To delete temporary files on Windows you should first understand what are temporary files and how will they impact Windows if they are deleted. Temporary files are temporary for a reason – they’re temporary. No, not just because temporary as in “they’ll delete themselves eventually.” Temporary as in temporary use only. These files are usually created by your computer when you download or install something and then need to be deleted after the installation is complete. But if temporary files continue to pile up, it can slow down your system and even cause problems with things like running out of space on your hard drive.
What are temporary files?
Deleted temporary files, often known as temp files, are one of the most effective methods to free up hard disk space in Windows. As a result of this, it’s extremely important that you keep an eye on the number of temporary files available on your computer. A lot of these files are intended to store elements when your operating system isn’t in use. At some point, they need to be deleted when no longer needed.
The Windows Temp folder is where most short-term data are kept, although the location varies depending on the computer and even the user. The procedures for this are below.
Why Do I Have Temporary Files?
Temporary files are temporary because your computer only needs them temporarily. Any time you use a program, temporary (or temp) files will be created and used to make the process of opening the file faster in the future. Temp files could include:
- Cache or other data relevant to an internet browser’s operation;
- Resources for games
- Temporary storage space when working with large documents such as images or videos where physical memory is required but insufficient.
While these temporary files might not always take up much room on their own, they do accumulate over time particularly if you’re using lots of programs at once which can quickly push your system into low disk space territory! So just deleting all those temp and cached items won’t necessarily free up any space.
How safe is it to delete Temporary files on Windows?
You’re probably thinking that temporary files are temporary, and therefore should be safe to delete. Well yes and no: it is not a bad idea to delete temporary files (which really isn’t deleting but rather sending them into the recycle bin where you can restore them if needed), because temporary/temp files generally do take up valuable space on your computer’s hard drive, however, there may be some times when Windows need those temporary files back again.
That said, as long as you have plenty of free disk space available before removing these temp files then things will go just fine for you – so don’t worry too much about something going wrong 🙂 Just remember that all sorts of other stuff get written to your hard drive constantly while using Windows which also takes up temporary disk space, including system restore points and kernel transaction logs – so when you delete temporary files in Windows it’s generally not the end of the world.
Temporary Files Location on Windows
To delete temporary files from here manually: Select all the files and folders inside C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Temp (replace Username with your username). Do this by selecting it then holding down shift + Ctrl at the same time to select multiple items. Then click file → delete, or right-click and choose to delete from menu options. This will permanently erase these temporary files which could be taking up space without anyone knowing about it!
How To Delete Temporary Files on Windows? Step-by-step guide
- If you’re using Windows 10, open the Start menu and search for “Cortana.”
- On Windows 8.1, you can do it like this: Rick-click or tap-and-hold the Start button, then select Run.
- In Windows 8, you can open Run by clicking the Applications icon.
- Choose Start to display the search bar, or Run and open the Run dialog box by pressing WIN+R for any earlier versions of Windows.
- Type the following command in the Run window or search box. [username]\AppData\Local\Temp.
- The username should be your computer username
- In Windows, the command is a kind of environment variable.
- The following command will display the Temp folder, which is designated by Windows.
- Select the files and folders in the Temp folder that you wish to remove.
- Use your keyboard’s Delete key or the Delete option from the Home screen to remove all the temporary folders and files you’ve picked.
Locate the Recycle Bin on your Desktop, right-click or tap-and-hold its icon, and then choose To delete It.; If you want to confirm that you want to delete the temp files, then Delete is the option to choose if you want to delete all of your old files and permanently remove the temporary ones from your computer.
