In the course of their work, many programs, both application and system, create various temporary files. Surely, many users found files with strange names in ordinary folders that look similar, say, to MS Word or Excel files. Especially often this happens after an unexpected power outage or freezing of the operating system, while the user was working with some kind of document. This is one of the varieties of temporary files that were not correctly deleted due to software error.
In operating rooms Windows systems there are entire folders dedicated exclusively to storing temporary information. In theory, at the end of a session with a system or program, these files should be deleted, but due to a number of circumstances, including errors in the operation of programs, this “garbage” accumulates in the system and sometimes starts to cause big trouble.
But the most "painful" case, in which the question arises, temporary files are infection of the system malware. Folders with system "garbage" are a favorite place for a virus to hide its code. Therefore, when a computer is infected, the user's first step is to clean folders with temporary files, especially folders with the browser's disk cache.
Theoretically, everyone has the ability to delete temporary files. modern browsers. As a rule, it is contained in the settings, in the "Advanced" section. Press the button, wait a bit - and that's it! But this is the ideal situation. If you have no doubts about the fact of infection, it is better to refrain from running programs that can access the network.
Another way to clear the disk cache is to manually delete temporary files. To find a folder on the Internet, you must first determine which operating system is installed on the computer, as well as which browser is used. All popular browsers currently store their temporary files in one of the user's profile folders. The location of the profile folder just depends on the operating system. For example, in Windows XP, the path to the user profiles folder is %SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings, where %SystemDrive% is the operating system drive (usually C:). On Windows Vista/Seven, user profiles are located in the %SystemDrive%\Users folder. The subfolder with the username is his profile in operating system.
The easiest thing to do is with Internet Explorer, because this browser's temporary files are located in the Local settings\Temporary Internet FIles folder. Temporary files of other browsers, as well as profile folders in general, are located in the Local folder. More precisely, in Windows Vista / Seven the folder structure is different, but through the shortcut system you can access it through the old, familiar names. In this directory, in separate subfolders, most of the data is stored application programs. Accordingly, the Opera folder will contain Opera files, the Mozilla folder will contain files, etc.
But when deleting the disk cache manually, you need to be careful, because. third-party browsers, as a rule, store not only temporary files in profile folders, but also data about installed extensions, passwords, plugins, and many other things. useful information. Usually everything you don't need is in the cash folder.
When working with files through Explorer, you may encounter a problem when the Local settings folder cannot be found. In fact, it is there, but the system assigns it the attribute "Hidden" (Hiden). In order to get into it, you must either enable the ability to display the system in the explorer and or, if this failed (the consequences of a previous virus attack), try to go through a direct link. For example, by entering the path "C:\Document and Settings\User01\Local Settings\Application Data" into the address bar, the user will immediately be able to get into the Application subfolder Data folders Local Settings in User01's profile.
And one more thing - if you intend to "clean up" another user's folders on your computer, you will need administrator rights.
As you probably already know, temporary files are created by the operating system to work in certain time. They are also generated by browsers and other utilities and applications. Temporary files are created once and are no longer needed by either the user or Windows. The whole problem is that all of them can take up quite a lot of space on the hard drive until we remove them from there. In this article, I want to show you how to do it in several ways.
Through parameters
Left-click on the "Start" button and select "Settings" from the drop-down menu.
In the window that opens, go to the "Storage" tab and see a list of partitions in front of you hard drive. You can select the partition of the hard drive from which you want to delete temporary files.
Since they are usually stored in system partition, that is, on the one on which the operating system is installed, and this is usually drive C:, then we click on the corresponding drive:
We have a window that displays information about all the data that is stored on this section of the hard drive. We find "Temporary files" and click on this item with the left mouse button:
In the window that opens, click on the button "Delete temporary files"
Using the Disk Cleanup utility
We open "This computer" and we see in front of us a list of hard disk partitions. click right click mouse over the desired section. In this article, we have already decided that this will be the C: drive. From the drop-down menu, select the item "Properties":
In the "General" tab, click on the "Disk Cleanup" button
We put the birds in front of the desired items and click on the OK button:
Manual cleaning
The folders that store such files are called Temp. A detailed article on the site about that already exists. The first one is located at:
And the second one is at: C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Temp
Before following this path, you must enable the display of hidden files and folders. To do this, in any of the folders, click on the "File" tab and select "Change folder and search options".
A window will open in front of you, in which you will need to go to the "View" tab and put the switch in the position "Show hidden files and folders":
Only after that we go along the above path and observe another Temp folder:
Everything that is in the Temp folders can be safely deleted and not be afraid, because they no longer affect anything, but only take up free space.
Well, and I, in turn, hope that I helped you with one more problem, and you have more space on your hard drive.
And also watch a video on the topic:
Rate article: Temporary Windows files stored in several system folders from where they can be removed manually. Directory addresses:
- C: WindowsTemp;
- C:UsersUsernameApp DataLocalTemp.
The contents of the "Temp" folders can be safely deleted from the system. However, the cleaning should not end there - there are still temporary browser files that also take up free disk space.
Therefore, it is better not to look for individual folders, but to use the built-in Disk Cleanup tool, the purpose of which is to delete temporary files in Windows 7.
Disk Cleanup
To run the Disk Cleanup tool in Windows 7, open Computer and click on Windows partition right button. Select "Properties" of the disk - on the "General" tab there will be a button "Disk Cleanup".
After starting the utility, you need to wait a bit until the system generates a list of data that can be deleted without harm to the system.
If you have never run a cleanup of temporary files, then the list creation process may take a long time.
In the list, you will see which data will be deleted. There is information about the operation of programs, temporary Internet files, a basket, various reports, etc. Below is the amount of free space. To clear the memory of this extra information, click OK.
However, such a cleansing will also not be complete. There are files of old updates left in the system, which are no longer valid, but continue to be stored on the hard drive. To get rid of them, click the "Clean up system files" button.
The system will start rescanning the hard drive to identify unnecessary updates. After the analysis is completed, a new list of data will appear, the removal of which will not harm Windows. Here, the amount of freed space is seriously increased - the system cleans up the no longer valid temporary update files.
Check all items in the list and click OK. After the removal is complete, see how much space is freed up on your hard drive.
Using Third Party Programs
Various software developers are also thinking about how to clean the system of unnecessary files. There are dozens of programs that allow you to clean HDD. However, you do not need to use unknown utilities: it is better to opt for a proven program for deleting temporary files - CCleaner.This cleaning utility can not only remove temporary files, but also check the registry for errors and then fix them. But we won't consider everything. CCleaner features and only consider in detail how to remove unnecessary data from the system with its help.
- Run the utility.
- On the Cleanup tab, click the Analyze button.
- Wait for the scan to finish and click "Clean" to remove all unnecessary files.
The program for removing temporary data CCleaner allows you to adjust the depth of analysis by marking those programs and system elements that need to be checked. For example, if you don't want the history of visited sites and saved passwords to disappear in the browser, then go to the "Applications" section and uncheck the corresponding boxes in the list.
The advantage of CCleaner is that this program finds and removes more unnecessary information than the built-in disk cleanup tool.
Cleaning utilities should be used with caution: their frequent use causes errors in the system, so it is better to develop a specific cleaning schedule.
If purchased Pro version, then the tracking function will become available in the settings, thanks to which memory cleaning will start automatically when certain conditions are reached. However, you can get by with free functionality - just don't forget to clean your computer from temporary files sometimes.
Video clip on how to remove
The attached video describes in detail the process of clearing memory from unnecessary information using standard Windows tools. The same methods as above are used - manually deleting data from the Temp folders and running the Disk Cleanup tool.
Deleting system operation data is necessary so as not to clog the device's hard disk with unnecessary information. Choose the way that is convenient for you and help the system work more efficiently.
Windows 10 temporary files are storages of intermediate results of calculations during the operation of the operating system itself and third party applications. During the installation of games and programs, a significant part of these files is created, and they are far from all and not always deleted after the installation is completed.
Thus, during the operation of Windows 10, a lot of unnecessary documents accumulate on the computer, partly stored in special directories: Temp in Windows folder and Temp in a folder named current user. But these are not all temp-file repositories, because program logs, for example, are stored in folders with the settings of these applications.
Today we will consider where temporary files are stored, and how you can get rid of them using the operating system and using third-party utilities. In the first two cases, the OS will allow you to erase only those documents and directories that it itself considers unnecessary.
These include far from all the garbage present on the computer, but these methods of getting rid of temporary files are the safest for the operating system. Although the perfect algorithms of CCleaner do not remove anything unnecessary from the system.
"Storage" Windows 10
The new OS is also equipped with a new tool for scanning disks and analyzing their contents in order to clean the system volume from junk files and logs. A new utility is launched through the "Settings" (Win → I), where we click "System", then go to the "Storage" tab.
The window that opens displays all drives connected to the computer, hard drives used in the system, and their partitions. Here it is possible to change Environment Variables, set the storage location for new apps, documents, images, videos, and more.
We select the system volume to visualize detailed data about it.
Scroll through the list of all detected elements to the very end and find the item “Temporary files”, where under the name of the section contains information about the space occupied by these documents. Click on this area of the window.
You will be able to clean up the directory with downloaded files, get rid of the garbage that is in the Recycle Bin, and erase temporary files. As you can see, more than 600 megabytes of garbage were found in the installed operating system alone.
Click "Delete temporary files" and wait for the completion of the operation, the progress of which is in no way visualized. After clicking on the button, the window can be closed, the process running in the background will not be affected in any way.
Utility for cleaning partitions from temporary files
From previous editions of Windows the program was transferred to the "top ten" to maintain file system clean, with regard to the presence of intermediate calculation files on disks. By the principle of operation, the tools practically do not differ; the second program can additionally find some files.
You can start it in several ways:
- enter "Disk Cleanup" in the search bar;
- execute the “cleanmgr” command in Start or the command interpreter (launched by Win + R);
- call the "Properties" of the system volume and click "Disk Cleanup" in the main window under the data on the size of the disk, the amount of free and used space on it.
We click on the icon of the section that needs to be freed from temporary files, then check the boxes next to unnecessary elements.
Here, without fear of erasing anything superfluous, you can mark absolutely all components.
Click "OK" to start the process. After a few seconds, the system or selected volume will be cleared of found temporary files.
Let's turn to the leader in removing temp files for help
The best way to remove temporary files in Windows 10 free app CCleaner by Piriform.
1. Go to the address https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner and click "Download Free Version".
2. Install the application, refusing to download other developer products if they are not needed.
3. Launch the application and go to the "Options" tab.
4. In the "Language" column, select "Russian".
5. We return to the first tab.
6. Check the boxes for everything that should be deleted.
7. We do the same on the Applications tab (here you can get rid of the logs and temp files of certain programs).
8. Click "Analysis".
In the results window, you can examine a detailed report on each found file and item.
9. To delete all found results and empty the Recycle Bin, click "Clear".
10. We confirm our intention to delete all the listed objects permanently, bypassing the Recycle Bin.
In the case of clearing the history, cache, browser cookies, it must be closed before starting the cleaning or confirm the completion of the process with the CCleaner program.
With the appearance of the notification "Cleaning completed", you can see the results of the application.
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