Author Topic: How long is 'temporary'? (Read 14,565 times)

Curt · « **on:** March 28, 2010, 09:53 AM »

I was having a look in C:\Users\Curt\AppData\Local\Temp and was quite confused to meet 2665 files and folders, dating back to even when the computer was new. Somehow I have been given the impression that temp is short for temporary, but really... just for how long can something be temporary???

Can I delete the lot?
- yes of course, but will I most likely loose something important like uninstallers, etc?
The folder is hidden, and there must be a reason.

wr975 · « **Reply #1 on:** March 28, 2010, 10:11 AM »

Erasing temp is safe. Never had problems with it. C(rap)Cleaner offers the function to erase temp files older than 48 hours only (at system startup). This ensures your temp folder never fills up with old files.

Installers are usuall in WinDir\Installer. (My installer folder is 2,50 GB in size). Some stupid programs put them in UserData or ProgramData, but I've never seen them in temp. Anyway, deleting the Installer folder is possible, but not recommended at all.

The program MsiZap can remove orphaned Installer entries. I don't know if it's working under WinVista/Win7.

Curt · « **Reply #2 on:** March 28, 2010, 11:04 AM »

Sorry for talking about things I have very little understanding of, but I pasted the full directory folder address because there are several temp folder addresses. I am not too sure we are talking about the same temp folder address; Did you check yours?

cmpm · « **Reply #3 on:** March 28, 2010, 12:40 PM »

Download this and run it. If you want to.
It's a temp folder cleaner, ready to run after download.
No install.

http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/TFC-Temp-File-Cleaner-OldTimer-file187.html

Then see if the temp files you speak of are there.

Curt · « **Reply #4 on:** March 28, 2010, 05:10 PM »

Thanks, that was "interesting"..., but also just a little scary! I didn't manage to read what would happen before my fingers already had clicked Start, so I got nervous when Explorer was closed, thinking it was crashing. But no, it was meant to close. However, it did not restart, though it was supposed to. I rebooted Vista and now Explorer is well, again. Several temp folders were cleansed, but C:\Users\Curt\AppData\Local\Temp has not been touched. It is now 2677 files and folders.

cmpm · « **Reply #5 on:** March 28, 2010, 05:50 PM »

hm, I'd suggest having a Pro look at it then

Post the problem here and see what the techs say.

http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/forums.html

in this topic

http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/Windows-Vista-Windows-7-f79.html

You have to register to post, but it is free as well and the help from the techs is free.

Sometimes a novice (like me) may try to help, but wait for a tech, their validation icon will be under their name when they post. You'll see what I mean just browsing the forums and seeing the threads.

Or here, same deal, but I would not post it on both.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/index.php?&&CODE=autologin&fromreg=1

sajman99 · « **Reply #6 on:** March 28, 2010, 06:20 PM »

Also, you might want to take a look at Nirsoft's tiny and effective tool CleanAfterMe.

It doesn't cover as much as CCleaner, but for basic windows cleaning, it's hard to beat IMO.

btw in some cases "temporary" can mean forever.

Eóin · « **Reply #7 on:** March 28, 2010, 06:25 PM »

Just run disk clean up. Thats clears temp folder I believe.

Deozaan · « **Reply #8 on:** March 28, 2010, 07:56 PM »

Temporary means "potentially until the hard drive dies."

f0dder · « **Reply #9 on:** March 28, 2010, 08:54 PM »

There's at least two temporary locations on a single-user machine: %temp%, which usually expands to %LOCALAPPDATA%\temp (ie., per-user temporary files, like your "C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp"), and %WinDir%\temp.

Both are normally safe to nuke, except when you've just installed software and need to reboot to finalize the install process.

Curt · « **Reply #10 on:** March 28, 2010, 10:38 PM »

- thanks, f0dder. I will take a closer look at dates of age.

app103 · « **Reply #11 on:** March 28, 2010, 10:50 PM »

The way I have always done it is to go in there after a reboot and arrange files in order by date modified. Then I delete anything and everything older than a week. I have never had a problem from doing that in the last 10 years, so it's perfectly safe.

cmpm · « **Reply #12 on:** March 28, 2010, 11:57 PM »

Going by date is a good idea.
I don't have any files in that temp folder, today anyway.
I use a couple of other cleaners periodically.
But I would not want to suggest something that does any damage,
or perceived damage.
Plus that's Vista, which I've not used or tried,
although W7 shows as Vista 7. something in some programs.

yksyks · « **Reply #13 on:** March 29, 2010, 09:06 AM »

Another utility for TEMP cleaning (and more): EraseTemp.

However, I'm for years using manual way to cleanse both TEMP folders--using ZTreeWin I just prune both of them, instructing ZTree to keep files that report "Access denied" or "Sharing violation" errors. So far no side effects of any kind (on WinXP and Vista).

Curt · « **Reply #14 on:** March 30, 2010, 09:40 PM »

- good to see that ZTree has been "rewritten as a fully Unicode-enabled application"

Curt · « **Reply #15 on:** March 30, 2010, 11:00 PM »

morons, all of you

---

Quote from: Curt on March 28, 2010, 09:53 AM

Can I delete the lot?
- yes of course, but will I most likely loose something important like uninstallers, etc?
The folder is hidden, and there must be a reason.

If you delete a file with the extension .msi you cannot remove that program later on, because the msi contains the uninstaller.

cranioscopical · « **Reply #16 on:** March 31, 2010, 01:29 AM »

Quote

morons, all of you
If you delete a file with the extension .msi you cannot remove that program later on, because the msi contains the uninstaller.

In that case, you can probably install it again and then remove it.
More on this another time...

Curt · « **Reply #17 on:** March 31, 2010, 09:18 AM »

sorry, morons.

I closed my pc and went to bed a little too quick. I should of course first have acknowledged here that REVO Uninstaller did the job without any problems.

No, Chris, the version available from the homepage was newer but couldn't install because it insisted first to remove the older one. But as I said, REVO didn't care about such trifles.

app103 · « **Reply #18 on:** March 31, 2010, 02:59 PM »

Quote from: Curt on March 30, 2010, 11:00 PM

If you delete a file with the extension .msi you cannot remove that program later on, because the msi contains the uninstaller.

If you are worried about that, then just copy the .msi files to a safe location, just in case.

JavaJones · « **Reply #19 on:** March 31, 2010, 04:59 PM »

Hold on a minute, is this an issue with a poorly coded app installer (in which case I'd report it as a bug to the developer), or does MS's installer (MSI handler) actually put installer/uninstaller files in the temp folder by default!? If so, terrible behavior!

- Oshyan

f0dder · « **Reply #20 on:** March 31, 2010, 11:18 PM »

Quote from: JavaJones on March 31, 2010, 04:59 PM

Hold on a minute, is this an issue with a poorly coded app installer (in which case I'd report it as a bug to the developer), or does MS's installer (MSI handler) actually put installer/uninstaller files in the temp folder by default!? If so, terrible behavior!

Badly coded app - I assume the proper way is %WinDir%\Installer . Don't like the size of that folder, pretty ludicrous to keep the .msi files around imho...