[German]Microsoft has released preview updates for Windows 10 and Windows 11 on September 26, 2023. Edge also received updates. A reader has noticed that in his Windows "recently" the Temp folder is written full with folders and files that have the name Edge_BITS_xxx-xxx. I then checked Windows 11 22H2 in a virtual machine, there are the files as well. Here is a brief overview of the situation, which has already left its mark on the Internet since the beginning of 2023.
As of September 26, 2023, Microsoft has released preview updates for Windows 10 22H2 and Windows 11 21H2/22H2. There, among other things, the Copilot for Windows 11 22H2 was introduced, but not yet activated for Europe. I had reported about these updates in the blog (see links at the end of the article). But the preview updates also seem to have changed something, because the Temp folder of the user profile is flooded with Edge_BITS_xxx-xxx entries.
Edge_BITS_xxx-xxx entries after preview update?
A blog reader emailed me because he noticed an oddity in Windows after installing the preview update. The reader wrote:
Good morning Günter,
since installing the latest Windows 10 update (KB5030310), first one, then during the day more folders with the scheme Edge_BITS_9999_9999999 appear in the Temp folder after logging in to the system (local user). Do you know what this is all about and if it is possible to get rid of their "appearance"?
My guess is that the assignment of update KB5030310 to Windows 10 is a typo. Because the update KB5030310 is the preview update for Windows 11 22H2 (see Windows 11 22H2: Preview Update KB5030310 (September 26, 2023)). Based on the following screenshots, I assume that the reader is working with Windows 10, but that the preview update KB5030300 is meant (see Windows 10 22H2 Preview Update KB5030300 (September 26, 2023)). The reader then sent me two more screenshots showing these files.
The screenshot above shows the contents of the Temp folder on the reader's local disk – he probably put it directly into the root directory. In the edge_BITS_xxxx_xxxx folder there is then a 115 KByte file with a GUID designation.
He had then sent me a screenshot of his temp directory, which he had taken after a few hours of work on the PC. In addition, he wrote that he could not yet find an algorithm, when these files are created or on what their creation depends. The single file in each directory is 115 KB in size.
My test with Windows 11 22H2
I had only taken from the reader mail that this works under Windows 10. By chance I have set up a virtual machine with Windows 11 22H2 and the preview update. There I then took a quick look at the Temp folder of my profile in AppData.
According to the screenshot above, there is already a whole collection of folders with the naming scheme edge_BITS_nnnn_xxxxxxx, whereby these are from September 27 and 28, 2023 (only then I installed the preview update on a test basis). All folders contain a 115 KB file.
Further research
That something in Windows clutters up the temp folders is not really new. In the link list at the end of the article there are several articles with such cases. The naming scheme edge_BITS_nnnn_xxxxxxx of the subfolders suggests that a component of the Edge browser might be involved. BITS stands for Background Intelligent Transfer Service, a Windows service that transfers updates in the background.
A search on the web showed me that these subfolders have been unsettling Windows users since at least the beginning of the year, though. On reddit.com there is the post Strange empty "edge_BITS" folders in Program Files folder? from February 2023, where the user finds these folders in the program folder. The whole thing seems to come from the Chromium project, on which the Edge is based, because there is the post Secure temp directory creation for Windows · chromium/chromium@abe75b6 · GitHub, where it is discussed where to put the folder for secure file storage. The browser can then store temporary download files in the folder – no idea if updates will be stored there later. In the case of the Chromium browser, there is then a chrome_BITS_nnnn_xxxxx in the folder in question.
In March 2023, the issue came up in this post in the Spiceworks community. Then in May 2023, someone on the Microsoft Answers forum addressed the issue with the post Is this a Trojan? Random Windows 10 Microsoft Defender Antivirus sample submission message. What is this? because he also found these folders and files. A proper explanation of what exactly is intended with the files is not yet known to me.
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