What does Temp folder do?

R

Roman King

I regularly clean garbage with CCleaner.
I found that it did not clean files/sufolders in Temp folder,which is found
under Local Settings.
I saw tons of files and folders in the Temp folder.
What does this Temp folder do?
It looks that I should manually delete those stuff under Temp.

Roman
 
O

Og

Roman King said:
I regularly clean garbage with CCleaner.
I found that it did not clean files/sufolders in Temp folder,which is
found under Local Settings.
I saw tons of files and folders in the Temp folder.
What does this Temp folder do?
It looks that I should manually delete those stuff under Temp.

Roman

The Temp folder does not *do* anything.
Temp is simply a place for application software to temporarily store works
in progress.
Well-behaved applications erase temporary files that they have placed in
Temp.
Ill-behaved applications do *not* erase temporary files that they have
placed in Temp.
Applications that terminate unexpectedly do not, perforce, erase temporary
files that they have placed in Temp.
** Note** if the Operating System terminates unexpectedly,
no files are removed from Temp.
Steve
 
R

Roman King

I very often see tons of files or folders in temp folder.
If I delete them, will it cause some problems with operation of WinXP?
Roman
 
P

Patrick Keenan

Roman King said:
I very often see tons of files or folders in temp folder.

They can be cleared. By definition, if they are in that folder, they are
temporary.
If I delete them, will it cause some problems with operation of WinXP?

No, it can safely be cleared.

You *can* run into minor problems with web and compressed installers for
programs, where the installer creates a temp folder and runs from there.
When you clear the temp folder, the uninstaller is gone and when you try to
run that from add/remove programs, it will naturally fail.

In that case, you need to re-download or re-run the installer, which should
recognise that the app is installed an offer a fix/uninstall options, or,
simply re-run the installer and immediately run the uninstaller.

HTH
-pk
 
J

Jupiter Jones [MVP]

You can safely delete the contents of Temp folders.
However it is best to reboot just before doing so.
Rebooting helps ensure all programs are finished with the contents and
you may find the contents done after a reboot.
 
G

Gerry

Jupiter

Done or gone?


--
Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
J

Jupiter Jones [MVP]

Another mistake!!
You are correct
It should be:
"...and you may find the contents gone after a reboot."

A case where spell check did not help.
 

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