

To clean the temporary folder under Windows: Create a batch file to automatically clean the Temp folder Some people may suggest that you restart before deleting something, but this is not necessary for the reason described above (on the other hand, it doesn’t hurt to do so). If you cannot delete them because they are open, they will either be deleted automatically when the application that uses them closes, or you will have them the next time you delete them manually.

Since it is safe to delete all temporary files that are not opened and used by an application, and since Windows does not allow you to delete open files, it is safe to delete them at any time (try it). If you select “Temporary Files” as one of the items to clean (delete), only files that have not been modified within the last 7 days will be deleted by default.īesides the fact that it is done automatically on reboot (which would interfere with installations like the one I described), it is always safe to delete the contents of the temporary folder. If you want to be conservative, use the integrated disk cleaning tool (type Disk Cleanup in the search box). If you restart and wait a little while for everything to calm down, everything that remains in the Temp folder should be able to be deleted. Sometimes, an installer will put something in the temporary directory it needs after a restart to complete the installation.

Sometimes you get the message “Unable to delete because the file is in use”, but you can simply skip these files.įor security reasons, delete your temporary directory shortly after your computer restarts. In general, it is possible to delete everything in the Temp folder.
