What files can I delete from my computer? Many computer users would like to clean files from their computers but do not know what files to delete. Therefore to avoid deleting the wrong files, the computer is simply left alone to store more and more files. This can cause major problems with your computer. It can start to run slow, popup with error messages, and generally become a confusing and cluttered system. If you do not know what files are safe to remove and delete from your computer, it is extremely important that you find out. There is one basic rule when deleting files from your computer: If you do not know what the files is then leave it alone.
What files are not safe to delete or remove from my computer?
BIOS Settings: Lets face it, unless you are a computer technician, you should not be flashing or upgrading your bios any time soon. The main thing you might enter the BIOS for is to set the boot order of your devices so you can boot from a cd. You cannot access the BIOS after you have loaded your operating system. See more about the BIOS
Operating System files: When you install Windows (or another operating system) there will be a folder containing files that will run your computer. For Windows the system files are usually in a folder named Windows, stored directly in C: drive. My advice to you is not to even look in there. If you accidentally delete a file from there your computer will not be able to load the operating system files needed to enter Windows.
Program Files: This is where all the programs you have installed are stored. If you accidentally remove a file from one of these folders you might cause the program to not work. If you want to remove a program you must do it through the control panel in Add or remove programs or programs and features in Vista. You cannot delete individual files hoping to get rid of the program. Some people also think that if they remove or delete the desktop icon that is a shortcut to a program, this also removes the program. This is wrong also.
Is It Safe To Delete Junk Files For Free
Hidden Files: Hidden files are hidden for a reason. Do not touch them unless it is absolutely necessary. Here’s how to Show hidden files in Windows XP and Showing Super Hidden Files In Windows Vista .
When you are asking the question “what files can I delete from my computer“, make sure you steer clear of those ones listed above!
In the screen shot below it shows the Windows folder which is contained on your main C drive. You should not go in there at all. Next to it is the users folder where you will find your username folder and that will hold all the files that you have created. This includes pictures music downloads and all that stuff.
What files can I delete from my computer?
Lets just say that any file you create, you can delete. If you put a photo onto your computer it is your choice to delete it or not. Deleting this file will not effect the computer and how it runs. So if you created a word document or downloaded an mp3 file then you can delete them when ever you want to. Just make sure you know what you are deleting before you make a mistake. The files you can remove are usually stored in the documents, pictures, or music folders.
How do I safely delete or remove temporary files from my computer?
Every time you do something on your computer a temporary file is created. So if you download a file or even open a document, a temporary file is created. These files can accumulate and need to be cleared from the computer as they have no value to you. There are a number of ways on how to delete temporary internet files from your computer.
- Delete files from the C:UsersUsernameAppDataLocalTemp folder. (%temp)
- Delete files from the C:WindowsTemp folder (temp)
- Delete files from the C:UsersMitzAppDataLocalMicrosoftWindowsTemporary Internet Files for Windows Vista, and C:Documents and SettingsmitzLocal SettingsTemporary Internet Files for Windows XP. These files include cookies, browsing history, and more..
To see more information on how to remove temporary files please see how to delete temporary internet files
Install a Program to Do it For You! Safely Remove Junk Files
Many people are still not sure if it is safe to remove temporary internet files from their computer. I understand this so for those people I would recommend software to do the job for them.
A software program will not upgrade your memory but it will clean out all the junk files, detect Malware, delete unused registry keys, Automatic Driver updates, and more. At the moment I am using PC Matic to maintain everything for me. This software is amazing and has won a number of top awards. You can get a free scan for your computer to see how it works before you buy.
What programs are safe to delete or remove from my computer?
If you installed a program and no longer require it or need it then you can delete it as long as you do it properly. See how to Safely Remove or delete programs from your computer.
Also see how to Remove programs from Windows Vista. If you do not know what program you are deleting then you should leave it alone.
Also see how to Remove programs from Windows Vista. If you do not know what program you are deleting then you should leave it alone.
Notes on What files can I delete from my Computer?
- Once you get the hang of what file is ok to delete safely, you will never have to wonder again.
- Just stick to the main rule: Do not delete it if you do not know what it is!
- If you’re still asking “What can I delete from my computer?”, I suggest you do some further reading as deleting the wrong files can cause major computer problems.
- I seem to have a lot of junk files in
%appdata%LocalTemp
(also accessible via environment variables%TEMP%
and%TMP%
).
Is it safe to delete these? - Also, is it safe to delete the Temp folder in the Windows directory,
C:WindowsTemp
?
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8 Answers
Some programs keep important files in there, surprisingly. If you are interested in freeing some space I'd advise to only delete the files excluding those that were created in the last 24h or so, or the ones you know for sure aren't used by other programs, such as old installers from software you downloaded, etc. You can use software such as CCleaner to do that.
The answers to this question provide ways to do this clean-up safely and automatically.
Community♦
AlexAlex1,06944 gold badges1616 silver badges3131 bronze badges
Yes, you can. Windows already does it for you when you use the Disk Cleanup tool (
Peter Mortensencleanmgr.exe
) and select the Temporary files checkbox.8,4661616 gold badges6161 silver badges8585 bronze badges
Pedro77Pedro77
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You can, but I am assuming your intention is to free up disk space. If this is the case you might want to use clean-up instead of doing the process manually. Go to Run and type
cleanup
:Then click Disk Cleanup and choose a drive.
Window will pop up where you will be able to select for deletion of temporary (and other mostly useless) files from multiple locations, not just
Peter MortensenC:Users[Username]AppDataLocalTemp
.8,4661616 gold badges6161 silver badges8585 bronze badges
Matas VaitkeviciusMatas Vaitkevicius70122 gold badges1414 silver badges3232 bronze badges
In theory, AppData's Temp folder (
%TEMP%
) is the place for programs to put files that can be deleted immediately after all handles to them are closed. In practice, many programs - including Microsoft's own - violate that guidance. That's why some disk cleanup utilities (notably CCleaner) by default leave files that were last modified less than 24 hours ago. It's almost certainly safe to remove those, and unless you have particularly rickety third-party software, you can probably remove any that aren't in use.That said, however, I would advise against demolishing the actual Temp folder. It will get recreated periodically, but programs can rely on it being there. I've seen programs that attempt to create files under
%TEMP%
, expecting the call to always succeed. (For example, attempting to echo stuff > bogusFolderx.txt
will fail if you don't have a folder called bogusFolder
.) Therefore, it's best to leave well-known folders where they are.The same advice (for both the files and the folder) applies to the Temp folder under Windows, though that Temp folder is used only by the system or programs running as administrator. It tends to get full of log files, which can be deleted with wild abandon.
Ben NBen N30.7k1313 gold badges105105 silver badges152152 bronze badges
Yes and no.
What I like to do is delete everything in the folder, but not the folder itself. Any files that 'require special permission from the administrator' to delete, I leave alone.
This is generally the safest way I can think of when it comes to emptying your Temp folder.
RobotUnderscoreRobotUnderscore
Yes, you can because some of those old files can become corrupt. So if you delete the entire folder nothing bad will happen. All of the ones that you need, the programs will create new ones.
And if you can't delete some then a program you are running is running those temp files so just leave those alone. I do it all the time on my user's machines that file, and the
Peter MortensenC:WINDOWSTemp
directory as well.8,4661616 gold badges6161 silver badges8585 bronze badges
EryperEryper
Yes, it is safe. I did it many times.
This question arise when we need to wipe-up our hard disk drive. I recommend using WinDirStat which is a disk usage statistics viewer and cleanup tool for various versions of Microsoft Windows.
And check this post: Guide to Freeing up Disk Space under Windows 8.1
Peter Mortensen8,4661616 gold badges6161 silver badges8585 bronze badges
racsonpracsonp
My advice would be to create a new folder in the temp directory and move any files/folders you want to delete to the new folder, check if everything still works. If you are confident everything is ok you should be safe to delete them. If you run into problems just move the files back to the temp folder again.
Simone MSimone M
protected by Community♦Dec 5 '17 at 16:24
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Find Junk Files may not be an imaginative software name, but it's an accurate one. This free tool finds junk files on your PC, mostly temporary files and folders. It scans for more than 100 file types, even obscure stuff like DOS and Windows 3.1 files, but you can choose what to scan and what to exclude. It's easy to use, maybe too easy; while it doesn't target anything dangerous like system files, it can find and remove logs, caches, settings, and other files and folders that, while not exactly 'permanent,' you'd prefer to keep, if only for the sheer nuisance value of replacing them. Find Junk Files also includes a privacy scan.
Find Junk Files has a basic interface with a wizard mascot and three main buttons: Scan Computer Now, Privacy Protection, and Check for Updates. On the left side, buttons let you select files and folders to scan or exclude, start scans, and access the program's settings, which include allowing multiple instances, playing sounds, and moving files to the Recycle Bin or deleting them directly.
We started a scan, which turned up a wide range of files. We were pleased to see nearly everything Find Junk Files found was in fact a junk file, mostly inside Temp folders. We could sort the list by size, type, attributes, date, name, and other headings. We could simply highlight a file, folder, or range of items to remove them, or we could click a button labeled Remove All Files. We don't recommend doing this until you're sure about what's being removed. The scan also found some folders. Most were safe to delete, but there's no harm in keeping an empty program file just because the program in question hasn't used it yet. Weigh that against the chore of restoring a lost file in a corrupted program, and those few kilobytes hardly seem worth recovering.
Find Junk Files offers no access to a Help file from the interface, other than an active link from the developer's logo. That's a shame because it has considerable online resources, though some of the entries we clicked on were blank, suggesting a work in progress. Used carefully, Find Junk Files can help you clean out the junk that clogs up your system.
What do you need to know about free software?
Junk files are files that remain on your computer after a task has been performed. Sometimes, Windows or some program needs to create temporary files while doing some task and then forgets to delete the temporary files it created. As time goes by, your computer is full of junk files in the form of temporary files, log files, downloaded files, and unwanted/unnecessary Windows registry entries. The article talks about removing Junk Files in Windows 10 using Disk Cleanup. It also tells you what you can keep and what to remove and why.
Junk Files in Windows 10
You will find the Disk Cleanup Tool under Start > All Apps > Windows Administrative Tools. The first thing when trying to free up space is to check out what all you can get rid of. The disk cleanup software analyses and then allows you to choose what to get rid of.
Click on Disk Cleanup to start the program. You will be asked which drive you want to clean up. The default is C drive. Just make sure it is selected and click on OK. The disk cleanup program will then start analyzing different folders and types of files that it thinks is safe to delete.
When the analyzing is done, you will be presented with a window similar to the following – it lists what all is removable without causing problems to the operating system or installed applications.
Which Windows Junk Files can you delete safely?
The following feature in the list shown in the above list:
- Temporary Internet Files
- Downloaded Program Files
- Offline Webpages
- Recycle Bin
- Temporary files
- Thumbnails
- Old Windows folder
- Etc.
Temporary Internet files are used to speed up loading of websites in most cases. In other cases, they are files left out after a session just as the temporary files that are created when you are using an app and are not deleted after the app is closed. Normally, an app creates temporary files when in usage and web pages them when closed. Sometimes it fails to delete the files, and they are shown under Temporary files. Both of them are safe to delete so you should check the boxes to tell the OS that you are ready to delete them.
Downloaded Program Files are the files that an app installer leaves behind after installing the related app. These are useless as they do nothing except to occupy space on the hard disk drive. You may remove them without any hesitation.
Offline webpages are the ones stored by your browsers to avoid delays in loading webpages. You might want to keep them in the case of slower Internet connection. It helps in loading webpages that you frequent. The offline webpages are updated on a regular basis – just in case the online page is changed. You may or may not decide to delete them – based on your Internet speed. If you think you can afford to wait a little until the webpages can load, go ahead and tick the box to delete them. If you are on a slow connection or metered connected, I recommend that you leave the box unchecked as it will a trouble reloading the pages from Internet. If on metered connection, you will charged for what you could get for free.
Thumbnails are previews of image files. There is no harm in deleting them. They will always be rebuild when you access the image files again. Of course, there will be a little delay when you open the image folders in Large icons or medium icons view as it will try to rebuild the thumbnails but the delay could be insignificant unless your computer is very slow and crammed up with images. I recommend deleting them if you are not struggling with an exceptionally slow computer.
Old Windows are files that Windows 10 keeps for a while so that you can roll back to a previous version of Windows. It shows up when you click on System Files in the UI of Disk Cleanup. If you upgraded from Windows 8.1, the Windows.old folder is important if you choose to go back from Windows 10 to Windows 8.1. I recommend you keep this – though it occupies a significant amount of your C drive – over 8GB or so, depending on the edition of your previous Windows installation. If after a month, you are sure that you do not go back, delete it and you will gain more than 8GB of space on Windows 10 C drive.
Recycle Bin is the place where the deleted files go. When you delete a file, it goes to the folder named recycle bin and still occupies space on the hard disk drive. Open Recycle Bin from Desktop to see what all files are there. If you need any file, right-click on the file and select restore. Having checked the files, if you are sure that you longer need those files, tick the Recycle Bin to clean its content so that HDD space is gained.
Windows Temporary files are again files that are left behind by programs even when you close them. For example, when you open a document in MS Word, you might have seen a related file with the same extension. Like, if you open document .docx, you can see !~cument.docx as a hidden file. Such files are normally deleted by apps when you close them. The remaining ones can be cleaned up using Disk Cleaner to gain hard disk space in Windows 10.
Error Reporting Files are basically logs that contain information about events that lead to an improper Windows or related app behavior. These are helpful when troubleshooting Windows. I recommend keeping them (uncheck the box so that they are not removed).
You get some other file categories after clicking on System Files – including Old Windows Installation. Not all of them are safe to delete. As said earlier, Old Windows Installation helps you rollback to the previous version of Windows. So unless you decide to keep going with the current OS, you have to keep those files. Among other categories are:
Windows Defender Files – can be deleted without hesitation
Windows Upgrade Log Files – you’ll need them to troubleshoot if the upgrade did not go as intended. These logs help in identifying the errors that happened during the upgrade. If you have successfully upgraded, you can remove them.
Device Driver Packages – contains device drivers which you may have to use in future when a device is not functioning properly. In most cases, these are but pointers that tell Windows where to look for files. Advice is to keep them
Having made your selections in the disk cleanup software, click on OK to delete the files. When you click on Clean up System Files, it will clean up more junk files. You will also see a More Options tab that lets you delete old system restore points and uninstall programs.
By default, the Disk Cleanup software deletes only old temporary files. If you want it to delete even the recent temporary files, read Make Disk Cleanup delete ALL temporary files. The Disk Cleanup command line which lets you clean even more junk files!. If you wish, you can also automate Disk Cleanup.
Read next:Remove unwanted Windows programs, apps, features and folders.
TIP: Download this tool to quickly find & fix Windows errors automatically
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I very much wanted to get rid of temp files from my Windows 10 laptop. On Internet Properties, when you click Delete on 'delete temporary files, history, cookies....' it leaves tons of temp files on the machine. These are the files I want to delete. You do not need any of them and some of them can be toxic carriers of malware.
So on the desktop, right click on the bottom left Windows icon. At the bottom of the list that comes up is 'Run'. This is a function that has been available on Windows for a long time. (This is also where you find Command Prompt if you should want to enter a DOS level command.)
Click Run.
In the Open box enter %temp% and hit enter.
You will see a File Explorer window with probably lots of temp files listed.
Click on the top one and then slide down to the bottom and hold down Shift and click on the bottom file. All the files will be highlighted. Hit the delete key. There will be a few oddly named files left. Don't worry about them. You're done.
This deletion of temp files only works on the User you're logged on to. Repeat this process for each of your Users.