Monday 10 March 2014

FIX - Millions of Files Keep Clogging Up My System in Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5

Recently, my windows system drive kept filling to take up all available space. I originally thought it was a virus or malware (or a dodgy windows update) causing the issue - but all the scanners I tried (such as MalwareBytes, Kaspersky Root Kit, AdwCleaner, ComboFix) detected nothing. Zilch.

Using TreeSize, I discovered that there were so many gigabytes of files in my c:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5 directory that I couldn't even open the folder. The only way to delete the files was via a del *.* at an MS-DOS prompt (or PowerShell if you prefer). Even after doing this, the problem came back again.

It turned out that the problem was that I had left the .NET Fusion Log Viewer Setting to "All Binds" - and all the HTML files being created in that temporary directory were actually just log bind text files.
I opened up the Visual Studio 2013 command Prompt on the problem machine (Running as an Administrator), ran fuslogvw and turned off all logging.




Et Voila. No more problem.

I also changed the default log path to a different directory to avoid confusion later (and to make it easier to clear out by deleting the whole directory rather than the millions of files within when I next want to troubleshoot assembly binding issues).

Really, the FusLogVw should have an automatic rolling logging feature the same as the SharePoint ULS Logs so this problem wouldn't bring a system to its knees.

DDK