Clear temp files windows 10

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On Windows 10, temporary files are those app files stored on your computer to hold information for a short period. In addition, the system has many different temporary file types, including those leftover files after installing a new version, upgrade logs, error reporting, temporary Windows installation files, and more.

Typically, these files won’t cause any issues. However, they can grow quickly using valuable space on the hard drive, which can be the reason preventing you from installing a new version of the operating system, or they can be the reason you are running out of space on your computer. If you use Windows 10, you have a few ways to safely remove temporary files using the Settings app and the Disk Cleanup tool.

This guide will teach you how to quickly delete temporary files on Windows 10 to free up space or reclaim storage space after installing a feature update.

• Delete temporary files on Windows 10 from Settings
• Delete temporary files on Windows 10 from Disk Cleanup
• Delete temporary files on Windows 10 from Temp folder

Delete temporary files on Windows 10 from Settings

To remove temporary files on Windows 10, use these steps:

1. Open Settings on Windows 10.

2. Click on System.

3. Click on Storage.

4. Under the “Local Disk” section, click the Temporary files option.

   

5. Select the temporary files you want to remove.

6. Click the Remove files button.

   

Once you complete the steps, junk files will be removed from your computer, freeing up space for more important files.

Delete temporary files automatically

Alternatively, you can use “Storage sense” to automatically free up space by removing those temporary files and content from the recycle bin.

To delete files wasting space automatically using Storage Sense on Windows 10, use these steps:

1. Open Settings.

2. Click on System.

3. Click on Storage.

4. Under the “Storage” section, turn on the toggle switch.

   

5. (Optional) Click the “Configure Storage Sense or run it now” option to adjust the cleanup settings or run Storage Sense on-demand.

   

After completing the steps, Storage sense will delete most temporary files and those that have been in the recycle bin for more than 30 days. 

Delete temporary files on Windows 10 from Disk Cleanup

If you are getting a message about your device running out of space, you can also use the Disk Cleanup tool to delete temporary files to free up space on your device.

To remove Windows 10 temporary files from Disk Cleanup, use these steps:

1. Open File Explorer.

2. Click on This PC from the left navigation pane.

3. Right-click the drive with the Windows 10 installation and select the Properties option.

   

4. Click the Disk Cleanup button.

   

5. Click the “Clean up system files” button.

6. Check the items you want to delete. For example, Temporary Windows Installation Files, Windows upgrade log files, Recycle Bin, Temporary Files, and System created Windows Error Reporting.

   

7. Click the OK button.

8. Click the Delete Files button.

Once you complete the steps, temporary files will permanently be deleted from your computer, making room for new files.

Delete temporary files on Windows 10 from Temp folder

To clear the temporary files from the Temp folder to free up space, use these steps:

1. Open File Explorer.

2. Type the following path in the address bar and press Enter:

   %temp%

3. Click the Select all button from the Home tab.

4. Click the Delete button from the Home tab.

   

5. Click the Yes button to confirm.

After you complete the steps, Windows 10 will delete the files from the Temp folder, freeing up storage space on your computer.

Sometimes, despite having enough RAM, our system lags or hangs. This trouble can be due to storage issues or any extra unnecessary program running in the background. One way to prevent this slowing down of our system is to delete temporary files created automatically as it will boost your system’s performance.

1. Deleting all temp files:

To delete all the temporary files follow the below steps:

Step 1: Press Windows key + R to open the Run command. Then type “temp” in the search field and press OK. 

Step 2: Now, select all temp files using ctrl + A and then press delete.

2. Deleting local temp files: 

To delete the local temporary files follow the below steps:

Step 1: Press Windows key + R  to open the Run command. Then type “%temp%” in the search field and press OK. 

Step 2: Now, select all local temp files using ctrl + A and then press delete.

3. Deleting local temp files using Prefetch: 

To delete the local temporary files using Prefetch follow the below steps:

 Step 1: Press Windows key + R  to open the Run command. Then type “Prefetch” in the search field and press OK.

Step 2: Now, select all prefetch files using ctrl + A and then press delete.

Finally, delete all the files from recycle bin too. All temporary files are deleted, and now you are good to go!!

Last Updated :
06 Jun, 2021

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One way to free up disk space in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP is to delete temporary files. Temp files are files that your operating system only needed to exist temporarily while in use, but are now just wasting space.

Most temporary files are stored in the Windows Temp folder, the location of which differs from computer to computer. Manually cleaning this out in Windows usually takes less than a minute, but it could take longer depending on how large the collection of temporary files is.

How to Remove Junk Files From Windows 11

How to Delete Temporary Files in Windows

Follow these simple steps to delete your temporary Windows files:

1. Open the Run dialog box.

   In Windows 11, 10, and 8, right-click the Start button and select Run.

   In earlier versions of Windows, choose Start to bring up the search box or find Run.

   Another way to open the Run dialog box is to enter the WIN+R keyboard shortcut.

2. In the Run window or search box, enter the following command exactly:

   %temp%
   

   This command, which is technically one of many environment variables in Windows, will open the folder that Windows has designated as your Temp folder, probably C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Temp.

3. Select all the files and folders within the Temp folder that you want to delete. Unless you have a reason to otherwise, select them all.

   If you’re using a keyboard or mouse, click one item and then use Ctrl+A to select every item within the folder. If you’re on a touch-only interface, choose Select all from the Home menu at the top of the folder.

   You don’t need to know what each temp file you’re going to delete is for, or what or how many files are included in any subfolders you select. Windows won’t let you delete any files or folders that are still in use. More on that in a bit.

4. Delete all the temporary files and folders you’ve selected, either using the Delete key on your keyboard or the Delete button from the Home menu.

   Depending on your version of Windows, and how your computer is configured, you might be asked to confirm that you wish to Delete Multiple Items. You may even have to select Yes on a special Confirm Multiple File Delete window that appears. Handle any messages about hidden files in this folder the same way—it’s fine to delete those, too.

5. Choose Skip if you’re presented with a File In Use or a Folder In Use warning during the temporary file deletion process.

   This is Windows telling you that the file or folder you’re trying to delete is locked and still in use by a program, or maybe even Windows itself. Skipping these allows the deleting to continue with the remaining data.

   If you’re getting a lot of these messages, check the Do this for all current items checkbox and then select Skip again. You’ll have to do it once for the file messages and again for the folder ones, but warnings should stop after that.

   Rarely will you see a message like Error Deleting File or Folder that will stop the temp file deleting process completely. If this happens, restart your computer and try again. If even that doesn’t work, try starting Windows in Safe Mode and repeating the steps above.

6. Wait while all the temp files are deleted, which could take anywhere from a few seconds if you only have a few files in this folder, and up to several minutes if you have many and they’re large.

   You won’t be prompted when the process is complete. Instead, the progress indicator will just disappear, and you’ll see your empty, or almost empty, temp folder up on the screen. Feel free to close this window.

   If you happen to be deleting so much data that not all of it can be sent to Recycle Bin, you’ll be told that they’ll be permanently removed.

7. Finally, locate Recycle Bin on your Desktop, right-click or tap-and-hold the icon, and then choose Empty Recycle Bin.

8. Select Yes on the prompt to confirm that you want to delete the items, which will permanently remove those temporary files from your computer. You now, in the short term, have an empty temporary files section.

Using a Command Line Command

The steps shown above are considered the normal way to delete temporary files, but you have to do it manually. If you’d rather, you can build your own mini-program that can delete these temp files automatically with a simple double-click/tap of a BAT file.

You can do this using the rd (remove directory) Command Prompt command to delete the entire folder and all the subfolders.

Type the following command into Notepad or some other text editor, and save it with the .BAT file extension:

rd %temp% /s /q

The q parameter suppresses confirmation prompts to delete the files and folders, and s is for deleting all the subfolders and files in the temp folder.

If the %temp% environment variable is for some reason not working, feel free to substitute in the actual folder location mentioned in Step 2 above, but make sure you type the correct folder path, and to be safe, surround the path in quotes like this (change the username, of course):

rd "C:\Users\jonfi\AppData\Local\Temp" /s /q

Other Types of Temporary Files in Windows

The Windows Temp folder isn’t the only place temporary files, and other no-longer-needed groups of files, are stored on Windows computers.

The folder you found in Step 2 above is where you’ll find some of the operating-system-created temporary files in Windows, but the C:\Windows\Temp\ folder contains a number of additional files that you no longer need to keep. Feel free to open that Temp folder and delete anything you find in there.

The Settings app in Windows 11 and Windows 10 has an entire section dedicated to deleting temporary files. Get there through Settings > System > Storage > Temporary files. Included there are things like delivery optimization files, Windows upgrade log files, temporary files left over by apps, and more. Choose what to remove, and then select Remove files.

Those same, harder-to-find locations for temporary files are accessible in older versions of Windows, too, like Windows 7, via Disk Cleanup. This utility is included in all versions of Windows and can help remove the contents of some of those other temp folders for you automatically. You can open that in a Run dialog box (WIN+R) via the cleanmgr command.

Check Your Browser Cache

Your browser also keeps temporary files, usually in an attempt to speed up your browsing by loading cached versions of web pages when you revisit them. Review our guide on how to clear your browser’s cache for help deleting these types of temporary files. Ctrl+Shift+Del (Windows) or Command+Shift+Delete (Mac) is usually the shortcut to that option.

Handy Tools for Easy Removal

Dedicated «system cleaners» like the free CCleaner program can make this, and similar jobs, really easy. Many free computer cleaner programs exist to choose from, too, including Wise Disk Cleaner.

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