How to Delete Temporary Files in Windows 10

If you are concerned about the increasing disk space on your computer and on a spree of deleting the unwanted temporary files but don’t know How to Delete Temp Files in Windows 10, we will thoroughly guide you to delete temporary files in Windows quickly.

Before deleting temporary files from Windows, if you are wondering What is Temporary Files then here is the explanation. Temporary files are nothing but some of the data files created or stored by the Operating System on your computer during some installation or other operations performed by the operating system. Mostly these temporary files are short-lived and are automatically deleted when the Operating System no longer needs them, but some of the data files are not automatically deleted and are leftovers and residues.

Delete Temporary Files in Windows 10

If you are thinking about “Should I delete temporary files?” then you have to keep in mind some points about temporary files. You should not too often delete temporary files in Windows, but you can delete these files time to time to delete or completely remove the leftover and unnecessary files which are stored on your computer for a long time.

Various ways of entirely or partially removing Temporary or temp files from Windows 10 are stated below.

You can skip to any method or solution you like one by one.

Method 1: Delete Temporary files using Windows Explorer

To delete Windows temp files with using the Windows Explorer, follow below points step by step.

1) Open Start or Run in your windows 10 based pc or laptop.

To open Start, click on the Windows icon from the screen or the Windows key from your keyboard.

To open Run, you simply can either press Windows + R keys together or type Run in the Start menu.

2) Now write down the code %temp% in either Run Dialog Box or Start menu.

3) After successfully writing down the “%temp%” code, on your keyboard, press the Enter button. This procedure will open the folder called Temp on your computer.

Various temporary folders and files which are created over time by the operating system are located in the Temp folder on your computer.

4) Now from the Temp folder, select the files and folders you want to delete or select all the files and folders to delete. Ctrl + A buttons pressed together will select all the contents from the “Temp” folder.

If you wish to clean up the Hidden Files and folder also, you have to check the Hidden items from the tab called View.

5) After selecting all the contents including hidden files and folders from the main Temp folder, you can press Shift + Delete buttons together or right-click and then delete.

Shift + Delete option will completely delete all the Temp folder contents without recycling anything in the Recycle Bin. Right-clicking and delete option will store these “Temp” files in the “Recycle Bin” for restoring purpose.

6) Select Yes to complete the temp files deleting process.

Also Read: Fix Windows 10 Start Menu Not Working

Method 2: Delete Temp Files using Command Prompt

If you are a “Command Prompt” or “CMD” enthusiast but don’t know how to delete temporary files in windows 10 using cmd, we have stated a simple process which will delete all the files and folders which are temporary in the “Temp” folder.

1) Open “CMD” or “Command Prompt” from either “Start” menu or by entering the code “cmd” in the “Run” Dialog Box and then pressing the “Enter” key from the keyboard.

2) In the CMD window, write down the command “del /q/f/s %TEMP%\*” and press Enter.

This procedure will remove or delete windows temp files from the Temp folder on your computer.

Method 3: Delete Temporary Files using Settings

1) Click on the Settings tab from Start menu in Windows 10.

2) Select the System tab.

3) Click on the Storage tab.

4) From various Local Storage Drives, select the drive in which your Operating System is installed which is “C:” drive on most of the computers.

5) Now you can see various types of sections which are using your computer’s hard drive space. Select the Temporary Files section.

6) Now check on the Temporary File types which you want to remove and then click on the Remove files option.

This method will remove the temporary junk files and other residues of installation files from your computer and free up some space which you might utilize in the future.

Method 4: Use Disk Cleanup Utility

Disk Cleanup Utility is another very effective feature of Windows Operating System which can be useful for cleaning up the unwanted and unnecessary temporary files and folders from your computer. To use the Disk Cleanup Utility for the above-mentioned purpose, follow the below guide.

1) Open Control Panel either from the “Start” menu or by typing the word “control” in the windows “Run” Dialog Box and pressing the “Enter” key from the keyboard.

2) Open the Administrative Tools folder from the Control Panel.

3) Select the Disk Cleanup option and then select your System drive for cleaning up.

4) Check in the Temporary files box from various sections available.

5) Now click on the “Cleanup system files” option for finishing up the cleanup process of the temporary files.

We hope we have successfully solved all your queries about “What is Temporary Files” and “How to Delete Temporary Files in Windows 10“. Feel free to ask any issue related to Windows 10.