Temp Files

[Anthony Ewers]

Hi,

In a bid to reclaim space on my hard drive I deleted the contents of my
/WINDOWS/TEMP directory. I set a system restore point before I did this
just in case there were any problems. I gained about 2GB of space by doing
this, and I was surprised because when I checked the size of the folder via
the "properties" menu item (proir to deleting it), it said that the folder
only contained 164MB of data.

So far so good though, I have had no problems. I have also noticed that in
the C:/Document and Settings/USER/Local Settings/Temp directories, there
also seems to be a lot of clutter which I would like to get rid of. Does
anyone know if what I have already done (deleting the contents of the "TEMP"
folder in C:/WINDOWS), and what I propose to do is likely cause my computer
any problems? Are these files needed for some purpose? I have been led to
believe that these files are the remnants of installations etc that have
been left on my drive and are not needed.

Any help much appreciated, thanks.

 

[Tom Porterfield]

Hi,

In a bid to reclaim space on my hard drive I deleted the contents of my
/WINDOWS/TEMP directory. I set a system restore point before I did this
just in case there were any problems. I gained about 2GB of space by doing
this, and I was surprised because when I checked the size of the folder via
the "properties" menu item (proir to deleting it), it said that the folder
only contained 164MB of data.

So far so good though, I have had no problems. I have also noticed that in
the C:/Document and Settings/USER/Local Settings/Temp directories, there
also seems to be a lot of clutter which I would like to get rid of. Does
anyone know if what I have already done (deleting the contents of the "TEMP"
folder in C:/WINDOWS), and what I propose to do is likely cause my computer
any problems? Are these files needed for some purpose? I have been led to
believe that these files are the remnants of installations etc that have
been left on my drive and are not needed.

Your understanding is correct. The safest way to delete the contents of
your temp directories is to reboot the PC and then delete the contents
before doing anything else.
--
Tom Porterfield
MS-MVP Windows
http://support.telop.org

Please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup only.

 

[Steve Winograd [MVP]]

Your understanding is correct. The safest way to delete the contents of
your temp directories is to reboot the PC and then delete the contents
before doing anything else.

I agree, Tom. I routinely empty the temp directories (and delete
temporary Internet files) before running virus and spyware scans.
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

 

[Ken Blake]

In

In a bid to reclaim space on my hard drive I deleted the
contents of
my /WINDOWS/TEMP directory. I set a system restore point
before I
did this just in case there were any problems. I gained about
2GB of
space by doing this, and I was surprised because when I checked
the
size of the folder via the "properties" menu item (proir to
deleting
it), it said that the folder only contained 164MB of data.

So far so good though, I have had no problems. I have also
noticed
that in the C:/Document and Settings/USER/Local Settings/Temp
directories, there also seems to be a lot of clutter which I
would
like to get rid of. Does anyone know if what I have already
done
(deleting the contents of the "TEMP" folder in C:/WINDOWS), and
what
I propose to do is likely cause my computer any problems? Are
these
files needed for some purpose? I have been led to believe that
these
files are the remnants of installations etc that have been left
on my
drive and are not needed.

Yes, tyemo files 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
next time.

 

[Alan Smith]

Hi,

In a bid to reclaim space on my hard drive I deleted the contents of my
/WINDOWS/TEMP directory. I set a system restore point before I did this
just in case there were any problems. I gained about 2GB of space by
doing this, and I was surprised because when I checked the size of the
folder via the "properties" menu item (proir to deleting it), it said that
the folder only contained 164MB of data.

So far so good though, I have had no problems. I have also noticed that
in the C:/Document and Settings/USER/Local Settings/Temp directories,
there also seems to be a lot of clutter which I would like to get rid of.
Does anyone know if what I have already done (deleting the contents of the
"TEMP" folder in C:/WINDOWS), and what I propose to do is likely cause my
computer any problems? Are these files needed for some purpose? I have
been led to believe that these files are the remnants of installations etc
that have been left on my drive and are not needed.

Any help much appreciated, thanks.

As usual there are utilities that can help with these kinds of things, have
a look through the freeware and shareware sites. download.com showed
4Diskclean high on its list after a search and it is freeware

 

[Anthony Ewers]

Hi all,

Tom, Steve, Ken, & Alan thanks so much for your advice. I gained about
250MB from cleaning out those directories. Looking around the Windows
folder and through the documents and settings folders, there seems to be an
awful lot of stuff there too. Anyone recommend any reliable utilities,
books or strategies for purging unneeded items, or is all this stuff there
for a reason?

Regards,
Anthony.

 

[Daniel Royer]

I use "dclean.exe". Works fine for me. Don't remember where I got it, but
it's certainly easy to find thru Google.

--


______________________________
Daniel Royer, University of Geneva
daniel at royer dot ch

 

[Ken Blake]

In

Tom, Steve, Ken, & Alan thanks so much for your advice.

You're welcome. Glad to help.