Are Temp files just clutter?

[cslg]

My primary hard drive was meant to contain just the OS and other programs with data being held on a 2nd drive.

I was surprised to be warned that there was no more space on the primary drive. I discovered that Documents and Settings took up more than 26GB much of that being in Temporary files. There is also a long list of Ms 'XP' update files which gets longer by the day. Can all this clutter be deleted and is it in fact clutter

[InTheWayBoy]

If you've got that much in your temp files then you probably have something causing that...your temp files should never get that big. Maybe some virus or spyware maybe...

But either way, almost anything in your temp files is fair game to delete. Just be sure to close and save anything you have open first. You could also look into any of the several temp file cleaners out there. CCleaner and Disk Cleanup are two popular ones.

But seriously...26GB...that's a lot

[cslg]

Thanks InTheWayBoy - I do record and edit a great deal of .wav files arising from my copious piano compositions and that is the bulk of the work I do. The editing function, I know makes a big demand on space for the 'undo' facility that is quite extensive. Whether these end up in temporary files and form the bulk, I would not know. I cannot remember where I saw the list of MS update files but there is a stream of them. They are not classed as temporary. I notice streams of text files and 'NLS' files in System 32 that are all progressively numbered but not temporary. These all grow day by day. Its all quite a puzzle to me!

[Zxian]

A really handy app to help deal with Temp files is CleanIt. It runs on startup clearing out the temp folder. After that, you're done!

[Jeremy]

CCleaner Latest Version < Free, and is THE BEST for temp/cache clearing.

[garnet]

Thanks InTheWayBoy - I do record and edit a great deal of .wav files arising from my copious piano compositions and that is the bulk of the work I do. The editing function, I know makes a big demand on space for the 'undo' facility that is quite extensive. Whether these end up in temporary files and form the bulk, I would not know. I cannot remember where I saw the list of MS update files but there is a stream of them. They are not classed as temporary. I notice streams of text files and 'NLS' files in System 32 that are all progressively numbered but not temporary. These all grow day by day. Its all quite a puzzle to me!

26Gb as Inthewayboy said, seems quite a load! I wud also suggest CCleaner- its a great free utility, besides the spyware scans which everyone suggested, i would also suggest that after the cleanup you run chkdsk and then the defragmenter, in fact since you do add/edit/delete lots of files, it would be gud to run a disk cleanup and defrag so that ur drive doesnt get cluttered. Setting an automatic defragger wouldnt be a bad idea as it defrags the MFT and paging file and will run daily and defrag whenver needed.

[cslg]

Thanks for all the advice. Its been invaluable. I tried the Cleanit and it was amazing it has reduced the unused space from practically nothing to 25GB. It will do this automatically as you say when you boot up. I will put in hand the other advice also and it seems I will have a system as new again! Greetings and grateful thanks from this side of the pond. well from a rock in the pond actually.

Sorry I meant 'increased' unused space.

[Zxian]

Glad to be of help! It's great to have things take care of themselves from now on, isn't it?