)
>
> In [C:\Windows\winsxs\Temp\PendingDeletes], I have four files that are 2
> years old. They occupy about 3MB of disc. The folder PendingDeletes is
> a "hidden" system folder that I exposed while cleaning up temporary
> folders prior to a system-wide backup.
>
> I know I can set my backup application to ignore the contents of
> PendingDeletes, and I still have plenty of unused disc. However, I
> would like to be rid of those four files. I have tried using Eraser,
> Unlocker, and Take Ownership. I tried command-line deletion. None of
> those allowed me to delete the files. I marked them to be deleted on
> the next reboot, but they were still there after rebooting.
>
> How can I get rid of them?
>
use FORFILES in a batch like following:

:: Reduce C:\Users\.....\AppData\Local\Temp Files and Folders
:: ------------------------------------
:: Remove files LAST Accessed OLDER than AGE
SET _SRC=C:\Users\Eric\AppData\Local\Temp & SET AGE=30
FORFILES /P %_SRC% /S /C "CMD /C DEL /Q @path" /D -%AGE% > NUL 2>&1

:: Remove empty folders
FOR /f "delims=" %%i in ('DIR %_SRC% /AD /S /B ^| SORT /R') DO RD "%%i"
> NUL 2>&1

On Tue, 21 Sep 2021 15:11:44 -0700, in alt.windows7.general, "David E. Ross"
<not_me@not_there.invalid>, wrote

>Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (x64)
>
>In [C:\Windows\winsxs\Temp\PendingDeletes], I have four files that are 2
>years old. They occupy about 3MB of disc. The folder PendingDeletes is
>a "hidden" system folder that I exposed while cleaning up temporary
>folders prior to a system-wide backup.
>
>I know I can set my backup application to ignore the contents of
>PendingDeletes, and I still have plenty of unused disc. However, I
>would like to be rid of those four files. I have tried using Eraser,
>Unlocker, and Take Ownership. I tried command-line deletion. None of
>those allowed me to delete the files. I marked them to be deleted on
>the next reboot, but they were still there after rebooting.
>
>How can I get rid of them?

How interesting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
+¦ +--msil_wsatconfig_b03f5f7f11d50a3a_6.1.7601.17514
¦ +--Temp
¦ ¦ +--PendingDeletes
¦ ¦ +--PendingRenames
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(both "pending" directories were empty.)

On 10/3/2021 6:23 AM, FACE wrote:
> On Tue, 21 Sep 2021 15:11:44 -0700, in alt.windows7.general, "David E. Ross"
> <not_me@not_there.invalid>, wrote
>
>> Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (x64)
>>
>> In [C:\Windows\winsxs\Temp\PendingDeletes], I have four files that are 2
>> years old. They occupy about 3MB of disc. The folder PendingDeletes is
>> a "hidden" system folder that I exposed while cleaning up temporary
>> folders prior to a system-wide backup.
>>
>> I know I can set my backup application to ignore the contents of
>> PendingDeletes, and I still have plenty of unused disc. However, I
>> would like to be rid of those four files. I have tried using Eraser,
>> Unlocker, and Take Ownership. I tried command-line deletion. None of
>> those allowed me to delete the files. I marked them to be deleted on
>> the next reboot, but they were still there after rebooting.
>>
>> How can I get rid of them?
>
> How interesting.
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~
> +¦ +--msil_wsatconfig_b03f5f7f11d50a3a_6.1.7601.17514
> ¦ +--Temp
> ¦ ¦ +--PendingDeletes
> ¦ ¦ +--PendingRenames
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> (both "pending" directories were empty.)
>

I only see that there are files in PendingDeletes if I unhide protected
system files. Yes, I understand that such files are "special".
However, there are four such files that have the pending delete status
for quite a long time.

It seems to me that using a folder named PendingDeletes as a long-term
place to hold necessary system files is poor design.

--
David E. Ross
"A Message to Those Who Are Not Vaccinated"
See my <http://www.rossde.com/index.html#vaccine>.

On Sun, 3 Oct 2021 at 08:08:24, David E. Ross <not_me@not_there.invalid>
wrote (my responses usually follow points raised):
>On 10/3/2021 6:23 AM, FACE wrote:
>> On Tue, 21 Sep 2021 15:11:44 -0700, in alt.windows7.general, "David
>>E. Ross"
>> <not_me@not_there.invalid>, wrote
>>
>>> Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (x64)
>>>
>>> In [C:\Windows\winsxs\Temp\PendingDeletes], I have four files that are 2
>>> years old. They occupy about 3MB of disc. The folder PendingDeletes is
>>> a "hidden" system folder that I exposed while cleaning up temporary
>>> folders prior to a system-wide backup.
>>>
>>> I know I can set my backup application to ignore the contents of
>>> PendingDeletes, and I still have plenty of unused disc. However, I
>>> would like to be rid of those four files. I have tried using Eraser,
>>> Unlocker, and Take Ownership. I tried command-line deletion. None of
>>> those allowed me to delete the files. I marked them to be deleted on
>>> the next reboot, but they were still there after rebooting.
>>>
>>> How can I get rid of them?
>>
>> How interesting.
>>
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> +¦ +--msil_wsatconfig_b03f5f7f11d50a3a_6.1.7601.17514
>> ¦ +--Temp
>> ¦ ¦ +--PendingDeletes
>> ¦ ¦ +--PendingRenames
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>
>> (both "pending" directories were empty.)
>>
>
>I only see that there are files in PendingDeletes if I unhide protected
>system files. Yes, I understand that such files are "special".
>However, there are four such files that have the pending delete status
>for quite a long time.
>
>It seems to me that using a folder named PendingDeletes as a long-term
>place to hold necessary system files is poor design.
>
Especially with \temp\ in the pathname )-:.

I have 121 - dating from 2009 to 2020 - in there; OK, "only" 60.2 MB,
but still irritating. (I haven't tried beyond delete.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Sneering doesn't become either the human face or the human soul.
Professor Henry Higgins (in Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw)