Many Windows users heard such a term as "temporary files", but not everyone fully understands the essence of these elements and why they are created by the system and applications. Someone believes that they should be removed and they are superfluous, while others try not to touch them and carefully bypass them. Let's look at this issue in more detail from all sides.
Windows temporary files
What it is?
Temporary files in Windows are created in the system by various applications and by the operating system itself in order to store data that is required for the current task.
Why are temporary files created?
Temporary files are most often created to transfer large amounts of information that is not profitable to store in random access memory, or their volume is greater than the amount of RAM. Therefore, program developers temporarily store this data in a folder with temporary files, so that after some time their program or a separate module can use this information.
Temporary files are also created as a backup of the data you are currently working with. For example, programs from the package Microsoft Office create temporary files with backup copies of the documents you work with. This is in case of failure. office program or a sudden restart of the PC. The next time you start it, you can continue working from the same place without losing data in the document.
As a general rule, temporary files should be deleted automatically after the application terminates gracefully. But in reality this does not always happen. As a result, we observe the accumulation of a large number of temporary files that are dead weight and take up useful disk space on the system drive.
Where are Windows temporary files located?
There are two places in the operating system itself where it is customary to store temporary files. You can go to them from Explorer at the following addresses:
- %systemdrive%\Windows\Temp
- %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Temp
You can paste one of these lines into the Explorer address bar to navigate to them.
Temporary Windows folder usually used by the operating system itself. The temporary folder in your user profile is usually used by the programs you use. If you have multiple user accounts on your computer, there are several folders with temporary files, one for each user profile.
Some programs use their own temporary folder to store such data and often place them inside their own folders - a folder with the name of the program may have a temp subfolder.
There are also cases when individual programs create a Temp folder in the root of the system drive C.
How to change the storage location for temporary files
The operating system provides a way to change the variable folder in the user profile. To do this, in the environment variables ( Control Panel → Properties of the system → Additionally → Environment Variables ) you need to change the folders for storing temporary files.
If there are several user profiles on your computer, then you should not move the folder with temporary files for all users to one folder. First of all, this is not recommended for security and stability reasons, since it is not known how this or that application will behave if it sees temporary files from another user in the folder. It's best to leave them where they are.
How to delete temporary files?
To remove unnecessary temporary files, you can use specialized utilities like Reg Organizer or .
Also suitable for this regular tool disk cleaning operating system, but third party applications usually more options for cleaning the system of unnecessary data, which makes them more efficient.
Instruction
Most often, there is a need to delete temporary files in Internet browsers, less often - . In the first case, this is done in order to enter or delete visited . In the second, in order to free free place on drive C if the drive is small and the system reports that there is no free space.
In order to delete temporary files that have accumulated during the Internet pages, you should contact the browser you are using:
1.Users Internet Explorer you should click in the upper part of the menu section "Service", select the menu item "Internet Options" and in the window that opens, on the "General" tab, click the "Delete" button in the "Browsing History" section. You will be presented with options for deleting temporary files, and by ticking the one you need, you can delete temporary files.
2.Users Google Chrome you need to click on the wrench icon in the upper right corner, and select the "Options" section in the menu that appears. Going to the "Advanced" tab, you should click the "Delete about viewed pages" button. By choosing the options you need to clean up temporary files, you can delete them.
If you use any other browser to surf the Internet, the steps will be the same as above, with a slight difference in names.
To remove temporary Windows files, you will need to click on the "My" icon, go to the C drive to the "Windows" folder and the "Temp" folder. This folder stores all temporary system files. Select all files and delete them. Temporary files will be deleted and free disk space will be cleared.
Browsers create copies of visited pages in special folders or caches. These temporary files are used to load page content faster on a second visit. They can take up quite a lot of space, so they need to be removed from time to time.
Instruction
Temporary file names begin with a tilde and usually have a .tmp extension. To delete them using , right-click on the logical disk icon and select the "Properties" option from the context menu. In the "General" tab, click the "Clear" button and check all in the list files, which you want to delete, including temporary ones.
To remove temporary files Internet Explorer browser, to open the context menu, click right click on the IE icon and select "Properties". On the "General" tab in the "History" section, click "Delete" and in the new window, check the boxes for those files, from which you want to clean up the computer. By clicking the "Options" button, you can configure the amount of hard disk space allocated for storing temporary files, the name of the folder in which they are contained, and the storage time.
In the process of working in the Windows operating system, a large number of temporary files accumulate on the computer. Temporary files are not always automatically removed from the computer by applications that use temporary files.
In this article, we will look at how to delete temporary files in Windows to free up additional free disk space on your computer. Temporary files are created while working on the computer: during the installation or operation of programs, installation of operating system updates, etc. After the application ends, these files are no longer needed. In most cases, temporary files are automatically deleted from the computer.
Some temporary files are not deleted, such files uselessly take up disk space, so it is better to delete them with the built-in tool of the operating system, or with a computer cleaning and optimization program, for example, using the program, etc. After deleting temporary files, a additional free space previously occupied by temporary data.
Now we will see how you can delete temporary files in Windows 10 in three ways: manually, using the built-in tool of the operating system, using the Disk Cleanup utility.
Clearing temporary files in Windows manually
Where are temporary files stored? Temporary files are stored on the computer in a special folder of the operating system and in the corresponding folder in the user profile.
In order to clean up temporary files, you need to enter these folders, and then manually delete the contents of these folders:
C:\Windows\Temp C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp
After that, restart your computer.
This method works in operating rooms Windows systems 7, Windows 8, Windows 10.
How to clear temporary files in Windows 10
Deleting temporary files in Windows 10 is done using a tool for analyzing the contents of the disk.
Enter the "Start" menu, go to "Settings", "System" in sequence. Next, go to the "Storage" section.
Then click on the "C" drive for information on how much disk space the partitions take up. hard drive(or multiple hard drives).
In the This PC (C:) window, scroll to the bottom of the window. Here you will see the "Temporary files" section and the amount of space they occupy on the computer's disk.
The user has the ability to select items to delete:
- Temporary files - files left from the work of applications in certain folders
- Downloads folder - contains files downloaded from the Internet
- Emptying the Recycle Bin - permanently deleting files previously deleted in the Recycle Bin
Select the necessary items in order to clear temporary files, then click on the "Delete files" button.
After that, Windows 10 temporary files will be deleted from the computer.
Cleaning up temporary files with Disk Cleanup
Using the built-in Disk Cleanup utility, you can delete temporary files in all versions of the Windows operating system.
To run the tool, press the keyboard keys "Windows" + "R", and then enter the command: cleanmgr.
In the window that opens, select the drive you want to clean (drive "C"). Next, in the "Disk Cleanup" window, select the items that you want to remove from the disk, and then click on the "OK" button.
Confirm deletion. After the cleaning process is completed, temporary Windows files will be removed from the computer.
Article Conclusions
To free up space on the computer's hard drive, the user can delete temporary files in Windows different ways: manually clear folders, using the built-in Windows tools 10 using the Disk Cleanup utility.
How to delete temporary files in Windows 10 (video)
This is the data that the operating system and programs create as they run. In order not to store all current information in RAM, applications save documents in separate folders, from where they load them as needed. These can be browser files, distributions and backups documents. For example, if you do not save text in Word and accidentally close the program, it will offer to restore data using temporary files.
Some applications clean up temporary files themselves, but usually this can only be done manually or using special utilities. When too much data accumulates in memory, the computer can start to slow down. And no wonder, sometimes software garbage takes tens and hundreds of gigabytes.
Why delete temporary files?
As you know, delete temporary files, and that's why. They slow down the 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 busy system. It is possible and necessary to delete temporary files, and it will not be worse from this - the system will not be disturbed, and programs will start faster.
How to delete temporary files?
There are two ways to delete temporary files: manually, using the built-in windows tools, or with the help of special programs.
Disk Cleanup in Windows
With this tool you can remove all junk files without downloading additional application. Open the "Control Panel" through the menu "Start" - "Accessories" - "Utilities". 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 corresponding sections and click "OK". To delete temporary system files, open the menu "Clear system files”, select the drive on which the system is installed, and also click “OK”.
Cleaning memory through "Windows Settings"
Windows 10 has another handy system cleanup tool. excess garbage. 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 is occupied by temporary and other files.
- Go to the overview of temporary files, check the boxes next to all 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 in use by the system or programs cannot be deleted. Therefore, we advise you to use the Windows tools, as described above, or one of the programs to free up computer memory.
Cleaning with third party apps
Many programs can be used to remove software and system junk. For example, or Advanced Systemcare from IObit. CCleaner remains one of the most popular applications for cleaning Windows temporary files, so we will tell you how it works.
During their work, many programs create temporary files that are stored in special folders. With various failures and errors, some applications do not clean up the "garbage" in the form of these temporary files. They can also remain if the application is uninstalled incorrectly. In this article, we will find the necessary folders and figure out how to delete temporary files in Windows. We will learn how to clean in two ways: on our own (manually) and using the built-in functions of Windows.
Temporary storage of files is a necessary practice in any Windows, but you need to delete these files regularly, otherwise there is a high probability of clogging your hard drive, this problem is especially relevant for owners hard drives with little memory. There are times when users accumulate 50, 70 or more gigabytes of temporary files, and you may be one of these users.
First of all, we are interested in two folders of the same name "Temp", which are located in different directories and you can get to them different ways. Go!
So where are temporary files stored in Windows 7? We shouldn’t have any special problems with the first folder, open “My Computer” (“This Computer” to delete Windows 10 temporary files), go to the system drive, usually the drive (C:). Open "Windows" and look for "Temp". Before deleting content, you can check how much garbage you have accumulated here. We right-click on the folder and select the "Properties" item, one of the items will indicate the amount of content. We are surprised at the contamination, if any, and remove everything that is inside. Some files will not want to be deleted, because they are being used right now for the operation of one of the programs, do not touch such files. On the way to the folder, you may be asked for administrative rights, to get them go to the administrator account, if you are already in it, then just click "Continue" or "Allow".
(C:)/Users/Our User/AppData/Local/Temp
With the first folder sorted out, it's time to start the second, which is hidden. What does hidden mean? And so, this is a hidden element, you just can’t get to it. We have two options: enter the folder through "Run" or turn on the detection of hidden folders. Let's consider both methods.
Open "Start" and type "Run" in the search bar, one single application will appear in the results, launch it. You can also call it with the Win + R key combination. The Win button is usually found between the left Ctrl and Alt and looks like four windows, hence the name Windows. In the window that appears, write the phrase "%TEMP%" without quotes. We press "Ok" and we are transferred to desired folder we are inside. You can also measure the amount of content by going up a level and calling context menu right-click on our folder, select "Properties" and observe the degree of contamination. We act with the insides in exactly the same way as last time, we remove everything that is possible.
Now consider the second option to get into the folder, it is a little trickier. We need to enable display hidden folders and files. Follow this path Start / Control Panel / Appearance and Personalization / Folder Options. In the window that opens, we need to go to the "View" tab and scroll the slider to the very bottom, where we rearrange the radio switch to the "Show hidden files, folders and drives. Now we can see all the hidden objects and we can hit the road. Open our system drive, then "Users", "Our user" (this is the username of this account), “AppData”, “Local”, before we turned on the detection of hidden objects, we simply could not go into this jungle, now it is available to us. We are looking for the treasured folder "Temp" and with the usual movements we clear it of garbage.
We cleaned up Windows 7 temporary files in a "manual" mode, but that's not all that can be done. Windows provides special tools that will more effectively cope with our task, let's figure it out.
In the interface of our operating system there is a disk cleanup function, and we need it. So, let's deal with deleting temporary files in windows 7. Right-click on our system drive, a context menu appears where we need to select the “Properties” item. A new window will appear where we should find the "Disk Cleanup" button.
Click the "Disk Cleanup" button
Some people are afraid of this button, supposedly it deletes all the contents of the disk, this is not at all the case, just the trash folders with temporary contents, including the trash, are deleted, the necessary files will not be affected in any way. Just click on this button, and the assessment of the amount of space that can be freed up begins. After that, a new window appears, where we are offered to select specific sectors for stripping. In the most general case, you can tick each item, but if, for example, you need to leave the basket untouched, then do not tick the corresponding checkbox. If you have not carried out such a procedure before, then it may take a certain amount of time, but more than one dozen gigabytes of space may be freed up.
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