Cannot delete certain folders in Win XP

[SearanoX]

Strange thing I've come across. I've noticed that I have a bunch of folders in Program Files that are completely empty (with Hidden Files visible), yet I can't delete them. I can't ascertain exactly what they're for as well, but when I try to delete them, some say that they are in use by another user, others say that access is denied. I try to change them to be non-read-only, but whenever I try, it always gets set back to read-only. I have no knowledge of putting them there in the first place, which is also somewhat strange.

Here's a list of the folders - all of them empty.

• microsoft frontpage
• NavNT
• Windows NT
• xerox
• MSXML 4.0

Like I've said, they seem to have no importance, yet I cannot delete them, and they're all stuck on read-only.

Any help would be appreciated.

[AsianBatman]

The folders are empty, but they probably have hidden files in them.

[SearanoX]

*sigh*

As I said above, I have (and always) set Windows Explorer to display hidden files.

[Thoric]

they are probably part of the windows system itself.

[SearanoX]

No, I doubt that's it. When I first installed Windows XP, I never had them there, and only about two or three weeks ago did they appear there. I also have the latest updates for Norton, Ad Aware, etc., so viruses and such shouldn't be a problem. I haven't installed anything major in that time frame as well, aside from the odd game or two.

[kane2g]

sorry, they are always there
but if you find out how to remove them, let me know, i dont like them either

[SearanoX]

Are you sure about that? I could have sworn that they weren't there originally.

Bah, if anyone can confirm this, then I'm convinced.

[AsianBatman]

*sigh*

As I said above, I have (and always) set Windows Explorer to display hidden files.

Well sorry if i MISSED it.

[amd_man2005]

NavNT is the only one that isnt always there, thats Norton Anti-Virus related
Neither is that MSXML 4.0, but I got no idea what its for

[SearanoX]

I don't see why you're acting so hostile. I'm not insulting you in any way over this, nor do I think that you're stupid, inferior, etc. because of the fact you didn't read the post properly. Everyone makes mistakes, and I was merely pointing that out to you.

Now, can someone please confirm (or not confirm) that all of these folders are there by default with Windows XP, and under no circumstances cannot be deleted?

EDIT: Thanks for that, amd. Still not sure about the other ones...what makes me somewhat suspicious is that they're in lower-case, without anything capitalized, as are pretty much all "official" Windows directories.

I don't have anything made by Xerox that is installed, so I have no idea why that's there...

[amd_man2005]

The Windows NT folder has a few things in it, like Wordpad and Pinball.

xerox is empty on mine too, but it must be something, as I can't delete it either.(I have no printer or scanner) The same with microsoft frontpage. (This may install with Office XP, I dunno if it was there before I installed Office)

[SearanoX]

Hmm, alright, then...guess that they're all legit in some way or another.

A mod might want to lock this, unless of course somebody wants to come in and explain what all the "unknown" folders are for.

[amd_man2005]

PersianImmortal may be able to explain what there for

[asklepios]

all of these folders are harmless and should be left alone.
as you have already seen that NavNT is something related to "Norton Antivirus". similarly all these folders are related to their parent programs. For Example: Xerox is related to XP's inbuilt sanner accessing and OCR program. though you most likely will never use it (hence empty) but this is something given by XP by default. "microsoft frontpage" is a folder where frontpage files created in any OS other than on NT (like 9x) are unpacked temporarily for editing purposes.
so these folders are actually there to store temporary files and since they are empty i see no reason as to them causing any problems to you.
if you are still "itching" to delete then disable the "System File Checker". to do so use a hex editor and edit the sfc_os.dll and sfcfiles.dll and then edit the registry.
navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SFCDisable and put "ffffff9d" as value to competely disable it.
now you will be able to delete the folders.

[SearanoX]

Ah, thanks for the explanation on that. I guess that they were somewhat conspicuous-looking seeing as how they weren't in the WINDOWS directory, where most of the stuff is located.