Mysterious xyz.event files appearing

Question

I am getting mysterious .event files - always empty, created by me a few weeks ago - in several local project directories. They are all Subversion checkouts. They are always named after the directory they reside in, so a directory named pagination will contain a pagination.event file.

Does anybody know what this is?

Possibly important information:

• I am working on a Windows 7 Workstation
• I use NuSphere's PHP IDE (no updates recently)
• I use TortoiseSVN for version control
• I set up a Windows 7 backup job recently that ran once, I can' remember when exactly.
• The event files seem to turn up only in repositories
• There is no external access to those repositories

Answer 1

This is a reply I received from Corel Customer Services after finding EVENT Files in all my folders, hope it answers the question

Thank you for your e-mail. Please be advised that .event file is a hidden file and is automatically created once a folder in your hard drive has been cataloged by Corel Digital Studio, PaintShop Photo Express, etc. Corel Digital Studio creates a thumbnails of the images stored in a folder and the .event file monitors the changes inside that folder (removing and adding photos, etc.). When Corel Digital Studio is installed on your computer, the .event file will be added to each folder with stored media files in it.

Regards, Allan Corel Customer Service

Answer 2

I would recommend deleting one(or them all), and then seeing how long they take to come back. If possible, use a tool like process explorer to see who made the file, and you should have your culprit. (Of course, it may turn out that they never come back, in which case we may never know!)

Answer 3

1) Do a string search on "events" on all binaries in the system, it will take a while, but will give you clues. 2) Check SVN repository, are they checked in? 3) Delete all .event files, install a file access monitor in the background and wait for them to re-appear

Answer 4

A couple of years ago I installed Roxio Record Now and then found ZbThumbnail.info in every directory. Apparently there's a media management program included that watches your directories and catalogues everything. Disable the management program and delete the files and the problem is resolved. A couple of days ago I installed the Canon utilities CD software for my new video camera and downloaded and installed Corel Video Studio to capture and edit my masterpieces. Lo and behold: I now have a .event file in every directory. As we speak, I'm doing a global search (.e*) and deleting them. My impression is that (unlike the old Paint Shop Pro thumbnail browser files) all such media mangement log files are actually used for network sharing of your data. As I don't share my copyright work, I take exception to this "pirateware". Grr! Good luck, guys!

Answer 5

Another idea is checking on the Event Viewer for whatever happened there at the same date and time the files were created and / or modified.

I have no idea what are those .event files, but a quick google showed they are "primarily associated with 'Unknown Apple II File'", thus my question about any other computer having access to that, as it's only natural to expect from a SVN repository.