XPS 8950, Odd Software Behavior

Question

Hello, I am noticing a few seemingly odd named  .wim image files in various system folders.   I was just worried about them being related to a root kit of keylogger or whatever kind of malware. But my scans (full ) on defender and on McAfee (I installed McAfee just to get a second opinion) both came up clean. I did have some ‘weird seeming’ behavior from defender in windows 11. After a full scan the message came up about everything being clean, but there some files skipped. When I clicked on view those skipped files, I got this picture error:   the second picture is of 4 named .wim files.     -any thoughts or suggestions on how to proceed?  I’d love to follow some suggestions and ease my mind of this concern, whether it be a rational or irrational.     thank you,    DB   Ps the text in white at bottom I added via edit pic for my notes also, posting from my phone, and first post disappeared.  I attribute that to my user error…if moderator considers this a double post, then please pm me and my apologies.

Tesla1856 · Accepted Answer

Thanks guys.

I have the same ones on my Windows-11 system. I showed @Outlaw Wales (an image via PM) . IMO, the computer is NOT compromised (at least not because of this) and I think this issue is now closed.

He is now moving to get it backed-up via Macrium Reflect.

JOcean · Answer

This page should help at file.org. They are not malware or a virus. The files contain disk images.

RoHe · Answer

And if you mess with those .WIM files, you could prevent future access to the disk images, should you ever need to reset Windows to the factory image...

Outlaw Wales · Answer

Thank you so much everyone. Kudos to @Tesla1856 for solution as well as all others! Solved indeed. Now I need to know how to install Macrium and run the suggested backup or image and if necessary media creation. Or aka rescue disk I think. Grateful to you all

DB

ispalten · Answer

Macrium has announce Free is 'ending'. See https://www.neowin.net/news/macrium-reflect-free-windows-backup-software-will-be-dead-soon-limited-support-announced/ for details.

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Macrium Reflect Free v8.0 is the last version to receive feature, compatibility or bug fix updates.

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Security will continue for over a year though.

However, today, 12/1 is the last day of the SALE @ 50% off (https://www.macrium.com/black-friday?x-campaignid=v8-013cb ) and it might be wiser in the long run to get that.

Not that the Free will not work, but there could be a problem in the future that you would not hit until you tried to recover a back-up possibly?

Of course, if the back up itself would fail, then you'd probably be able to buy the product and still use older back-ups if needed.

For now, use the Free one but be aware of the possible future problem.

Tesla1856 · Answer

@ispalten wrote:

Macrium has announce Free is 'ending'. See https://www.neowin.net/news/macrium-reflect-free-windows-backup-software-will-be-dead-soon-limited-support-announced/ for details.

However, today, 12/1 is the last day of the SALE @ 50% off (https://www.macrium.com/black-friday?x-campaignid=v8-013cb ) and it might be wiser in the long run to get that.

Thanks for the heads-up @ispalten ,

I went ahead and picked-up the 4-pack license of Macrium Reflect v8.x (Personal/Home) for half price (yes, sale is still running on Thursday 12-1-2022).

XPS Desktops

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