This is the data that the operating system and programs create while running. In order not to store all current information in RAM, applications save documents in separate folders, from where they load them as needed. These could be browser files, distributions, and document backups. For example, if you don't save text in Word and accidentally close the program, it will offer to restore the data using temporary files.
Some applications clear temporary files themselves, but this can usually only be done manually or using special utilities. When too much data accumulates in memory, the computer may begin to slow down. And it’s not surprising that sometimes software junk takes up tens or hundreds of gigabytes.
Why delete temporary files?
As you know, you need to delete temporary files, and that's why. They slow down your PC, the symptoms look like this:
- Windows startup takes longer than usual;
- programs open more slowly;
- There is not enough space on the system disk to install new programs.
This is your loaded system It is possible and necessary to delete temporary files, and this will not make things worse - the operation of the system will not be disrupted, and programs will launch faster.
How to delete temporary files?
There are two ways to delete temporary files: manually, using built-in Windows tools, or using special programs.
Disk Cleanup in Windows
With this tool, you can remove all unnecessary files without downloading additional applications. Open “Control Panel” through the menu “Start” - “Accessories” - “System Tools”. Find the section "System and Security" - "Free up disk space" ("Disk Cleanup").
A program for deleting temporary files will open. To remove garbage created by applications, check the boxes next to the appropriate sections and click “OK”. To delete temporary system files, open the “Clean up system files” menu, select the drive on which the system is installed, and also click “OK”.
Clear memory through Windows Settings
Windows 10 has another handy tool for cleaning your system from excess junk. It can be found in the Settings section by clicking on the gear in the Start menu.
- Open the “System” - “Storage” block.
- Select the system drive and wait for the analysis to complete. The utility will show how much space temporary and other files take up.
- Go to the temporary files overview, check the boxes next to all the items and click “Delete files”.
Temporary files are stored in the Temp folder on the computer's system drive. The folder itself should not be deleted, but you can manually clear its contents. However, this method does not always work, since data that is currently being used by the system or programs cannot be deleted. Therefore, we recommend using Windows tools as described above, or one of the programs to free up computer memory.
Cleaning using third party apps
You can use many programs to remove software and system junk. For example, or Advanced Systemcare from IObit. CCleaner remains one of the most popular applications for cleaning temporary Windows files, so we’ll tell you how it works.
28.04.2017
While working on a computer, you may experience problems with insufficient memory or a long system loading time. The reason for this is unnecessary temporary files that were not deleted by the system or programs after shutdown.
What are temporary files
During operation of the system and programs running on it, temporary data is created on the disk, which stores information necessary for correct functioning. After the session ends, most programs delete this information. However, many utilities do not provide for the removal of this information. Also, the OS itself saves a lot of unnecessary files on the disk related to installing updates.
Clearing the disk of temporary files
You can delete information that is no longer needed in different ways. So, you can install third-party utilities, use system functions designed for this, or do everything manually.
Method 1: Wise Disk Cleaner
Using this program you can remove all unnecessary system files. In addition to temporary data, the utility cleans the cache of installed browsers and allows you to defragment system drives. You can erase files as follows:
Method 2: CCleaner
Method 3: 360 Total Security
Some antivirus programs for your computer also have a function for deleting temporary files. Let's look at the cleaning process using the 360 Total Security antivirus as an example:
Method 4: System Tools
Windows OS has several built-in programs for cleaning temporary files. Let's consider the most convenient of them:
Delete temporary files through system parameters
Using Disk Cleanup
Method 5: Remove manually
Temporary system files are stored in separate folders on the computer disk. In some situations, you can completely delete the contents of these folders to clear unnecessary information.
Cleaning the contents of the folder "Local"
The system will not allow you to delete individual folders by displaying a corresponding message. Leave all this data as it is required for the system to function correctly.
Cleaning the folder "Temp"
To open this folder in Explorer, follow the path: C: - Windows - Temp. This contains temporary data that can be deleted.
The described method should be used carefully, as it can erase important system files.
There are many ways to delete temporary files. Each of them is effective in its own way and helps to get rid of the problems that an excess of unnecessary information creates.
Temporary files raise many questions among users. People who are not very computer savvy often don't know whether it is possible to delete Windows temporary files.
What are temporary files?
Most programs on your computer work not only with those files that appeared after installation, but also create new, temporary files. An analogy can be drawn with RAM. Programs use it to quickly access the necessary data, without loading the main memory (hard drive or ssd) with work.
Each temporary file created by the program is needed for approximately the same thing. To have quick access to some data, temporary files are created. Programs and applications write and read information from them that is relevant for a particular work session, after which they must delete these files behind them.
Unfortunately, this does not always happen. Sometimes an unscrupulous developer decides to save time and his program does not delete temporary files, and sometimes failures and errors occur, leading to the same result.
Can I delete temporary files?
It is not only possible to remove them, but also necessary! An impressive number of such files may accumulate on your system. Sometimes they take up half of all memory, which can interfere with work and slow down interaction with the hard drive.
Since these files were only needed by programs temporarily, they now have no value. You can safely delete them without fear of losing your data. These files contain only data for programs. Most likely, you will not even understand what kind of information they contain.
To avoid running out of hard drive space and slowing down your computer, periodically clear your drive of temporary files. Usually they are all located in specially designated places, so you can delete them programmatically. CCleaner, NeoCleaner, RedOrganizer and many similar utilities can handle this task.
It's best not to try to delete temporary files manually, as you might end up with something important.
How to delete temporary Windows files without third-party programs?
If you do not want to download third-party cleaning programs, you can use the system functions.
Cleanmgr is a command that will launch the disk cleanup application. Select to delete all temporary files except installers and uninstallers. Removing them can harm the operation of programs.
Another important point to consider when working with this system feature is do not enable compression of old files. This feature may cause your computer to run very slowly.
Most users one way or another come across such a concept as Temporary Files. Any more or less literate user can imagine what this is in general terms. But not everyone knows that such files can correspond to different categories and belong to different processes or programs. There are even fewer who understand how to delete such objects painlessly for the system and in full.
Temporary Files: what is this in general understanding?
In order to understand what these objects are in Windows systems, you just need to translate the name of this term. In Russian equivalent, this means “temporary files,” that is, those that are not permanently on the system, but only at certain moments.
Sometimes they can be deleted automatically, sometimes you have to clean them up manually - it all depends on exactly which processes such objects were associated with. They usually have a TMP extension, but not always.
Types of temporary files
Some users mistakenly believe that temporary files appear only when working on the Internet (Temporary Internet Files), when the browser saves them to the hard drive to speed up access to previously visited pages. But this is only a special case.
Conventionally, all objects can be classified into the following main types:
- temporary system files;
- objects created and deleted during application installation;
- temporary objects associated with the operation of application programs;
- Internet files (cache, cookies, page thumbnails, etc.).
Thus, issues of deleting such objects should be decided solely depending on the type. Some files are deleted automatically (for example, installer files or objects created when working with certain programs).
In this sense, another look at the Temporary Files objects will help. What this is from the point of view of software components can best be understood by the example of opening Word documents. Please note that when opened, a temporary copy of it is created in the same folder where the original file is located, with a name starting with the symbol “~” (sometimes such objects may be hidden). After work with the document is completed and it is closed, the temporary file is deleted automatically.
The same applies to cases where the editor was terminated incorrectly. From a temporary object, the program offers to restore a document that was accidentally closed (of course, if the autosave function is enabled, indicating a certain period of time after which it should be done).
Sometimes when installing games or some repacks, failures may occur such as “Internal error Extract Temporary File” with a link to the libraries isdone.dll, islogo.dll, isgsg.dll or with messages about the return of a certain code by the Unarc.dll service. In most cases, such messages are generated due to the fact that some processes are blocked by the antivirus (most often this occurs in Comodo Antivirus). But such failures can be eliminated by adding programs to trusted lists. The message says that you need to check your RAM, but most often this problem has nothing to do with RAM.
Windows Temporary Internet Files: how to remove?
Now a few words about deleting temporary objects. This can be done very easily in any browser. Simply call up the browsing history menu and press the clear button.
In this case, it is advisable to indicate cleaning for the entire period, and also mark the items for deleting the browser cache, Cookies and other site data, cached images and download history.
In the case of system objects, you can do things a little differently. Since they are usually saved in TEMP directories, which can be hidden (in the system root directory and in user folders), to make your work easier, you need to use the Run console and enter the %TEMP% combination in it. In the found directories, you just need to select all objects and press the Del key to delete. If you need to delete without going to the Recycle Bin, use the combination Shift + Del.
In some cases, you can use the Disk Cleanup tool, where in the list of objects to be deleted, you should check the box next to the line of temporary files.
However, the simplest method for removing temporary files is to use special optimizer programs, in which, for quick maintenance, you need to mark the corresponding modules (garbage cleaning, confidentiality, deleting Internet history, etc.).
Instead of an afterword
That's all for such a concept as Temporary Files. What kind of objects these are, I think, has already become clear to many. It is quite obvious that the appearance of files in the system is not exclusively related to the Internet (look at the list above). As for cleaning the system from such objects, the removal methods used depend only on what type of objects they are and whether they are deleted automatically.
Today I will tell you about temporary files. What is it temporary files? Files created when installing programs, while working on programs, and during system operation are called temporary files.
Temporary files
These files are called temporary because they should be automatically deleted after use, but this is not always the case. Majority temporary files have the extension .tmp, there are, of course, other extensions, but let’s not bother with them.
“Ordinary” users generally do not think about cleaning their computer (and indeed, most usually do not even know that it needs to be cleaned). And literally in a month a huge number of temporary files can accumulate. So what should we do?
Let's try manual disk cleanup. First, we look for the TEMP folder (there are two of them on the system drive). One is in the Windows folder, and the second is in the root directory (C:\Document and Settings\username\Local Settings\Temp). You can take and delete everything temporary files, it is the temporary files themselves from the folder, and not the folder itself. But it’s better to leave this to specialized software. There is, of course, the “Disk Cleanup” function (you can enable it by going to “My Computer”, right-clicking on one of the drives, selecting “Properties” and on the “General” tab we see the “Disk Cleanup” button). In my opinion (and most users) the function is useless, since it compresses old files and cleans out the recycle bin. But it does have one useful function - it can delete system restore points (since they can weigh several gigabytes).
Well, that's basically all I wanted to tell you about temporary files. My advice to you: use specialized cleaning programs; for example, I use
