deleting c:windows\temp

[Mookow]

My temp folder is currently 2.47GB. My virus scan spends forever looking through there, and since 2.47GB is more than half the size of my last computer's storage space, I have this question: can I just delete all contents of my windows\temp folder?

 

[AndyHui]

Usually yes.

 

[vi edit]

<**disclaimer**>
Not responsible for any harm that may come of your PC, the operating system, or end user installed programs
</**disclaimer**>

I have been deleting the \temp folder for years now without any problems. It's usually from poorly coded extraction programs that don't remove the temporary archives as well as a couple other things that *shouldn't* cause any harm.

 

[Angrymarshmello]

Usually yea - it's just temporary files that installations put in there among other stuff. My cousin who has never emptied his temp dir in the year and a half he's had it had 4 GB in his temp folder and everything worked fine after I emptied it for him.

 

[iamwiz82]

since you have yours under c:\windows, i'll assume win98. In this case, put a line in your autoexec.bat which will delete the temp folder on reboot.

 

[Nemesis77]

Nuke it

 

[Mookow]

All right, I think I'm going to copy it all over into another folder, empty my temp folder, and if nothing goes wrong, delete the new folder next week.

 

[Freeze]

check the dates on the files. If they are older than a day or so, I would say nuke it. Anything somewhat new leave as is, but delete everything else...

 

[Harvey]

My AUTOEXEC.BAT has this lines:

@IF NOT EXIST C:\WINDOWS\TMPDELIS.BAT DELTREE/Y C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\*.*>NUL
@DELTREE/Y C:\WINDOWS\TEMPOR~1\CONTENT.IE5\*.*>NUL
@DELTREE/Y C:\WINDOWS\COOKIES\*.TXT>NUL
@DELTREE/Y C:\WINDOWS\HISTORY\HISTORY.IE5\*.*>NUL

TMPDELIS.BAT is a batch file created by many installation programs that tells the system to delete whatever dross remains from the installation on reboot.

The first nukes the contents of C:\WINDOWS\TEMP only if that file is not present. The rest of these clears up a lot of garbage that builds up in IE. Don't worry about the subdirectories under these directories. Windows rebuilds them on reboot.

The redirect, >NUL, just tells the sytem not to bother telling me about it. 🙂

 

[4824guy]

Some of the PC magazines say it is completely safe to delete anything in there that is over 1 or 2 days old. That is what I do from time to time with no problems.

 

[dirtboy]

I have been clearing this folder out for years. Just make sure you save anything that you have downloaded there, otherwise, delete *.*.