My computer has files and programs that I have no idea what they are.?

Question

I keep looking into my directories and every day there seems to be files or applications that I have no idea what they do, where they came from, and if I need them. How can I sort this mess out?? I hate Windows explorer.. is there a program like the old pctools that would give me way to check these?

Answer 1

its supporting file for your system/program/yahoo/msn/etc.etc.
its *.dll *.cfg *.blah *.blah

i hate windows explorer too...
here is option for you

Universal Explorer (UE) 4.2

Universal Explorer (UE) - a super turbo-charged Windows Explorer File Manager - plus more!!

It is a powerful Windows Explorer replacement software designed to replace the rather restricted features of the standard Windows Explorer File Manager. It is fully featured and offers many advantages to Windows Explorer.

With Universal Explorer, you can manage your files (move/copy/paste/delete) quickly and effectively. Plus, you can also VIEW and EDIT almost any file directly in UE with built-in File Viewer Windows! View and Edit text documents, HTML, a wide range of graphic files, programming source code and more. You can even view Microsoft Word and Excel documents without launching Word or Excel.

Universal Explorer offers a full Archive Manager (Archive Extractor) that allows you to create, view, edit, file and text search, convert and extract compressed files using multiple formats (ace, arc, arj, bh, cab, qz, jar, lha, lzh, rar, tar, zip, zoo). A Make .EXE option is included to turn a compressed file into a self-extracting Windows executable (.exe) file.

In addition, UE comes fully loaded with a wide range of great utility tools: Find Files, Search Text, Replace Text, Split File, Encrypt/Decrypt, Disk Copy, Directory Size, Directory Printer, Directory Compare, Set Properties, Batch Rename, Slide Show, Thumbview, Screen Capture, Calculator, ASCII List, Color List, System Information and Hex Window.

Dwnld : http://www.spadixbd.com/universal/


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home » lite version




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You will find the missing features in a table further down. In summary it suffers a bit in terms of customization and it won't offer you the scrap containers — so you can't use the powerful search command. Other than that it is the real deal and please don't knock it till you tried it!

Technically speaking this free version is unsupported, but you can post your issues and questions in the appropriate forum and assistance will come your way.
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Latest version: 1.6.5.3 [20.Feb.2007] (1 MB)

http://www.download.com/Xplorer2-lite/3000-2248_4-10407731.html


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hope its help u

Answer 2

Well, one thing's for sure: you shouldn't mess with them especially those located in the Program Files and Windows folders (if you're running on a Win 9x, 2000ME or XP OS). Try to run the applications you have and you may discover some more useful programs. But you have to take the risk of running a trojan virus application. So, scan your drives with an advanced Anti-Virus Software first. If this happens, you may end up reformatting your drives and losing important files and apps

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Every decent program needs a large and diverse set of files to support it's implementation. If you don't know what something is, don't delete it because it may be a necessary part of some program's operation.

As long as you have a good anti-virus program on your computer that is up to date you should be all right. And if you want to get rid of useless files or data on your computer, I suggest you get a program called CCleaner from download.com. It will delete unused registries from your computer and remove useless cookies and internet temp files so that you have more space. It works fast and it's free. It took off about 80 megs off my laptop the other day.

Answer 4

I get curious about that stuff too. Every once in a while, when I get paranoid enough, I go through and google a bunch of .exes and .inis . Generally there is a good reason for them, occasionally I will find something a consensus of folks say is unnecessary or even bad and I will then delete it, but like the above person said, it's easy to damage an application by removing a minor component.

Answer 5

I hope there are no viruses. Is this a shared computer? Check the programs that are installed in the PC by going to Control Panel --> Add remove programs. Uninstall that you find unnecessary. But be careful, in the process do not uninstall programs that may be required by you or you use it directly or indirectly. Call Tech support for help.

Answer 6

Awww honey, sweetie. Every one I'm sure would tell ya that we need to know what is the names of the files and programs, so you wouldn't delete something that the computer needs.

But since you said windows explorer, it could be a big nest of spy ware, spams and maybe virus.

I would take some free scans they have on the internet to be sure.

If still you believe you have more then you should, I guess you could email me and try to see what are all the files n programs.

Answer 7

Here is a good link where you can download winrar for here: http://bit.ly/1BooiXa

You can use winrar to decompress zip files and a bunch of other formats. Other good programs are 7zip and winzip but in my opinion winrar is the best one. Fuctionalities are pretty similar for all programs: basically you can decompress a file simply by right-clicking it and by choosing the destination folder.

Winrar is available for free under a trial licence. The good thing is the trial period never ends so you can use it for free with no limitations.

Winrar opens all formats like .zip, .rar, .7z, .iso, .tar, .jar etc. That's why I recommend it.

Answer 8

If you have no idea what they are , you can't really delete anything then can you?

If you are running Windows , then check for spyware , adware or a host of other malware that plagues Windows.

Your unknown files may be some of these or they may be your actual software installed - you don't just get an application.exe , there are a host of .dll and data files that each program needs.

Answer 9

You DO NOT want to sort this out unless you know what they are, removing files from Windows can be dangerous, too many times I see users deleting unwanted files, and suddendly , oops, Windows is no longer working or booting up.

Answer 10

first of all - if you want to know what a program is or does just enter the name into your search field - they are all on the net somewhere

after all of the above I'll stick with simplicity

1. go to control panel - performance and maintenance - do a " free up space .... "( disc clean-up ) then " rearrange items on my ....." ( disc defrag )
2. open explorer - go to tools - manage add ons - anything that does not have a name you recognize ( adobe - Microsoft ....... ) then disable
3. run scan with your security program and if you have one spy ware or cleaner program
4. anything but this - don't do it ! - e-mail me for help