".tmp" files

[John]

Stored away in a bunch of places in my XP Home Edition
computer are a whole lot of files with a ".tmp"
extension. At first I assumed these were largely unneeded
temporary files that could be weeded out safely if I
confined the deletions to those that hadn't been modified
recently. But now, since they're not in the "temporary"
folder, where Windows Help says the files that can be
pruned are located, I'm not so sure I wouldn't be getting
in over my head if I went ahead with ".tmp" deletions.
Any words of wisdom, please?

 

[R. McCarty]

All files that have the .tmp extension and those that begin with
the ~(tilde) symbol are temporary and can be deleted safely.
If any have open file handles, the attempt to delete them will
fail.

 

[Wesley Vogel]

John;

Any file with a tmp suffix *is* a temporary file.
Programs leave these files all over. Not just in your Temporary folder.

If they're not in use, they're probably not needed and can
be safely deleted. One exception is if you just installed
some software and these files are needed after a reboot.

 

[t.cruise]

My pet peeve is when a program install creates temporary files/folders
during the installation, and then leaves them in the C:\Documents and
Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Temp folder. Some program installs create
temporary sub-folders where the extracted files reside before they are
copied to the actual program folder (and DLLs to the Windows\* folder etc.),
and can take up as much drive space as the program itself. The files
contained in those Temp sub-folders don't end with the .tmp extension,
because they are the actual files that are copied to the program's folder.
If the install routine doesn't automatically delete those Temp sub-folders,
you are looking at a great deal of wasted drive space. If you look at your
\Documents and Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Temp folder and see
sub-folders, they are candidates for deletion too. This is ONLY for
sub-folders in the TEMP folder, NOT the Temporary Internet Files folder. I
had hundreds of MBs in Temp sub-folders from program installs that didn't
automatically delete them, after the install routines finished.

 

[John R Weiss]

Stored away in a bunch of places in my XP Home Edition
computer are a whole lot of files with a ".tmp"
extension. At first I assumed these were largely unneeded
temporary files that could be weeded out safely if I
confined the deletions to those that hadn't been modified
recently. But now, since they're not in the "temporary"
folder, where Windows Help says the files that can be
pruned are located, I'm not so sure I wouldn't be getting
in over my head if I went ahead with ".tmp" deletions.

They're everywhere, and they can all be deleted.

Occasionally you'll find one that is in use, and can't be deleted. Just
leave it.

Leave them in the Recycle Bin until you reboot a couple times, then delete
them.

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Start | Run | %TEMP% | OK

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.
Wes

In

My pet peeve is when a program install creates temporary files/folders
during the installation, and then leaves them in the C:\Documents and
Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Temp folder. Some program installs
create temporary sub-folders where the extracted files reside before
they are copied to the actual program folder (and DLLs to the
Windows\* folder etc.), and can take up as much drive space as the
program itself. The files contained in those Temp sub-folders don't
end with the .tmp extension, because they are the actual files that
are copied to the program's folder. If the install routine doesn't
automatically delete those Temp sub-folders, you are looking at a
great deal of wasted drive space. If you look at your \Documents and
Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Temp folder and see sub-folders,
they are candidates for deletion too. This is ONLY for sub-folders
in the TEMP folder, NOT the Temporary Internet Files folder. I had
hundreds of MBs in Temp sub-folders from program installs that didn't
automatically delete them, after the install routines finished. --

T.C.
t__cruise@[NoSpam]hotmail.com
Remove [NoSpam] to reply

John;

Any file with a tmp suffix *is* a temporary file.
Programs leave these files all over. Not just in your Temporary
folder.

If they're not in use, they're probably not needed and can
be safely deleted. One exception is if you just installed
some software and these files are needed after a reboot.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.
Wes

In

 

[Steve Nielsen]

Stored away in a bunch of places in my XP Home Edition
computer are a whole lot of files with a ".tmp"
extension. At first I assumed these were largely unneeded
temporary files that could be weeded out safely if I
confined the deletions to those that hadn't been modified
recently. But now, since they're not in the "temporary"
folder, where Windows Help says the files that can be
pruned are located, I'm not so sure I wouldn't be getting
in over my head if I went ahead with ".tmp" deletions.
Any words of wisdom, please?

This free tool will help you, it is more thorough than the silly Disk
Cleanup in Windows:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~mp2004/

Steve

 

[Plato]

Stored away in a bunch of places in my XP Home Edition
computer are a whole lot of files with a ".tmp"
extension. At first I assumed these were largely unneeded

All can be safely removed.

 

[John]

Thanks for the tip, Steve. I'll check it out.

-----Original Message-----


This free tool will help you, it is more thorough than the silly Disk
Cleanup in Windows:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~mp2004/

Steve

.

 

[John]

Thank you for the wisdom, Plato.

-----Original Message-----
unneeded

All can be safely removed.

 

[John]

I very much appreciate the advice. Thank you.

-----Original Message-----
All files that have the .tmp extension and those that begin with
the ~(tilde) symbol are temporary and can be deleted safely.
If any have open file handles, the attempt to delete them will
fail.





.

 

[John]

Thanks for the help -- and the caveat. Much appreciated.

 

[John]

Good suggestions, T. -- many thanks.

-----Original Message-----
My pet peeve is when a program install creates temporary files/folders
during the installation, and then leaves them in the C:\Documents and
Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Temp folder. Some program installs create
temporary sub-folders where the extracted files reside before they are
copied to the actual program folder (and DLLs to the Windows\* folder etc.),
and can take up as much drive space as the program itself. The files
contained in those Temp sub-folders don't end with the .tmp extension,
because they are the actual files that are copied to the program's folder.
If the install routine doesn't automatically delete those Temp sub-folders,
you are looking at a great deal of wasted drive space. If you look at your
\Documents and Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Temp folder and see
sub-folders, they are candidates for deletion too. This is ONLY for
sub-folders in the TEMP folder, NOT the Temporary Internet Files folder. I
had hundreds of MBs in Temp sub-folders from program installs that didn't
automatically delete them, after the install routines finished.
--

T.C.
t__cruise@[NoSpam]hotmail.com
Remove [NoSpam] to reply

John;

Any file with a tmp suffix *is* a temporary file.
Programs leave these files all over. Not just in your Temporary folder.

If they're not in use, they're probably not needed and can
be safely deleted. One exception is if you just installed
some software and these files are needed after a reboot.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.
Wes

In John <[email protected]> hunted and pecked:

---
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Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
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.

 

[John]

Thanks, John. Especially valuable is your advice about
housing rejects in the Recycle Bin until I'm sure
rebooting has proceeded with no problems.