deleting temp files

[Daniel]

I found 360 mb in the "documents and settings/owner/local settings/temp".
are these ok to delete or are these temporary files needed for windows xp
home edition?

 

[Rich Barry]

Daniel, it's ok to dump them.

 

[Guest]

Daniel, You can delete these files. Temp. means just that. They are commonly
from downloads and some installations.Respectfully Woz

 

[Guest]

Daniel, You can delete these files. Temp. means just that. They are commonly
from downloads and some installations.Respectfully Woz

 

[Guest]

daniel delete that files without any fear

Daniel, You can delete these files. Temp. means just that. They are commonly
from downloads and some installations.Respectfully Woz

 

[Guest]

I have a similar problem except that the file is 5.03 GB. It is C:documents
and settings\Administrator\Local settings\Temp\CEPBF.temp. I can't delete it
to the recycle bin because it's too big. I can't move it to an external
drive because even though there is room for it, the system says it is too big
to copy. It is very badly fragmented but won't defragment. Can I delete it
without any repercussions?
Thanks
PS I think it may have been put there when I was installing ViaVoice, but
can't be sure.

 

[Don MI]

Too big to go to the Recycle Bin just means that you cannot recover the file
{using the Recycle Bin} if you made a delete in error. Same effect as
emptying the Recycle Bin. Too big to move to an external drive likely means
that the file is on a NTFS drive and you are attempting to move to an
external drive using FAT32. FAT32 has a 4Gb file size limit. I reformatted
my external drive to NTFS to avoid such problems.

I would delete it. Some programs create folders or files in the temp folder
for there own use and just leave them there. If you delete a folder or file
from temp that an applications needs, the folder or file will just be
re-created the next time you open the program.

Don

 

[Plato]

I found 360 mb in the "documents and settings/owner/local settings/temp".
are these ok to delete or are these temporary files needed for windows xp
home edition?

Temp files are always OK to delete. That's why they are called temp
files.

 

[Bob]

Only if they aren't being used. Sometimes, they are used after a
reboot too if you just recently installed a program. Best rule of
thumb is delete your temp files *after* a reboot. Anything that was
using them should now be closed and/or finished.

-Bob

 

[antioch]

I delete my temp once a week as has been suggested many times in the
groups - I tend to get lots because my computer gets switched on and off
quite a lot each day.
If you do Start/Run/%temp%/OK - select all - delete, only the most recent
will stay (2, 3 OR 4) - they will not let you delete them - well not until
the next time you switch on the computer.
The folders and files in 'this' temp' do not get deleted with Disk Cleanup.
Rgds
Antioch

 

[antioch]

Hello Daniel
Sorry I split my answer - was going to add that on a computer I had last
year, running XP Home SP2, I had hundreds in this 'temp'.
Select in groups of 20-30 at a time. List them by date and start with the
oldest and work up to the time you last switched on your computer.
You should find that the most recent will not be allowed to be deleted.
Sorry if I caused you confusion.
Antioch

 

[Guest]

The reason I tried to put my 5 gig file in the recycle bin was so that I
could try and run without it, but just in case it turned out to be needed I
could get it back. When that failed I thought I would be clever and put it
on my external hard disk. But as Don rightly spotted, the external disk is
FAT 32 and presumably has this limitation that I didn't know about. With
hindsight, I could have just changed it's name and waited a day or so before
deletiing.)
In fact it turned out that the 5 gig file was created by a program: Cool
Edit Pro which is an old music editing program. I accidentally left it
running on "record" for a couple of hours or so and then deleted most of what
it had recorded. When you do this it creates an Undo file. I was using this
program again and noticed something in one of the menus saying "free up hard
drive space". I clicked it and nothing seemed to happen, but next time I
looked for the 5 gig temp file it had disappeared and I found myself with 5
gig more free space. So I didn't have to do any deleting.
Problem solved! But corresponding with you all has been most instructive
and thought provoking. Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge.
All the best

 

[Plato]

Only if they aren't being used. Sometimes, they are used after a
reboot too if you just recently installed a program. Best rule of
thumb is delete your temp files *after* a reboot. Anything that was
using them should now be closed and/or finished.

Agreed.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Only if they aren't being used. Sometimes, they are used after a
reboot too if you just recently installed a program. Best rule of
thumb is delete your temp files *after* a reboot. Anything that was
using them should now be closed and/or finished.

But since Windows will not *let* you delete a file (temp or otherwise)
that's in use, it doesn't matter. It's always safe to *try* to delete
everything, with only a single exception: 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). As long as you don't delete temp file after an installation that
prompts you to reboot (but before actually rebooting) you're safe.

 

[Guest]

--
ncw

Daniel, it's ok to dump them.

 

[Six Underground]

I found 360 mb in the "documents and settings/owner/local settings/temp".
are these ok to delete or are these temporary files needed for windows xp
home edition?

I found a bunch of stuff in this directory too. Even though it's
probably safe to delete them, I generally move them to a folder that I
have named "Purgatory", and leave them in there for a few days. If
the system doesn't complain and my apps all run okay, I trash them.

6 U

 

[Rock]

I found a bunch of stuff in this directory too. Even though it's
probably safe to delete them, I generally move them to a folder that I
have named "Purgatory", and leave them in there for a few days. If
the system doesn't complain and my apps all run okay, I trash them.

6 U

No need to move them. Delete the contents after a clean reboot. It
will not be able to delete anything in use.