Re: Deleting EMPTY hidden files in Local settings

From: Roger Abell [MVP] (mvpNOSPAM@asu.edu)
Date: 08/24/02 

From: "Roger Abell [MVP]" <mvpNOSPAM@asu.edu>
Date: Fri, 23 Aug 2002 23:01:51 -0700

I believe there is no real answer to your question.
It all depends on what application has persisted its
config info in this area. A well behaved app will
have defaults that it will revert to if there is no local
specific info otherwise, and so it would be safe,
especially since they are just empty files.
For what it is worth, I have for some time deleted
files such as that with abandon, figuring if the app
was that poorly planned as to write junk (that is of
course my assumption) then I did not particularly
care if I broke it. To date I have not suffered from
doing this.

Your experience may differ. 

--
Roger Abell
MS MVP (Windows Platform), MCSE, MCDBA
Associate Expert - Windows XP ExpertZone
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
"LARRY" <v1971et@wideopenwest.com> wrote in message
news:936701c24b1d$8eef7df0$9ae62ecf@tkmsftngxa02...
>     While cleaning out un-necessary data I opened
> The "hidden files" in the Local settings folder. The have
> file names such as "89MN01E3 and CT1N4XAF, etc. This is
> in Windows XP..Home Edition...under each user there are
> various files of this type...some users only have 1 or
> 2...others have 10 or 12. If the file is EMPTY is is safe
> to delete? Does it recreate itself as needed like some
> ISP drivers or are these CRITICAL and should be left?
> They have absolutely NO DATA in them(this has been
> checked by using the properties tab as well as opening
> each folder)
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