Searching For And Deleting Temporary Files

Searching For And Deleting Temporary Files

Most Windows programs create a bunch of temporary files that they like to keep stuffed in various directories throughout your hard drive. Most applications are well disciplined and like to clean up after themselves by deleting their temporary files when they are through with them, however, there are still some not so seasoned programs that like to leave their mess around like kids in a daycare center.Temporary files usually keep a common naming convention across Windows applications. They start with a tilde "~" and end with a .TMP extension. For example: ~MYJUNK.TMP.

To rid yourself of this nagging conglomeration of space wasting files follow the simple instructions below:

1 - Click Start

2 - Select Find, then "Files or Folders"

3 - In the "Named" text box type: ~*.TMP

4 - In the "Look In" text box type: C:\ (If you have more than one hard drive on your system, you can type in a semicolon to separate drive letters like this: C:\;D:\;

5 - Make sure the "Include Subfolders" check box is checked, then click the OK button.

6 - A list will be produced of all files that match the search pattern.

7 - Review the file list and highlight any file you wish to delete and hit the delete key.

8 - Click the "Yes" button when asked if you'd like to move the files to the recycle bin

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