Manually remove temporary files windows 10

Question

So currently I have 11.7GB of temporary files on the disc where Windows is and I already tried to remove them using the graphical interface (Control panel → System → Storage → Disc → Remove temporary files → accept) but it is not working. It stays at 11.7 GB.

The question is how to remove the files manually and not cause a serious system damage and can I remove the entire %Temp% folder content and not break the windows its clear that I'm going to lose data.

I also ran cleanmgr and tried to delete the temporary internet files 1 GB and did nothing. I guess I could install CCleaner and clear the disc that way but first I am to do this one time and not repetitively, second I don't have any space left for that software, thirdly that's just additional software to do what I ask in this question how to do manually if possible.

PS I made some space and installed CCleaner who deleted 8GB of SYSTEM Temporary Data and the problem is solved but the question still remains the same.

Why didn't Windows do that and can it be done manually ?

Answer 1

This answer worked for me: http://www.blackmanticore.com/30becce9a227e690c0ae63bedc26c9be

If you're unable to use Disk Cleanup (e.g. Server-editions: 2008/2008R2/2012/...), there's one other way to manually remove the updates:

1. First, make sure no update process is running, or you'll get into trouble.
2. Open elevated Explorer, navigate to %WINDIR%\SoftwareDistribution\Download.
3. Delete the contents of the folder, not the folder itself.

Answer 2

Rather than forcing the issue with manual deletes and 3rd party apps, it's better to ask "What's blocking the standard Disk Cleanup from doing its job?" My suggestion is to wait to the end of the day, do a reboot, log in, and close all extraneous processes. Run Disk Cleanup and leave it on the last step, actually attempting to delete files, and leave it overnight. In the morning, it will either have worked, or you'll have useful errors in the Event Log. Additional things to try : Run Disk Cleanup as another admin user, in case it's not the %temp% folder which is blocking it. Run WinDirStat to graphically see what the biggest folders are. Run Windows Updates.

Answer 3

Normally you can delete temporary files and you will not lose anything. There are some fringe cases when temporary files might be valuable, for example if you had a power cut and one of your programs had saved your data to a temp file, but you did not save it before the power was cut. In this case you could go into the temp folder and attempt to find it there. I have never had this happen, it's theoretical. Windows processes also create temp files and Windows may lock those because the processes are still running at the time you are trying to delete them. Yes you can delete temp files manually, but some may still be locked and you won't be able to. A lot of processes "forget" to clean up their temp files, so that is why programs like CCleaner automatically remove the junk. To be able to delete as many locked files as possible, just go to task manager and end all processes that you can and then run CCleaner. You might never be able to delete all because some could be used by the OS.

Answer 4

I just went to file explorer c: drive searched TEMP the first file I opened highlighted the files not folders and hit delete. they are gone