Delete Temporary Files Windows 11
Yvette Burkhammer
You don't need to know what each temp file you're going to delete is for, or what or how many files are included in any subfolders you select. Windows won't let you delete any files or folders that are still in use. More on that in a bit.
Rarely will you see a message like Error Deleting File or Folder that will stop the temp file deleting process completely. If this happens, restart your computer and try again. If even that doesn't work, try starting Windows in Safe Mode and repeating the steps above.
The next time you delete temporary files in Windows, feel free to hold down Shift as you delete the files. It's a trick that will skip over storing them in Recycle Bin, essentially "permanently" deleting them and saving you this last step.
The default location for temporary Excel files in Windows 11 and 10 is C:\Users\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles. If you're trying to find a deleted or lost Excel workbook, this is the first place you should look. Copy and paste the file into a new location, such as Documents or your Desktop, then open it in Excel.
Firefox calls temp files the "cache". You can get information about it by typing about:cache in the location bar. Typically, Firefox places temporary cache files in the C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Temp location.
Is your computer's storage space slowly disappearing, leaving you with limited room for your important files and applications? The culprit might be temporary files (.tmp) left behind by programs and apps. Fortunately, you can easily reclaim valuable disk space by getting rid of these unnecessary files.
Before we dive into the removal process, let's briefly discuss why you should delete temporary files. These files are created by various programs during their operation and are intended to be temporary placeholders. Over time, they accumulate and can consume a significant amount of storage space. Clearing them out can:
Is your Windows PC feeling sluggish and cluttered with temporary files? Reclaim valuable disk space and boost performance with our PC Tune Up Service! Our expert technicians will remotely remove temporary files, ensuring your system runs smoothly and efficiently.
Is your Windows PC feeling sluggish and cluttered with temporary files? Reclaim valuable disk space and boost performance with our IT Helpdesk Service! Our expert technicians will remotely remove temporary files, ensuring your system runs smoothly and efficiently.
To clear temporary files on Windows 10, open the Start Menu, search for "Disk Cleanup," and launch it. Select the temporary files you'd like to delete and hit "OK." Alternatively, open the Settings app, then navigate to System > Storage > Temporary Files and click "Remove Files."
Windows temp files, as the name implies, are temporary files created by certain programs when in use on your Windows 10 device. These files can quickly add up and consume valuable storage space, so you may want to delete them.
Disk Cleanup is a program in Windows 10 that lets you quickly delete files that are no longer necessary, including temp files. To launch Disk Cleanup, type "Disk Cleanup" in the Windows Search bar and then click the "Disk Cleanup" app in the search results.
You can also delete temp files from the Settings app. First, open Settings by clicking the Windows icon in the bottom-left corner of the desktop to open the Start menu, and then clicking the gear icon. Alternatively, press Windows+i.
If you like doing things the old-fashioned way, you can also delete the temp files yourself in File Explorer. But instead of digging around through multiple layers of folders trying to locate the Temp folder, you can use a shortcut. First, press Windows+R to open the Run app. Once open, type %temp% in the text box and then click "OK" or press Enter.
As we mentioned, deleting temp files is a good way to regain storage space, but it's also possible that deleting temp files can help improve your PC if it's running a bit slow. If that's your goal and deleting the temp files didn't help, try clearing your PC's cache.
Actually cleanmge.exe no-longer works in 2012 R2. Done the usual bit of copying across the two files but fails to run with error:
The Program or feature \?system32\cleanmgr.exe cannot start or run due to incompatibility with 64-bit version of windows
Disk Cleanup via Windows settings doesn't delete the checked "Temporary files" (770mb) nor Windows Defender files. All the other checked files do get cleaned up normally. It completes as if it successfully deleted everything but it doesn't when I click Refresh.
Yes, deliver optimization files deletes normally. Temporary files of around 777mb and Defender files has been around for almost a week now and can't be deleted. I noticed extra space added on top of the 777mb can be deleted but not more.
Thanks for testing this out.
I just noticed something that might've caused confusion here. When clicking on "Temporary Files" on the Storage page in Settings, there is an extra "Temporary files" with a checkbox that I can specifically check and delete among the other deletable files (defender, delivery optimization, etc.).
@JohnnyGui I am experiencing exactly the same issue/s. The windows update, defender and temp files do not clear. I have been trying various ways to delete the past few days. This is seems to have started in the past couple of updates. I am currently showing 2.16g windows update files that will not delete. This is a big deal when trying to clean up files to capture an image. By not being able to clean up all files it's is increasing my image size approximately 3g that is not needed. Any help from Microsoft would be appreciated.
Same here ... I have 2.48Gb "Windows Update" files that Disk Cleanup simply refuses to delete. Restart does not help. Running the usual sfc and DISM commands also no help. It's just annoying behaviour (bug I assume) ... it doesn't throw any error ... but the same space allocation shows up immediately after Disk Cleanup completes and you rerun it.
Question, when going to the temp folder (type %temp% in the run application) do you see many folders with numbers and letters separated by -'s ? Do these folders contain an .exe file called Dismhost.exe?
@JohnnyGuiYour file permissions are improperly set I'm sure (also check file ownership.) Either that, or the ACLs are corrupt / have been modified in some way. This is not exactly the same as the original one Microsoft uses for Windows 10 / 11, but it can also remove SID strings for accounts that may or may not exist on your PC (sometimes with upgrades or certain patches, the operating system cannot access the files because the ACLs have been modified to block access.) This can take anywhere between 30 minutes, to 4 hours btw. If you don't want to use this you can hand parse each entry with takeown / icacls.
"Sddl: The security descriptor of the resource displayed in a single text string in Security Descriptor Definition Language format. PowerShell uses the GetSddlForm method of security descriptors to get this data." -> -us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.utility/convertfrom-sddlstri...
NOTE: This is the final output, though you could obviously modify this script. There is no user account ID / SID string associated with WinPE, so you don't need takeown or anything else to modify or reset the ACLs. It individually removes, and consolidates permissions without waste (although it's pretty broad as far as user rights vs administrator rights are concerned.) For personal use it's very good, given it grants inheritance, so that if you have this issue, you can run icacls regardless of folder hierarchy, and it inherits the ACL from the root entry on the system drive. If you were to run icacls on its own, it would inherit this new ACL, and you couldn't go back, no matter HOW much you tried (unless you were to wipe out each ACL with your own setup. I haven't tried creating one that mimics the default Microsoft version exactly, but even that one has some annoying flaws too, such as restrictions for "Program Files" when logged in as admin, etc.)
NOTE: If you try to change the ACLs for system files on a running operating system image it will become non-bootable, or you will lose access to the files after you remove the ACEs, which is counter-productive. So you basically have to use WinPE if you want to be productive. It's much easier to test scripts on a non-system drive, with only a small amount of files, and a simple directory structure that doesn't span more than half a dozen entries. This is so you can manually inspect the entries in Windows Explorer. ( Right Click on a File -> Properties -> Security -> Advanced )
ACLs also affect Windows Apps as well. If you don't include "All Application Packages / Authenticated Users," you will run into serious issues with any Windows Apps. Ironically, Microsoft disables inheritance so that only "Program Files" and a few other folders have this particular setting, yet even that can get corrupted. I found it far easier to just set all file permissions at the root folder, and then enable inheritance. When you run icacls after that point, (with /reset /t /c /l) it will purge any entry that does not match the original folder hierarchy for the root ACL, without you even noticing it (which is extremely convenient for obvious reasons.) If you don't allow icacls to operate on symbolic links, you will get a far higher failure rate. Although some would not want the exact same folder permissions, with user accounts in particular, unless the computer was air-gapped on the network / network shares were disabled, and they were the ONLY person who was using the device.
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