Saga said:
I am diligently cleaning out my HD...
how safe is it delete files here?
C:\Documents and Settings\saga\Local Settings\Temp
Yes, they can, and should be, deleted periodically.
The temp folder provides workspace for programs. Programs can create
temporary files there for their own temporary use. Each program should
delete all its temporary files when it closes, but for various reasons it
doesn't always happen (for example, if the program crashes, it never gets to
do this). That's why it's a good idea to periodically clean out anything
left there.
Also note that there are some program installations which work in two steps.
The first step concludes by writing temporary files and rebooting. The
second step starts automatically after rebooting and needs to find those
files there (and then deletes them when it's done).
Other than doing it automatically when rebooting (that would interfere with
installations like the kind I described), it's always safe to delete the
contents of the temp folder. Because it's safe to delete any temp files that
aren't open and in use by an application, and since Windows won't let you
delete open files, it's safe to (try to) delete them at any time. If any
fail to delete because they're open, they'll either be deleted automatically
when the app using them closes, or you'll get them the next time you delete
manually.
When I got the low on disk space message (actually, a yellow balloon
at the right-bottom of the screen just above the task bar) it
mentioned that I should click it to start some disk cleaning utility. Is
there
a way to run this utility?
Start | Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Disk Cleanup
