temp folder full of cab files

[raverx3m]

i was just troubleshooting my friend's PC
he had system drive and the usb drives (boostdrives) all full to the top
found that his windows/temp folder was filled with temp files

a set of 5 files
one cab file was 231mb
and 4 cab files with 0 kb
120GB of them

i cleaned them up scanned with malwarebytes
did a disk cleanup but didnt find a virus or spyware or anything

why did those files populate?

 

[carnageX]

Probably Windows Update or a similar installation.

 

[raverx3m]

I mean is that gonna continue to fill up or was it just one time thing?

 

[tehnokraat]

i was just ....
...why did those files populate?

Why? There can be many reasons, depending about which Windows version and which temp folder You're speaking about.
Since you're not talking about what Windows you have, can not provide more specific guidance. In future always try to make permanently empty all Temp folders.
PS! If cannot delete some of files or folders, it means, it is in use. You can delete it after restart.
Particularly important is to empty the folder %windir%\SoftwareDistribution\Download.
If this is not regularly emptied, you may have problems installing updates. Usually will get error message or the updates will never fully downloaded or installed. Usually you'll get message Updating failed, try again or something similar, depending on Windows version.

 

[~Code&Anime~]

These files are populated from windows installations. They are safe to delete, if they are in use they will not delete and you will be alerted.

 

[raverx3m]

hes on windows 7 pro
just txted me that is low on space again.
is that software distribution directory responsible for populating those cabs?
how do i stop it from happening?

 

[tehnokraat]

hes on windows 7 pro
just txted me that is low on space again.
is that software distribution directory responsible for populating those cabs?
how do i stop it from happening?

If You speak about the folder %windir%\SoftwareDistribution\Download, then it is for download Windows updates. Always these downloaded packages contains more files , than Your system needs. There are files for different op-system versions, for example for Ultimate, for AMD; for Intel etc. Those files what are not needed for Your system, will stay there - these are useless for You and for Your system and You must delete them manually, because till today Windows will not delete them automatically.
Also, if something fails, then on the next time all files will be downloaded again and the previously files are always recommended delete (manually) before You'll try again. Otherways everything may fail again, because there isn't enough free space to download all updates again. This folder size is predefined by Windows and if this folder is full, then You cannot download new updates.
With other Temp folders it isn't so critical, but they must be cleaned also regularly.
---
The other thing is, if you get a message that there is not enough space ...
Your computer will make regular backups, there are old backup files, etc. if you have not changed your computer settings as needed for you. You must delete manually old backups after every updating as soon as You have installed updates and they works as should, ie You don't want back (roll back).
If you have bought a computer, the first thing is to learn how to use it.
The computer is a machine, but the driver of this machine are You. As long as you don't know how to drive the computer, you cannot do nothing wise and useful with it.
So, learn to use first.

 

[raverx3m]

windows/temp folder

 

[carnageX]

windows/temp folder

Temp folder gets cleared out occasionally. If you want to clear it out yourself, run Disk Cleanup. Run it, clear out Temp files / old crash logs / Windows Update temp files. After you run it yourself, run it again and this time choose the "Scan system files" so it picks up system directories.