Sanford said:
Can I safely delete all the files in temp, such as in
C:\Documents and Settings\Sandy\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 next time.
