Windows temp and log files

I have several Clean-up programs that I manually use regularly.
All these list the rubbish for deletion and all list Windows Temp. and Log files.

These files form a long list and a lot of wasted KB/MB on my disc.

I have read up the subject on the net and again get no precise answer. It varies from "Of course they can be deleted - Temp means Temp and Logs are no use." to "Well yes they can be deleted BUT you can get problems".

So, not a lot of use. If any of these net professors think that one can vet these lists and pick out those items that should be retained, they must be crazy.

What do you all think ? Can this ever growing number of Temp. and Log files be deleted with a single mouse click, or is it not safe ?

John Bull

 

In general it is safe. An exception? E.g. please suppose that you installed a app. that needs to reboot to end up the installation; if you delete temp files before reboot, you are also removing some temp files that could be needed to do the complete installation.

BTW, you can use a RamDisk (like VSuite Ramdisk) to Internet temp files; advantages? you don't need to clean these files and you can "reduce file system fragmentation" and to "reduce wear-and-tear of the physical disk since there will be fewer read/write cycles".

 

I had a HP printer that used temp files as part of its process and if i cleaned all my temp files, would have to get the HP disk out and re-install it's drivers - weird

 

You can't be that hard up for disk space.... 500 gig drives are dirt cheap nowadays. I'd just leave all the files alone. If you're down to your last few MB, then I think it's time to buy that new HD and reinstall Windows on something larger...

 

For the most part, I totally agree. Some apps write humongous log files, however. Symantec Endpoint Protection left ca. 1 GB per full scan on C. That adds up.

 

Yeah, the chowderheads who write HP software have been known to name essential files with a .tmp extension! I've had to tweak CCleaner not to delete certain files. I like HP printers, but they don't do a great job with software.

 

I totally agree with the last posters - I can`t be all that cluttered up for free space. I have 57.9 GB of hard disk free space, so why should I worry ?

I suppose it is like knowing there is an empty cigarette packet in bedroom 500 of the White House and it dominates the entire thought capacity of the brain until picked up.

Unless it is 100% safe to delete, I`ll leave Windows to have a joyride at my expense.

 

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I've been using Disk Cleanup and Ccleaner to delete temp files and logs for years. There has only been one occasion I can remember where an install requiring a reboot failed because it needed files it had left in the temp directory that I "emptied" - that was on Windows 98 LOL. Ccleaner by default will not delete files less then 24 hours old to prevent this problem. I would not recommend allowing temp files to accumulate, especially internet cache files because over time it contributes to system instability in my experience. On the other hand there's no noticeable benefit to very frequent cleanups. I usually do disk maintenance every other week.

 

A CCleaner scan of Windows temp. files shows, 70,426KB and 1,480 files.
They are ALL Google Earth files !

Log files = 26,274KB and 36 files.

 

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Kindly explain what you believe this means. If Google Earth is stashing files in the system temp directory then they are just that, ie temporary files that are not needed for the program to function and which the program does not wish to keep. If that were not true there would be something seriously wrong with the way Google Earth was coded.

 

CCleaner :- Windows>System>Temp. files>Analyse and out comes about 14MB of files - they are all Google Earth ! Cannot understand it. All previous scans have been a mixture of files.
If I deleted all these and did another scan, the result would be ZERO. Can`t believe that Windows has only Google Earth temps.