Need Help Identifying Files - UPDATE

[BobH]

For the last few days - maybe even weeks - my WinXP Pro SP3 laptop has been behaving badly. About 3 or 4 days ago, when I opened Thunderbird, TB had lost connection with the Profile folder. I've been working to suss that out using the Mozilla Forums Knowledge Base (still don't have it sorted; my address books and email are still missing as are the accounts I had set up, the calendar, and all the other bits and pieces).

I also noticed that programs were taking inordinately long to load. I hadn't run CCleaner in awhile; so I did. I was able to get rid of all the flagged and recommended files, save two. Repeatedly running CCleaner and choosing to clean up failed to remove these files; therefore, I looked to see what they might be. (Oh yes, I also ran the registry clean up tool in CCleaner without incident).

The files are shown in the attached screenshot. I am suspicious because they reside in a Temp folder of Local Settings and they cannot be removed by CCleaner. I've been loath to delete them until I discover what they are lest I do more harm than good; therefore I searched (thank you, Andy) google and got no hits!!!!!!! This I found strange indeed.

So, here for the experts are the files in question. Can anyone tell me what applications they might be associate with and whether or not I can safely delete them? I thought I had best resolve this suspicious item before continuing to try to recover my Thunderbird profile settings.

UPDATE: **********************************
(forgot to post the pathname to these files: C:\Documents and Settings\USer\Local Settings\Temp\boost_interprocess

TIA

[HansV]

Boost Interprocess is a general programming library (for C++) that could be used by any program - good or bad. But when you close all programs, it should be safe to delete files in C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Temp.

[BobH]

Thank you, Hans.

I was concerned because google returned no hits on the file name. I thought from the name that it might be a utility space but couldn't quite figure out why it didn't go away. The only application I had running was CCleaner, but I suppose some other process might have been using the shared space.

I'll close everything down and delete the folder then run CCleaner again.

Your help is very much appreciated, my friend!

[BobH]

I tried to delete the temp files. First I shut down all open applications and used Task Manager to confirm that no applications were running. I then used File Explorer to locate the folder within the Temp folder that contained the files I wanted to be rid of. For some reason unknown to me, there is a file that cannot be deleted.

See screenshot below.

[HansV]

There could be a process (in the Processes tab of Task Manager) that uses the files, even if all applications are closed. Unless you have indications that the files are associated with malware, I'd leave them alone.

[BobH]

Thank you, again, Hans!

(I'm gonna have to learn to say that properly in Dutch.)

I found that there were indeed some processes associated with DivX applications (none of which was running as an app) that I had installed. I uninstalled the apps and was allowed to delete the folder.

I don't know if this had anything to do with my Thunderbird problems, but I wasn't using those apps any longer and don't like having shared memory apps. Call me paranoid but that doesn't mean the illegitimate ones aren't out to get me>