My computer is extremely low on space on the hard drive, and I need to free up some room. As I went on a quest to see exactly where all my space went to, I noticed something interesting…
In the Windows directory, there is a sub directory called Temp. Now looking in there, I found over 600 megs of space used up. Space which I desperately need. Now, it seems as if nothing in there is all too important. If I were to delete these files, would my system still run smoothly (as smooth as you can get with Windows, that is) or will it wind up going dorsal down?
I assume this it the temp folder you are talking about. I use Windows 2000 on my computer and I have found more than one temp folder, so I dunno if this is applicable, but I assume that anything labeled “Temp” is just that, a temporary folder, and files stored in there are not necessary for operation of your machine.
The Temp folder is for exactally what it implies, a folder to keep temporary files. I clear mine out all the time without any problems. Alot of those files are left behind after a program has been installed. If you have any doubts you could always move the files to another folder and make sure everything runs okay. I personally doubt you will need to do that tho. While your at it clean out your browser’s cache to save some space.
Temporary files are used by software to store intermediate results and such. The programs are supposed to delete them when they quit, but if Windows crashes while it is running it can leave some files behind. Normally, files in there more than a few days old are safe to delete.
Actually, on Win98, try right click on the C: drive icon, then choose Properties. There should be a button that says “Clean up disk.” Choosing this will delte various unnecessary files, including all files in the Temp directory that are more than a week old.
Here’s the text from the Disk Cleanup tool in Win 98:
"Programs sometimes store temporary information in a TEMP folder. Before a program closes, it usually deletes this information.
You can safely delete temporary files that have not been modified in over a week."
If you are running 98, you can get to the tool in Programs|Accesories|System Tools|Disk Cleanup.
It shows a few directories like ‘Temporary Internet Files’, ‘Downloaded Program Files’, ‘Recycle Bin’, and ‘Temporary Files’. You can use the Maintenance Wizard in the same location to schedule various tasks to run automatically.
Clear your browser cache, too. That’s usually worth a few dozen MB.
It would also be advisable to close all running programs before you run amok in the temp folder. Some of those temp files might be in active use, y’know.
I run Win 98 at home and at work. On both computers, I have added these two lines at the end of my AUTOEXEC.BAT file:
[ul] @DelTree /Y C:\WINDOWS\Temp @MD C:\WINDOWS\Temp
[/ul]
Doing this, EVERY time I reboot, my temp folder is cleared quickly and completely. Since it does it before windows loads, it ensures that no programs are using those files. This has caused no problems, and actually has helped to ensure that my computer runs efficiently.
I was 99% sure I could get rid of the files with out everything becoming FUBAR. I never actually found anything that specifically said that you could delete these files, so I figured better safe than sorry.
Anywise, Long story short, they have been killed. I regained 400 megs. I was happy. And as an added bonus I also ran scan disk and defragged my hard drive. Things a re running smoothly again (knock on wood).
Oh, and Meephead, thanks for the tip with the autoexec.bat. I’ll have to add it in.
(Sorry about not mentioning the OS. I know that’s the tech Support Cardinal sin, not giving enough information. I meant to mention it, I really did…)
This is very common on computers used for image processing, whether with flatbed scanners or image processing software. Most people don’t bother optimizing the settings, resulting in scans on the order of 10’s of megabytes. They live in your temp directory while you work with them. If you have a scanner, consider reducing the DPI to something like 150 dpi.