In the process of its work, many programs, both applied and system, create various temporary files. Surely, many users found files with strange names in ordinary folders that looked similar, say, to MS Word or Excel files. Especially often this happens after an unexpected turn-off of the light or freezing of the operating system, while the user was working with some kind of document. This is one of the varieties of temporary files that were not correctly deleted due to a software error.
Windows operating systems have entire folders designed exclusively for storing temporary information. In theory, at the end of a session with a system or program, these files should be deleted, but due to a number of circumstances, including due to errors in the programs, this “garbage” accumulates in the system and sometimes starts to cause big trouble.
But the most “painful” case in which the question arises of how to delete temporary files is a malware infection of the system. Folders with system "junk" are a favorite place for the virus to hide its code. Therefore, when a computer is infected, the first step of the user is to clean folders with temporary files, especially folders with a browser disk cache.
Theoretically, all modern browsers have the ability to permanently delete temporary files. As a rule, it is contained in the settings, in the "Advanced" section. They pressed a button, waited a little - and that’s it! But this is an ideal situation. If the fact of infection is beyond your doubt, it is better to refrain from launching programs that can gain access to the network.
Another way to clear the disk cache is to manually delete temporary files. To find the folder where temporary Internet files are stored , you first need to determine which operating system is installed on the computer, as well as which browser is used. All current browsers store their temporary files in one of the user profile folders. The location of the profile folder depends on the operating system. For example, in Windows XP, the path to the folder with user profiles is% SystemDrive% \ Documents and Settings, where% SystemDrive% is the drive with the operating system (usually C :). In Windows Vista / Seven, user profiles are located in the% SystemDrive% \ Users folder. The subfolder with the username is his profile in the operating system.
The easiest thing is with Internet Explorer, because the temporary files of this browser are located in the Local settings \ Temporary Internet FIles folder. Temporary files of other browsers, as well as the whole profile folder, are located in the Local settings \ Application Data folder . More precisely, in Windows Vista / Seven the folder structure is different, but through the shortcut system you can access new folders through old, familiar names. In this directory, the data of most applications is stored in separate subfolders. Accordingly, Opera files will be in the Opera folder, Firefox profile files will be in the Mozilla folder, etc.
But when deleting the disk cache manually, you need to be careful, because third-party browsers, as a rule, not only temporary files, but also data about installed extensions, passwords, plug-ins and many other useful information are stored in profile folders. Usually all unnecessary is in the cash folder.
When working with files through Explorer, you may encounter a problem when the Local settings folder cannot be found. In fact, it is, but the system assigns it the attribute "Hidden" (Hiden). In order to get into it, you must either enable in the explorer the ability to display system and hidden files / folders, or, if that failed (the consequences of a previous virus attack), try to go through the address bar via a direct link. For example, entering the path "C: \ Document and Settings \ User01 \ Local Settings \ Application Data" in the address bar, the user can immediately get into the Application Data subfolder of the Local Settings folder in User01's profile.
And yet - if you intend to "clean" another user's folders on your computer, you will need administrator rights.