Temp folder just keeps building up

glasskuter · Jan 8, 2024

@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.

Ghot · Jan 8, 2024

CCleaner v5.78 for the win.

My CCleaner Tweaks...

I use CCleaner 5.78 I installed it offline, and I blocked it and it's updaters in MY firewall. And... since it was purchased by Avast, I also "added" these lines to my HOSTS file (which "blocks" them)... C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\HOSTS...

www.elevenforum.com

allan · Jan 8, 2024

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

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!

JohnnyGui · Jan 10, 2024

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

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.

pseymour · Jan 11, 2024

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?

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."

TM21 · Jan 11, 2024

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.

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

JohnnyGui · Jan 12, 2024

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."

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.

shiverthorne · Jul 2, 2024

-

garioch7 said:
@JohnnyGui ,

Personally, I use System Ninja once a week to clean out all of the junk temp files that accumulate. There are both free and Pro versions of that software. I have a Pro license for both of my computers.

Have a great day.

Regards,
Phil

I had 540GB of Temporary Files clogging up my system and this completely fixed my issue. Thank you so much !!

dacrone · Jul 2, 2024

TechnoMage2021 said:
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

snerd · Jul 2, 2024

allan said:
With no offense intended to anyone, I don't get why it's so hard to open your file manager, go to the temp folder, click on "select all" and delete. Takes me all of 15 seconds at most - probably less. I really never understood why a 3rd party temp file deleting tool is required.

^^^ this!

TM21 · Jul 3, 2024

There is a question, why MS Windows does not contain an all purpose temp file remover.
Disk Cleanup, for instance is designed only to remove junk that's been created by Windows, and not by programs that a user might install.
Then there is the problem that not all temp files have the familiar .tmp extension.

Every time this topic comes up, someone will say "I use Xxxxxxx!" and for that person that program might seem to answer their own problem or needs. I have downloaded and tried MANY programs that claim to clean up a PC, only to find that my time has been wasted.
One Highly Touted program actually Killed my PC, making it necessary for me to use a Ghost Backup Image File, (restored) to get my PC working again. So that program which will remain unnamed, is now on my Sh** list!

As has been properly stated, there is NO ONE temp folder in the average PC. There can be a dozen or more, depending on what additional software has been loaded into the PC.

For years, I chased temp files on system after system, before I wrote my first "Cleanup.bat" batch file program.

Most of the suggestions I see here, and on other forums, involve a user customizing their own PC's to deal with things like Temporary Internet Files.
That's OK for those with the knowledge and only a few PC's. But what about the guy or gal with hundreds of PC's to care for.???
Some may even be in other States, or other countries. That's sort of where I've been, most of my Career.

Years ago, I could spend hours, searching out hiding places for junk files, and deleting them, one PC at a time. That endeavor was not satisfactory, for the number of PC's I had to work on.

So, I developed the Batch file technique of cleaning out one temp file folder after another. With that batch file, I can clean up a PC that is not even in the USA. And I have.
No custom settings have to be made on any PC, before running my Batch File, to remove the junk.

Since I began developing my Cleanup.bat program about 18 months ago, it has removed over a Million junk files on this very PC that I use daily.

It takes only a few seconds to install my batch file on a new Install of Windows, and I don't have to do any customization of my browsers or anything else. It's still FREE to anyone who wants it.

And, at the end of each daily run, it tells me exactly how many junk files it has removed. In the picture, it shows how many junk files were removed in just one day. Yes, it was a Busy Day!

pseymour · Jul 3, 2024

TechnoMage2021 said:
There is a question, why MS Windows does not contain an all purpose temp file remover.
Disk Cleanup, for instance is designed only to remove junk that's been created by Windows, and not by programs that a user might install.
Then there is the problem that not all temp files have the familiar .tmp extension.

That's actually false. The article I linked to in post 39 is a Microsoft article on how to create custom handlers for Disk Cleanup. App developers could have created handlers for their apps to perform cleanup, but it seems like the idea never caught on. I would guess, for example, that browser developers already had cleanup routines in their own menus, so they were probably of the mindset that people could use those mechanisms. Disk Cleanup is deprecated now, so it's moot, but it could have been a central place for system cleanup if developers had embraced it.

TM21 · Jul 4, 2024

Pseymour,
I NEVER knowingly post anything false, if I can help it. And, I really don't appreciate being called a liar.
Once again, you're talking about something that the average computer user would have no knowledge of, or how to implement it.
It's obvious that you don't have the practical work experience that I have. I've dealt with hundreds of users that barely knew how to turn their computer ON. So I had to provide help for them that would involve the very least user involvement. Nothing more complicated than clicking on a Desktop shortcut.

When I was still working, and tuning up several PC's every week. I would give my customer the "Extended Disk Cleanup", as well as a copy of my Cleanup.bat program, with shortcuts on their desktop, so they could keep their PC clean, as they saw fit.
For those little old ladies, who would do Nothing to maintain their own PC, I would put a short Cleanup batch file in their STARTUP folder, so they would get a little cleanup every time they would boot up their PC. That actually worked pretty well. Most would call me every six months, so I could give their PC a very thorough Cleanup, and make sure that their AV/AS software was up to date.

Cheers!

TM

Josey Wales · Jul 4, 2024

TechnoMage2021 said:
Pseymour,
I NEVER knowingly post anything false, if I can help it. And, I really don't appreciate being called a liar.
Once again, you're talking about something that the average computer user would have no knowledge of, or how to implement it.
It's obvious that you don't have the practical work experience that I have. I've dealt with hundreds of users that barely knew how to turn their computer ON. So I had to provide help for them that would involve the very least user involvement. Nothing more complicated than clicking on a Desktop shortcut.

When I was still working, and tuning up several PC's every week. I would give my customer the "Extended Disk Cleanup", as well as a copy of my Cleanup.bat program, with shortcuts on their desktop, so they could keep their PC clean, as they saw fit.
For those little old ladies, who would do Nothing to maintain their own PC, I would put a short Cleanup batch file in their STARTUP folder, so they would get a little cleanup every time they would boot up their PC. That actually worked pretty well. Most would call me every six months, so I could give their PC a very thorough Cleanup, and make sure that their AV/AS software was up to date.

Cheers!

TM

You seem to have a poor opinion of the average PC user. So how much do you charge your customers to teach them how to turn on their PC?

pseymour · Jul 4, 2024

@TechnoMage2021

I'm not sure what you're on about, mate. I didn't call you a liar, and I didn't say you knowingly posted something false. I merely said that app developers could have put handlers for their app data in Disk Cleanup, and it could have been a useful tool for system cleanup, but obviously that never happened. So it's untrue that Disk Cleanup was "designed only to remove junk that's been created by Windows."

And I said nothing about the average user implementing what I was talking about, so I'm not sure where that comment came from.

TechnoMage2021 said:
It's obvious that you don't have the practical work experience that I have. I've dealt with hundreds of users that barely knew how to turn their computer ON.

For some reason you felt the need to get personal here. I certainly don't feel the need to justify my knowledge or experience to anyone here, including you, and I also don't feel the need to mention it in every post I make. But interspersed with app development, I've done enterprise-size deployments of every business version of Windows from NT 4 through 11. Both designing OS deployments and then managing them after the fact with various tools for that job. That's thousands and thousands of Windows PCs, not hundreds, so I guess you're right. I don't have the work experience you have; it's considerably more, both in number and complexity.

As part of that management, I've used everything from batch to PowerShell. In fact I know enough batch to know that your famous batch file, at least the two copies I found attached to your profile, are not very well written, make some assumptions they shouldn't make, and definetly would not do much on my PCs because of those assumptions.

Winuser · Jul 4, 2024

Josey Wales said:
You seem to have a poor opinion of the average PC user.

Leaving out most if not all of the younger generation, I agree with @TechnoMage2021 about the average user. I see it first hand and I mainly just work on our family's computers. They only know how to turn it on, use the programs and/or games they like and how turn it off when done. For anything else they have to get me or someone else to help them.

Winuser · Jul 4, 2024

pseymour said:
I merely said that app developers could have put handlers for their app data in Disk Cleanup, and it could have been a useful tool for system cleanup, but obviously that never happened.

In post number 52 you stated that MS released an article on how create custom handlers for Disk Cleanup. I could be wrong but I think @TechnoMage2021 meant that for the average user Disk Cleanup should have just been a click and run operation without a need to create custom handlers to use it. As for the software companies, IMO they only care about getting their software installed. If they cared we wouldn't need programs such as Revo Uninstaller to completely remove a program we no longer want.

Josey Wales · Jul 4, 2024

Winuser said:
Leaving out most if not all of the younger generation, I agree with @TechnoMage2021 about the average user. I see it first hand and I mainly just work on our family's computers. They only know how to turn it on, use the programs and/or games they like and how turn it off when done. For anything else they have to get me or someone else to help them.

Maybe so but it is not something that I would post in a Windows 11 Help Forum, where some of those "average users" may see.

pseymour · Jul 4, 2024

Winuser said:
In post number 52 you stated that MS released an article on how create custom handlers for Disk Cleanup. I could be wrong but I think TechnoMage2021 meant that for the average user Disk Cleanup should have just been a click and run operation without a need to create custom handlers to use it.

Okay, for the third time: handlers should/could have been created by the developers. You two are the only ones who said anything about end users doing so.

allan · Jul 4, 2024

Temp folder just keeps building up

aka Mama Glass

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