[Fix] Empty TW-.tmp Folders in “System32” Directory in Windows 10, 11

If you noticed too many empty folders with the name tw-*.tmp present under “System32” folder in Windows 10 or Windows 11 and you want to understand what are these random and weird folders, why did Windows create them under system drive and is it safe to delete them, this article will help you.

[PROBLEM SYMPTOM] Unknown TW-*.TMP Folders Present in “System32” folder in Windows

Recently an AskVG reader “Krishna” contacted me regarding this issue. He was having this annoying issue in his Windows device. Here is a small excerpt from his email:

And here is the screenshot shared by him:

As you can see in the screenshot, there are tons of tw-1720-2730-1bd*.tmp folders present under “C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local” folder. Sometimes you may see these temporary folders present under C:\Windows\Temp folder as well.

The name of these folders might differ for different devices but you’ll always get TW in the beginning and .TMP in the end of their names. In one of our Windows 11 devices, the folder name was in tw-704-1cc-6d*.tmp, tw-1084-1608-1d08*.tmp and tw-b68-ff4-af*.tmp formats.

These random folders are regularly created in Windows 10 and Windows 11 and if you open these folders, you find the folders are empty/blank. No files or folders are present inside these temporary folders.

Since these folders are created at regular intervals, you’ll notice that the parent folder has been filled by these temp folders and it might start annoy you.

[PROBLEM REASON] What are TW-*.TMP Folders and Why are They Created?

These weird TW-*.TMP folders are created by a system process ProvTool.exe (Provisioning package runtime processing tool). This process is used by Windows to configure or setup user’s device to provide essential features and services. This process automatically runs and performs the tasks given under “Task Scheduler Library\Microsoft\Windows\Management\Provisioning” folder.

According to Event Viewer log, sometimes this process terminates unexpectedly with the error code (0x8007042B) or similar and in my opinion, when it terminates, it creates those random temporary folders inside “System32” directory.

The task which is responsible behind this issue is labeled as “Logon” and executes the ProvTool.exe with “/turn 5 /source LogonIdleTask” parameter.

It might be a bug or glitch in Windows 10 and Windows 11 operating systems which should be fixed in future updates.

Is It Safe to Delete TW-*.TMP Folders in Windows 10 and 11?

Yes. You can safely remove these folders as they are temporary and empty. Deleting these folders will not cause any issue in your computer system.

If you are not comfortable in deleting these folders, you can keep those folders as they are empty and don’t occupy much disk space.

Should I Disable the Logon Task to Fix Empty Folders Issue?

Some people suggest that you can disable the “Logon” task using Task Scheduler to fix the empty folders creation issue as this task is responsible behind automatically launching ProvTool.exe process.

But I do not suggest to disable the task as this is a system task and is used by Windows to configure the device for lots of functionality such as networking, etc and disabling the whole task can be problematic in future.

As these folders are temporary, you can either delete them or leave them without worries.

[PROBLEM SOLUTION] How to Stop Windows from Creating TW-*.TMP Folders?

If you still want to permanently prevent or restrict Windows from creating these temporary TW-*.TMP folders in your computer, you can disable the system task responsible behind running the ProvTool.exe process.

Once you disable the task, it’ll block Windows from creating those empty folders in System32 directory (Not recommended as mentioned above).

Following steps will help you in fixing this irritating issue in Windows 10 and Windows 11:

1. Press WIN+R keys together to launch RUN dialog box, type taskschd.msc and press Enter. It’ll open Task Scheduler.

2. Now navigate to “Task Scheduler Library\Microsoft\Windows\Management\Provisioning” section in left-sidebar and look for following task in right-side pane:

3. Right-click on the above mentioned task and select Disable option.

That’s it. Now Windows will no longer execute the task and you’ll not find those temporary and empty folders again in System32 directory.

PS: Advanced users can also use following direct command to disable the Logon task using command-line tools such as Command Prompt or PowerShell:

Also Check:

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