Before proceeding with the removal of system temporary files (sometimes called garbage) from Windows 10, you need to figure out what kind of unnecessary files they are, how they arise, and how to reduce their number so as not to spend a lot of time and effort on cleaning the hard drive of your personal computer.
How do temporary files appear?
As you know, most personal computers, laptops and other gadgets run on the operating system of Microsoft. In this case, it is Windows 10. When you start an operating system such as Windows, a lot of utilities start up, although the end user can see one Windows program. These service modules and programs launched by the user work with data that is loaded from the hard disk into the computer's memory. The results of the programs are also recorded on the hard drive. As a result of sudden computer shutdowns, errors in programs, processing of large files (the system divides them into fragments) that exceeds the amount of memory allocated for them, these files remain a "dead load" on the disk. Software for surfing the world wide web also leaves a lot of garbage on the disk. These processes are inevitable.
Can I delete temporary files in Windows 10? Not only possible, but necessary. If this is not done, the garbage will noticeably slow down over time and take up most of the hard drive. And this will prevent the system from working normally. Moreover, you can lose your desired files. A rubber hard drive has not yet been invented.
How to delete temporary files in Windows 10 without consequences?
How to get rid of garbage in Windows 10 without the risk of damaging the system and not losing your favorite photos, texts, movies and all the other wealth acquired by overworking many years of computer work? It is most safe to do this cleaning in Windows 10 using regular means of the operating system through the useful program “Disk Cleanup”. To start it, you need to find the “This Computer” shortcut on the desktop (or in the Start menu), right-click on “Drive C” and open the “Properties” submenu.
In the window that opens, you need to find and select the "Disk Cleanup" button. In the cleaning window, you must carefully review and select all the items, click "Clear system files" and confirm with the "OK" button. For beginners, it is often not recommended to empty the basket. There you can find files deleted by mistake.
How to delete temporary files in Windows 10 manually?
This option is a bit more complicated and requires an understanding of the process. To clean the garbage, you can use the "Storage" section. To do this, click "Start", "Settings", "System", "Storage", select the system drive (the drive with the system is most often "C"). In the window that opens, the “Temporary files” item is interesting. In the list of temporary files, select “Temporary files”, “Download folder” and, assessing the risks, “Empty the recycle bin”.
Before downloading, it is advisable to view the “Download Folder” for valuable files. After analyzing the data, delete the selected ones.
For advanced users
The two methods described are safe for user data. The necessary files cannot be deleted by such actions. For advanced users, you can recommend in Windows Explorer or any file manager such as TotalCommander to quickly and easily delete temporary files. It is necessary to find the folder “c: \ Windows \ Temp \” on the disk with the operating system and delete its contents (select all <Ctrl-A>, delete bypassing the basket <Sift-del>). This must be done carefully and deliberately. You must first close all running programs!
In addition to the cleaning method using standard operating system tools, the same operation can be done using free third-party programs such as CCleaner. A similar module is in antivirus programs: for example, 360 Total Security.
In conclusion, it should be noted that after performing all the procedures for cleaning the user's computer from temporary files and other garbage in the ways described above, it will be quite useful for him to take a look at his developed and downloaded files. It is possible that among them there is completely unnecessary and outdated information worthy of deletion. Since it is not difficult to delete temporary files in Windows 10, developers recommend performing this operation weekly. After cleaning the hard drive (to speed it up), you should not forget about defragmenting the disk using regular Windows 10 tools or third-party programs. But this is another article.