Windows TEMP files

[memevector]

This feels like a bit of a "kindergarten" question and I feel slightly foolish needing to ask it, as if I "ought to know" already... but by the same token if it's as kindergarten as all that then it won't be much trouble for someone to answer me :-)

I just want to know: the stuff in the Windows TEMP folder, would that be things I have to be careful about deleting or is it basically just leftover crap? Or how can I tell the difference? Because there is rather a lot of it at the moment and I could do with reclaiming some drive space.

This is Win98 by the way (and no I don't want to upgrade, I don't care that it's a bit pants, it generally does what I need it to do and I don't have the brain space to even want to think about any extra logistics at the moment unless I have to)

Thanks in advance for advice.

Comments

[calum]

Dont delete it while you have programs open - but if you've shut everything else down, and are about to reboot - go ahead and delete it.

Nothing critical gets stored there.

[lovingboth]

Leftover crap. If it's not, it shouldn't be there.

If you try to delete it, and you're told certain files are in use, then just don't delete those particular files.

One tip is to sort by date first and delete everything that's older than...

If you're worried, back it up first of course.

[sermoa.livejournal.com]

I always delete anything in any temp folders, or with .tmp extensions. It's never done me any harm. If Windows really doesn't want you to delete it, it'll say so, which as calum said is probably because you have a program open which is using it.

You're usually best off rebooting and deleting temporary files before you open any programs. Then you'll have no problems.

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

What they said - almost certainly safe to delete anything and everything in there when you have no programs open.

And I think it's perfectly reasonable to work with Win98 if it does what you want. It's not as if Microsoft needs your money.

[memevector.livejournal.com]

indeed :-)

[lovingboth]

The one caveat is that the support in terms of security patches for Win98 from Microsoft is either nil or very minimal now.

Most of the PCs at work still use it, but just about the only contact they have with the outside world is web browsing via a proxy that checks there's nothing naughty going on.

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

True indeed, but OTOH the number of new exploits in circulation for Win98 is minimal now as well - it's not a particularly attractive target these days.

[softfruit.livejournal.com]

This may be a granny-sucking-eggs moment, but do you also defrag the drive regularly / ever?

Particularly now you've just wiped lots of small files built up over time.

[memevector.livejournal.com]

good point - did know, but haven't done it recently. thanks for the reminder :-)