Disk Cleanup Stalling

Hello, My Disk cleanup was acting funny, I would try to run it and it would get caught on "compress old files" anly 2 or 3 green dots, so I ran across a help topic on windows and it said click start then run and type %temp% in the box, then select all, and then delete, and then yes to send to recycle bin, then try to run the disk clean up again, well I did and it worked but it also deleted everthing in the recycle bin, it looked like there was some important stuff in that temp folder but im not sure, I am a beginner and dont know if I deleted some things I should not have, my computer seems to be working fine and the disk cleanup works, but I just want some imput if there were any things in that file I should not have deleted, later on I brung the file back up by typing %temp% in the run box and when it pulled it up there was nothing in it, any help will be appreciated, thanks.

 

Hi amber1970. Welcome to the board!

Most likely there's nothing in there that's important. The files in the temp folder are temporary files. Some programs need temp files when they run. They write them to the temp folder for use when they need them. Some programs will delete their temp files when you close the program, others don't cooperate so nicely and leave them behind. When you install a program often times it'll write files it needs there for the installation. Once again, when it's done they aren't needed.

If there are any files in there that are in use at the time you delete them, window won't let you. Also, if you delete the temp files from a given program, the program will just create new ones the next time you run it.

I delete mine regularly and don't even give it a thought. As I said, windows will let you know if it's needed.

 

Hi, welcome to the BBS.

Anything listed as "temp" should be fine to delete. Although I have hesitated myself sometimes when scanning the files, anyway, I hold my breath and click delete...always no problems.

Temp files are leftover from program installations. The program installation should "clean up after itself" and remove the temp files, but you-know

If all your programs are running OK, great. If you happen to find a program that is having problems, reinstall it.

I suggest you don't use "compress old files" unless you are running out of disk space. Windows seems to have a problem judging what is new and what is old.

Matt