Bizarrely named folders in the Preferences folder

A few users with scanning software have found that in their user preferences folders they have a bunch of bizarrely named folders, with garbled text instead of a legible name.

Apple Discussions poster Richard Posner writes:

"In the Preferences Folder in my Library folder are several empty folders with bizarre names such as ¯ Ê?Äë7ÊÙøˇ÷?ëDòÄ and ÷´?ïsñÙøˇ÷?ïÄHÄï. Does anybody know what these are and whether I can trash them?"

These folders may be created by TWAIN scanning drivers since some users have reported this happening soon after they had been scanning some files. It is possible these folders could be for temporary storage during a scan, or could be the result of a bug in the drivers; however, regardless of the specifics, they can either be safely removed from the preferences folder without harm, or be left untouched if users choose to not do anything about them. If the problems persist, users might try reinstalling their scanner software, and/or running a permissions fix on the hard drive to ensure necessary system files are accessible.

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