Purpose of GuestAppsCache files?

[swsnyder]

I've got a WinXP guest running on a Linux host (VMWare v7.1). On the host system, beneath the directory with the client files, is the directory structure:

caches/GuestAppsCache/appData/

In appData are many, many files with hexidecimal filenames, with .appicon and .appinfo filename extensions.

What are these files for? Can/should I clean out the cache occasionally? Is it possible to specify another location for the cache files (to split the file I/O between different physical disks)? Is there any limit to the amount of caching done?

Thanks.

[DerekShaw]

I too have this configuration (ubuntu 10.4).

I have some troubleshooting to do, and this is a new thing (to me) that I know nothing about. New things are suspect when previously functioning machines start to mis-behave.

TIA!

[Noel]

It appears related to Unity and, more specifically, launching of guest apps from the host system.

[continuum]

have a look here

http://vm-sickbay.com/2010/06/01/how-to-disable-unity-for-all-vms-in-ws-71/




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[bsimmers]

Yeah, those files are a cache for the menu structure and names/icons of applications in the guest. Once they've been created they should be mostly read-only so disk performance shouldn't be an issue. They shouldn't be causing any problems but if you would like to prevent them from showing up you can follow continuum's suggestion. If you are having any problems that you think are related to the cache folders please let us know!

[Batitude]

I don't use Unity (the link above does not work on how to disable it).  I have one Windows 7 VM  with no cache folders at all, and on that appears to be creating at least 10 different cache files every minute.  And that is with nothing running in the guest - just being on.

How do I disable Unity, if Unity is causing this behavior, and if it is not Unity, what is it?

Server 2008 Host, VMWare Workstation 8.0.4 build-744019