deleting ".tmp" files

[Guest]

A recent newspaper article stated to search for all *.tmp files and sort by
date and delete all that were more than a week old. When I do this search,
I get FOLDERS as well as files-like in windows system 32, msdown,last good
etc. Can I delete these folders as well? Is it a general rule of thumb that
it is OK to delete older temp files to keep things clean?

 

[DL]

Why not run Disk Cleanup? may be safer, if your unsure.

 

[Guest]

I did that and it still left a lot of .tmp folders some of which were large.

 

[Guest]

A recent newspaper article stated to search for all *.tmp files and sort by
date and delete all that were more than a week old. When I do this search,
I get FOLDERS as well as files-like in windows system 32, msdown,last good
etc. Can I delete these folders as well? Is it a general rule of thumb that
it is OK to delete older temp files to keep things clean?

It is impossible to answer this question without knowing how and why these
folders are being created in the first place. Modern software programs
typically create temporary folders and files in the user's default Temp
folder (which you can access directly by typing "%temp% in the Run box in
Startup), and they delete the contents of the Temp file themselves when they
close. Chances are that you are running older or non-designed for XP
software, which in turn is creating and not properly deleting these files in
places that you the user don't normally expect to find them. However, you
will need to get on Google or the software vendor's website and do some
research before you can know whether it is safe to delete the files. If this
is your problem, you should seriously consider replacing your old software
with something designed to run properly on XP.

Ken

 

[Guest]

Thank You

It is impossible to answer this question without knowing how and why these
folders are being created in the first place. Modern software programs
typically create temporary folders and files in the user's default Temp
folder (which you can access directly by typing "%temp% in the Run box in
Startup), and they delete the contents of the Temp file themselves when they
close. Chances are that you are running older or non-designed for XP
software, which in turn is creating and not properly deleting these files in
places that you the user don't normally expect to find them. However, you
will need to get on Google or the software vendor's website and do some
research before you can know whether it is safe to delete the files. If this
is your problem, you should seriously consider replacing your old software
with something designed to run properly on XP.

Ken

 

[Plato]

A recent newspaper article stated to search for all *.tmp files and sort by
date and delete all that were more than a week old. When I do this search,
I get FOLDERS as well as files-like in windows system 32, msdown,last good
etc. Can I delete these folders as well? Is it a general rule of thumb that
it is OK to delete older temp files to keep things clean?

One can delete ALL temp files whenever you want to.