Temp folder just keeps building up

@TechnoMage2021 What is right for one may not be right for the next guy/gal. We all do things differently, which is not to say any method is wrong. For a lot of things, and cleanup is one of them, there is no one right way, and that goes for your way as well. It's an individual choice of what we like and are comfortable using.

Sir, With all due respect, do you realize or care that to downplay anyone's post as you did to me and @allan with a sad face emoji is a bit insulting and totally unnecessary? I guess that's your replacement since there is no thumbs' down response available.

If you've worked on computers as long as you say you have, you know there are a lot of people who do no cleanup at all. Yes, I know, you give your customers your famous .bat file and that's nice of you. Whether they use it or not is up to them. But also if you have worked on computers as long as you say you have, you should know that in some things there is more than one way to peel an orange. Different strokes for different folks.

CCleaner v5.78 for the win.

TechnoMage2021 said:

After reading through this entire thread, I have just ONE (1) question....
Which Temp folder are you talking about? In Windows there are a dozen or more Temp folders. They're Everywhere!!!
There is NO ONE (1) temp folder.


TM

Click to expand...

You know quite well to which folder the OP is referring. Most of the dozen or more to which you refer are zero byte folders and of no significance. And while browsers may create temp folders, they too are - for the most part - empty. As you also know, browsers store most files in their cache folders which are easily managed / emptied from within the settings of the browser.

And what's with the "sad" emoji? If you have something to say regarding my post, please say it!

pseymour said:

It looks like no one answered the original questions, although alternatives were offered.

The settings for the Temporary Files item in Disk Cleanup are stored in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Temporary Files. If you look there, you see two significant values that affect behavior.

LastAccess, which defaults to a value of 7. This value is the number of days that must have elapsed since a file was last accessed or a directory was created for that file or directory to be considered for cleanup. Cleanup is not based on file creation time or modification time; it is access time.

Flags, which has a value of 65 (hex 41) on my Windows 11 systems. This means that matches are performed against "directories and remove matches and all of their subdirectories" (0x40), and search and remove recursively (0x1). Files marked as read-only, hidden or system will not be removed.

reference: Creating a Disk Cleanup Handler

Click to expand...

Thank you, I was waiting for someone to help me with my original questions.

LastAccess also shows a value of 7 in my case, but how can I know the last time an actual file in %temp% as been accessed?

Furthermore, I don't really get how the Flags entry would help me. Many files in %temp% are not read-only, nor hidden not system files.

JohnnyGui said:

LastAccess also shows a value of 7 in my case, but how can I know the last time an actual file in %temp% as been accessed?

Click to expand...

With Explorer in Details view, right-click on the column headers at the top of the right pane. Click "More..." in the menu, and you should have an option for "Date accessed."

glasskuter said:

@TechnoMage2021 What is right for one may not be right for the next guy/gal. We all do things differently, which is not to say any method is wrong. For a lot of things, and cleanup is one of them, there is no one right way, and that goes for your way as well. It's an individual choice of what we like and are comfortable using.

Sir, With all due respect, do you realize or care that to downplay anyone's post as you did to me and @allan with a sad face emoji is a bit insulting and totally unnecessary? I guess that's your replacement since there is no thumbs' down response available.

If you've worked on computers as long as you say you have, you know there are a lot of people who do no cleanup at all. Yes, I know, you give your customers your famous .bat file and that's nice of you. Whether they use it or not is up to them. But also if you have worked on computers as long as you say you have, you should know that in some things there is more than one way to peel an orange. Different strokes for different folks.

Click to expand...

Now who's being insulting? You keep saying, "if you've worked on computers as long as you say you have". That's the same as calling me a liar. You've obviously not had the experience I've had, but then, very few people have. I took my first service call on a Computer when I was just 22 years old. That was 58 years ago.
Everything I've worked on since then, I've tried to make it better.
And yes, I shared an earlier version of my Cleanup Batch file will all my customers, before I retired. And, they all appreciated having the ability to keep their PC clean and running great, without service calls, because it got loaded with crap and quit.
All too often, that was the reason I was there in the first place. Their PC would get loaded with crap and grind to a halt, and a friend would suggest they call me. I had a pretty good business, just cleaning up and tuning up peoples PC's.
And I got to built a few (hundred) PC's, while I was at it.

But I guess everyone on this forum is their own computer expert, so I'm not needed here.
Y'all will just keep on playing games with your JUNK, instead of just deleting it and getting on with your lives.
And getting rid of it, is really So Simple.

Bye now!
TechnoMage

pseymour said:

With Explorer in Details view, right-click on the column headers at the top of the right pane. Click "More..." in the menu, and you should have an option for "Date accessed."

Click to expand...

Thanks, so I've checked and many files have been accessed many months ago.

I don't get why the Windows clean-up option just won't work.