Solved Windows 10 & 11 create tons of empty folders in System32

Winuser · Jan 24, 2022

mm71 said:
Thanks, the repair upgrade was quick and there were no issues, but it didn't fix my problems. I did exclude updates, and they were all there after restarting, and Dell would not check for updates for an hour because the system had just been updated... but... nothing was fixed... Very minor personalization changes, like no notifications in the taskbar...

Is the laptop is still under warranty? If it is and you want to try a clean install. First make a bootable USB Windows install drive. Then use the Dell recovery program if you have one to restore back to the OOBE. Install an imaging program and make a rescue USB drive. Then make a system image to an external drive. After that boot from the Windows install drive and do a clean install. Delete all the partitions and let the installer create just the partitions needed for Windows. If you still have problems, you can restore the OOBE image and return or send the laptop back for repair.

mm71 · Jan 24, 2022

Notifications from Windows, like when an external drive is removed. This has been solved. Notifications had just been turned off in the settings and when I turned them on again, everything was fine.
I will start a new thread with my problems... Thank you.

Dch48 · Jan 24, 2022

21 tw empty folders back. Created yesterday afternoon.

humbird · Jan 24, 2022

Dch48 said:
21 tw empty folders back. Created yesterday afternoon.

I haven't had any problems from disabling the logon task for the provisioning tool and I suppose nobody in this thread that has done it has not had a problem either. It happens when a reboot or cold start is initialized. The provisioning tool is not disabled just the logon task for it.

Dch48 · Jan 25, 2022

humbird said:
I haven't had any problems from disabling the logon task for the provisioning tool and I suppose nobody in this thread that has done it has not had a problem either. It happens when a reboot or cold start is initialized. The provisioning tool is not disabled just the logon task for it.

It doesn't happen at every start. With me it's like every 5 days or so.

Dch48 · Jan 25, 2022

I'm starting to think it has to do with when the Windows automatic maintenance kicks in. Or when Windows Update automatically starts to check for Defender definition updates.

humbird · Jan 25, 2022

That is a possibility for sure..

humbird · Jan 29, 2022

I found an article on MSN that stated these folders have something to do with making a network connection which seems to make sense as I shut down instead of sleep, and it does coincide with starting or restarting the computer. I enabled provtool logon task but disabled cellular which had never run for me anyway and. the folders came back. So, disabling cellular did nothing for me. Back to cleaning the tmp files.
Anyway, here is the site that mentions the above network connection link although it is still no help.

Random TMP folders are popping up on some PCs running Windows

I re-enabled provtool because for some reason, and I am probably totally off base here I was connecting it with losing Terminal from right click menu after the Jan. 25th update in some way.

FJRMarty · Jan 29, 2022

Just a quick note, it's been 7 days and an update since I disabled that provtool, no negative impacts or new tmp file detected. At the time, my 5 week old laptop had created 1100 tmp files.

humbird · Jan 29, 2022

I decided to re-enable provtool for the time being because I am not sure it will not create a problem down the road as nobody seems to know the real purpose of it. Like I said I found only one post on the web that refers to an answer for it running (network connection). I will just deal with the .tmp folders until I find a real answer, if ever.

CornishRattler · Jan 29, 2022

I disabled logon and cellular a week ago and had no adverse effects and no .tmp files. Enabled both earlier just to see and guess what..... .tmp files started appearing again after reboots. Disabled again

humbird · Jan 29, 2022

K I finally have found something on Microosft community forum that may be helpful about what Provtool does. Scroll to ChrisHocs answer, (last answer) on that page. I am only trying to find why it runs.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...m/7519d027-deb7-404b-96ac-15acd2c86e12?page=2

Winuser · Jan 29, 2022

humbird said:
K I finally have found something on Microosft community forum that may be helpful about what Provtool does. Scroll to ChrisHocs answer, (last answer) on that page. I am only trying to find why it runs.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...m/7519d027-deb7-404b-96ac-15acd2c86e12?page=2

I just checked and after the update to build 22543 everything was reset. I'm going to leave it as is.

Dch48 · Jan 29, 2022

humbird said:
K I finally have found something on Microosft community forum that may be helpful about what Provtool does. Scroll to ChrisHocs answer, (last answer) on that page. I am only trying to find why it runs.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...m/7519d027-deb7-404b-96ac-15acd2c86e12?page=2

Good article but I disagree about CCleaner. I use the registry cleaner feature quite often and it has NEVER caused any problems. I trust it so much that I don't even do the registry backup option before letting it fix the issues it found. It always deletes the entries because they are no longer valid. They belong to uninstalled programs and unnecessary firewall rules for those same things. It doesn't do any more than something like Revo Uninstaller does and is just as safe.

FJRMarty · Jan 29, 2022

According to this ChrisHoc feller, "Account Provisioning... and System Provisioning are for IT processes for remotely creating and deploying operating systems to PCs, laptops, and servers inside a networked system... Both of these are crucial components in successfully running and maintaining a corporate IT infrastructure."

I'm guessing my stand-alone Home PC doesn't care too much about this. But I'm not near as smart as a lot of the folks here, so I bow to those folks.

humbird · Jan 30, 2022

If you want to see what the provtool is doing. Open event viewer, I haven't for so long but wondered. Scroll to applications and services> Microsoft >Windows> Provisioning-Diagnostics-Provider>Admin. All of the entries coincide with the folders created. When I had logon task disabled it did not record anything. Now that it is back on I get 21 entries at each logon but only 20 empty Tmp folders.

Dch48 · Jan 30, 2022

humbird said:
If you want to see what the provtool is doing. Open event viewer, I haven't for so long but wondered. Scroll to applications and services> Microsoft >Windows> Provisioning-Diagnostics-Provider>Admin. All of the entries coincide with the folders created. When I had logon task disabled it did not record anything. Now that it is back on I get 21 entries at each logon but only 20 empty Tmp folders.

Almost all of mine are related to power settings. They all say applying some package or other related to power. I don't get them every day though. Sometimes they are 3-5 days apart then it will happen for 2 or 3 days in a row.

humbird · Jan 30, 2022

Most of mine also relate to power settings also.

PerpetualCycle · Sep 25, 2022

Well crap, they are back. Deleted them and disabled the management/provisioning /cellular /login again

SillyBadger · Jan 24, 2023

I just looked, my desktop has slightly over 16000 empty folders

Solved Windows 10 & 11 create tons of empty folders in System32

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