Why can't I delete these empty icons?

From this folder: C:\Users\ Ed\ AppData \Local \Temp
All I did yesterday was update the Edge browser, I use Chrome. I'm building up a nice collection of small kb files or empties?
I get a message that - Something is open in Edge? I'm stuck? regards

Edge tends to have processes that remain running in the background. You would need to kill them in task manager if you wish to delete the file.

Or turn off the ability to run in the background.

That being said, though, there are always going to be a couple of files in the temp folder that cannot be deleted even if Edge is not running - that are in use by Windows itself.

Can always use procexp to hunt down and close open files handles assuming they can be

Or one can take a more sensible approach and realize if the file is in use, it;s not a ginormous file taking any real valuable space and to just leave things be. Delete what you can and ignore the rest.

I keep an old program called Empty Temp Folders v2.23 authored by Finn Ekberg Christiansen on my taskbar.

Unfortunately, the program is no longer maintained and it is hard to find these days. It's only 245KB zipped and it's portable.

You can download it here:

It will read the temp folders you assign to it and at the click of a button it will empty those folders. If any files cannot be deleted for any reason, it simply skips them, without nagging you about it.

You can normally clean up files that were in use earlier by running the program again at a later time.

I use it regularly. It's a time saver and it keeps my PC tidy.

It also has a couple of commandline options, if you are so inclined.

Folders I clean regularly:
C:\Windows\Temp\
C:\Windows\Debug\
C:\Windows\SystemTemp\
C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download\
C:\Windows\Prefetch\
C:\Users\*YUN*\AppData\Local\Temp

Google for the rest of the temp folders in Win11, there is quite a few, but be careful, some of them may contain important data.

Note: *YUN* = Your User Name

Geek Squad Major Geeks is a good place to find such so-called abandonware.

Thanks @johnlgalt

I googled it, but came up empty.

Been using it for ~20 years now ... how time flies ... lol

Yeah., some of these little apps that were designed to do one thing and still do that one thing and do it well are really hard to give up.

I have a couple - one is Folder Merger, and the other is Suction.

I still use UnCleaner

We need a whole new thread on ancient software that we still use in Win11....

johnlgalt said:

We need a whole new thread on ancient software that we still use in Win11....

Click to expand...

That's a good idea though I don't know how long it would get.

I mean, I'm sure we have threads longer than 100 pages already , so....

I would try Delete on Re-Boot Download Delete.On.Reboot - MajorGeeks

I would not. They are temp files in a temp folder - they are there for a reason. After reboot if the system needs it again in the next session it will re-create it. And if it does not, a normal delete during that next session will delete it anyway.

The only exception I would make is if you're cleaning a malware infection.

I can't say I've used any of the software you guys mentioned, except for folder merger which I am sure I did try at some stage.

I preferred Beyond Compare because it had more useful features for me.

But, you are right, there is plenty of old software out there that is still very useful today.

Maybe you should start a new thread on old software ... lol