SQM Data? What is it for?

[Rann_03]

I checked out my local disk C: and find a lot of files with names:

sqmdata00.sqm

I don't know how it went there in my folder. It was a hidden file though. I only knew about it since I was looking for a specific file and I show the hidden folders options.

I'd like to know if these files are safe to delete or not.

there are 19 of sqmnoopt19.sqm files

and 19 of sqmdata19.sqm files

Please help I want to delete this files and I am not sure if it's safe to delete or not. thanks in advance.

[pip22]

They are certainly not files essential for Windows to run, they are not installed by Windows Setup and neither are they part of any popular Windows application such as Office, Photoshop etc.

Only reference i can find to the file extension .sqm is files created by a war simulation game called 'Operation Flashpoint' by Bohemia Interactive Studio.

At the very worst, deleting them will only involve having to re-install the associated application provided you still have a copy of it. It may simply have been a demo you installed that didn't get fully removed.

[Diskman4]

Hi mate, I know this thread is a few days old and that I may be new here but I have been doing a lot of searching on the net for the same problem the .sqm files that appear on C:\

It appears that if you have Microsoft's Live Messenger installed, every time you start and shut down the application it stores data on your hard drive to send to microsoft, even if you turn off the relevant "Help" section in settings it seems to still produce these files.

I have just started to delete them as and when they appear, it doesn't seem to cause any problems with the running of the system or Live Messenger.

Hope this helps

[himmie]

Diskman4 is absolutly right. I just noticed as well that I have all of these SQMDATA##.SQM files showing up in the root of my C drive. I know I did not have these before, and I just installed M$ Live Messanger the other day.

PS I dont have the War Simulation game installed on my PC either.

[JoeCougar]

This doesn't look good.I have HUNDREDS of sqm files appearing and when I try to delete them they are automatically copied so if I attempt to delete 100 files I instantly have 200. Is there any danger to these files and why do they resist deletion and get copied? I thought I had disabled messinger as I never use it. Thanks-Cougar

[terry1930]

I had the same problem when I first signed up with MSN messenger. Even though I went through a lot of their initial setup questions and clicked on such things as "don't send info to MS". I was shocked to find a few days later that my C drive had 41 of those files (5 for each day I was logged on). My tech friend said he had deactivated his but couldn't remember where he did it, so I systematically went through every part of the MSN sign on pages and eventually found a line on the first sign-in page below "status online" that when I clicked on it it had a part which let you opt out of having MSN send info to MS on your activities. Once I did that the line disappeared from the sign-in, so I can't tell you what it is. Once I had done that I was able to delete all those *.sqm files and they did not come back. Hope this helps you all.

MS is going to have a whole lot of angry users if they keep up that sort of thing.

Linux here I come....!!!

[Ximinez]

See here for more info:

http://www.microsoft.com/communities...root+directory

[pip22]

Originally Posted by himmie

PS I dont have the War Simulation game installed on my PC either.

himmie, I only said that was the only reference I could find for sqm files, not that they definitely were connected with the game.

[treehugger]

terry1930 nailed it - thanks. i made sure that setting was off and am no longer getting the annoying .sqm files showing up.

[Karl1111]

There was a bug in an earlier beta version that caused these files to be
written to the root. If you install the latest version of Messenger (8.1
build 178) you should see this issue resolved. You can install from
http://get.live.com/messenger/overview.

[Shandley]

What do you mean by sign in and sign on pages??

Thanks,
Shandley

Originally Posted by terry1930

I had the same problem when I first signed up with MSN messenger. Even though I went through a lot of their initial setup questions and clicked on such things as "don't send info to MS". I was shocked to find a few days later that my C drive had 41 of those files (5 for each day I was logged on). My tech friend said he had deactivated his but couldn't remember where he did it, so I systematically went through every part of the MSN sign on pages and eventually found a line on the first sign-in page below "status online" that when I clicked on it it had a part which let you opt out of having MSN send info to MS on your activities. Once I did that the line disappeared from the sign-in, so I can't tell you what it is. Once I had done that I was able to delete all those *.sqm files and they did not come back. Hope this helps you all.

MS is going to have a whole lot of angry users if they keep up that sort of thing.

Linux here I come....!!!

[Ximelez]

For the msn 8.5 beta users..
The problem might be gone if you do this :

click 'help' from the main msn screen.
then click Customer Experience Improvement Program.
And then you know what to do.

[Ximelez]

By the way , it might also work for other users then 8.5 beta.