Delete Temporary Files

What are temporary files?

Temporary files, or as we call them “temp” files are miscellaneous files left behind by programs that have crashed or are just too lazy to clean up after themselves.

Are they harmful?

They’re mostly harmless. It’s ok to keep them however, like any mess, they tend to accumulate rather rapidly and take up your precious hard drive space. Think of them like dust. It’s time to clean up!

How do I clean out those dastardly temp files?

With a broom! Nah we’re kidding! There are many tools that can clean out temp files however Windows XP and Visa both have a built-in “Disk Cleanup” application that makes the whole process really easy.

So I just run this once a month?

Yep. Running it more often is not going to cause any problems, however, once a month is usually more than enough for most computers.

Windows XP

1. Click Start, and then click My Computer.
2. Right-click the disk in which you want to free up space, and then click Properties.
3. Click the General tab, and then click Disk Cleanup.
4. Click the Disk Cleanup tab (if it is not already selected), click to select the check boxes next to the files that you want to remove, and then click OK.
5. Click Yes to the proceed with this action, and then click OK.

Windows Vista

1. Open Disk Cleanup by clicking the Start button, clicking All Programs, clicking Accessories, clicking System Tools, and then clicking Disk Cleanup.
2. In the Disk Cleanup Options dialog box, choose whether you want to clean up your own files only or all of the files on the computer. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
3. If the Disk Cleanup: Drive Selection dialog box appears, select the hard disk drive that you want to clean up, and then click OK.
4. Click the Disk Cleanup tab, and then select the check boxes for the files you want to delete.
5. When you finish selecting the files you want to delete, click OK, and then click Delete files to confirm the operation. Disk Cleanup proceeds to remove all unnecessary files from your computer.

Quick Tip:

These instructions are provided as part of Windows’ built in Help & Support feature. To access it for other information, click the Start button then click on Help & Support.