What Are These Empty Directories With Unknown Strings?

Question

Just noticed a lot of them in Windows 7 64-bit AppData\Local* folder:

Anybody knows what are they and if safe to remove?

Answer 1

There's a similar question on answers.microsoft.com:

What is creating the hex folders (hex names in curly braces) that are piling up in my user's appdata/local folder?

The appdata/local folder for that user keeps getting new hex folder names (Long names containing Hex digits and dashes, surrounded by curly braces) created in it. […] What application(s) or OS function(s) are creating these folders? […] Are they safe to delete directly via Windows Explorer?

The answer:

I think you'll find that at least some of these folders are created each time Windows Live Setup performs its twice-daily version check. You can compare the timestamps on the folders with the log files created at the same time at %localappdata%\Microsoft\WLSetup\Logs.

The product team say (via PM) that the folders are supposed to be deleted when setup is finished, and if they aren't, it might be because AV software has a lock on them. I don't believe that.

So long as they're empty, they can safely be deleted.

Answer 2

I've seen something similar on a laptop in my household, and have deleted them without incident (after checking nothing was using them!). If you're worried, I'd copy them into a separate folder first, just to see if there are any adverse effects, and then delete them.