tmp files and folders, will deleting cause problems

[George]

I'm using WinXP-pro PC, and do usual maintenance of "disk cleanup", defrag,
and in Internet Explorer I use the "Delete Files" and "Delete Cookies"
functions.

DELETE, SAVE, PROBLEMS?

Still, I noticed hundreds of tmp files and also folders...maybe they got
there due to a system shutdown problem and blue screen the other day. I
wondered if I should/can delete these entirely, or should rename the folder
(just to save them), or do something else, would appreciate several opinions
on this, thanks. Will deleting come back to haunt the PC, i.e. something
won't work, or worse...Windows will mal-function?

FILES AND FOLDERS

About 40 tmp files mostly look like this...
JETE119.tmp
JETRF52E.tmp
etc.

About 60 folders look like this, most have a few files like "UpdReq.mcaf",
plus a subfolder with "vso" that has "mcdelta.ini" and maybe another file.
Folders...
mcu10.tmp
mcu108.tmp
mcu(etc.).tmp
etc.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

I'm using WinXP-pro PC, and do usual maintenance of "disk cleanup",
defrag, and in Internet Explorer I use the "Delete Files" and "Delete
Cookies" functions.

DELETE, SAVE, PROBLEMS?

Still, I noticed hundreds of tmp files and also folders...maybe they got
there due to a system shutdown problem and blue screen the other day. I
wondered if I should/can delete these entirely, or should rename the
folder (just to save them), or do something else, would appreciate several
opinions on this, thanks. Will deleting come back to haunt the PC, i.e.
something won't work, or worse...Windows will mal-function?

FILES AND FOLDERS

About 40 tmp files mostly look like this...
JETE119.tmp
JETRF52E.tmp
etc.

About 60 folders look like this, most have a few files like "UpdReq.mcaf",
plus a subfolder with "vso" that has "mcdelta.ini" and maybe another file.
Folders...
mcu10.tmp
mcu108.tmp
mcu(etc.).tmp
etc.

By definition, temporary file folders hold temporary files that can be
safely deleted. And these folders should be emptied on a regular basis.
You may find some legitimate, yet poorly-coded applications that leave
installer files behind in the temporary directories, but they *should* clean
up after themselves.

In addition, temporary folders are prime launching areas for malware of many
descriptions. If you regularly clean out these folders, you cut down the
chances of infection or re-infection.

Finally, as you know, these folders can grow to great size with many, many
files. This slows down the system when it goes to do virus scans or
indexing or deframenting. Clear out these files, and those processes will
speed up. To this end, you should also reduce the browser cache size.
Internet Explorer regularly claims a cache exceeding a gigabyte. I reset
it to 25 meg or so.

I use ccleaner to automate the process. It can work very well.
www.ccleaner.com

HTH
-pk

 

[Guest]

If it helps here - I believe the TEMP files you list such as "UpdReq.mcaf"
are related to McAfee Virus software --(.mcaf) -- they are "Update required"
history files. I have them too. They can be safely deleted. Presume you
have McAfee installed?