Can I Delete AppData Local temp Windows Files ?


👤 Diwas Poudel    🕒 12 Sep 2023    📁 TECH

AppData is an important Folder that is hidden by default and is not normally used for day-to-day computer work. It contains application-related information such as application settings and other data. There are three subfolders within it. Local, LocalLow, and Roaming are the three options. Here we will discuss the Temp Folder located inside the Local Folder.

Inside Local, you'll find the Temp folder, which appears to be a temporary folder. These are temporary files and folders used by the currently running application or application that may be used in the future. They are used to save specific launch configurations as well as cached data for all applications installed on the computer. These files are not created by the user; they are created during the installation of Windows, and some files are automatically located there. These data are cached by the operating system and applications, which provides the following benefits:

1 They speed up the loading and opening of all applications because application-related settings may be cached there.

2 They also contain data generated by the application that may be required in the future for a more seamless user experience. So that app doesn't have to waste time, battery power, or other resources loading it again from the actual source file.

Can we delete the Content of the AppData/Local/Temp Folder?

As Temp Folder is created by the operating system and when you try to delete Temp Folder then you cannot delete them all as it may contain various files and folders that are currently used by the application and Operating System, and some of these files will be locked by them.

In most cases, you should not have to do anything because the content will be automatically removed once all handles associated with the application have been closed. Furthermore, even if you have closed all applications, all the content of the Temp Folder will not be automatically deleted because there may be many Windows applications and processes running in the background, preventing the deletion of all the content of the Temp Folder.

When you have limited storage available then you can delete those files to free up some space.

Do temp files get deleted by turning off your Computer?

Ans: Some might get deleted automatically because while turning off your computer some applications might be closed automatically and its related cache might be cleared from the Temp Folder Some files might be kept there for future use.

So, the conclusion is that all temp files and folders will not get deleted by turning off your computer. 

When you delete the temp file and when you try to delete then some of them will not get deleted and if you force delete then the application that you are currently using may crash Also temporary files are used to store currently working data and if you force delete then you may lose that data. So I don't request people to force delete temporary files.

What is the extension of files in the Temp Folder?

They are actually temp files and folders so there are different files with the following extensions:tmp, log, zip,ico,dat

How to Open Content of AppData/Local/Temp Folder?

You can get to these temporary locations by using a symbolic link such as %temp% or %tmp%.

For example, if you press Windows + R and type:

%temp%

delete-temp-folder-shortcut-run

you will be directed to C:\{UserName}\AppData\Local\Temp. Here, the username might be the user profile name as the Temp folder is related to the current login user.

/appdata-local-temp-files

How to Delete content of AppData/Local/Temp Folder?

Simply navigate to the above-mentioned path and then select all of the files and folders within it by pressing Ctrl + A and then press Shift + Delete to permanently delete everything. Then you'll see a message that asks you Are you sure you want to permanently delete these XYZ items?   Then simply press the Ok button.

And most of the time you will be below an error message : 

The action can't be completed because the file is open in the Xyz application 

Then just check mark Do this for all current items and then click on the Skip button.

action-cannot-be-completed-while-deleting

When doing this you will find a few files there. These files cannot be deleted without closing the process of that particular application.

Delete temp file using Command Prompt?

Open the command prompt in Windows OS and type the following command:

del /q/f/s %TEMP%*

How to delete Temp Folder data using Disk Cleanup Utility?

This will delete unused content present inside the AppData\Local\Temp folder and here are the steps:

  1. Goto search and type "disk cleanup"
  2. Select "Disk Clean-up" 
  3. Select the drive where you have that Temp folder.
  4. Check in the "Temporary Files" checkbox and click OK.

What is the drawback of having a Temp Folder?

Ans: Actually Temp Folder contains useful information needed by the application. But you may experience problems with:

1 They can take up a lot of storage space.

2 Cache files in the Temp Folder may be corrupted. A corrupted cache can cause the app to act strangely. If a file stored in the cache contains an error, it can cause the app to display data incorrectly, glitch, or even crash.

What are the guidelines for deleting the temp folder?

Here are some guidelines which I like to point out:

  • Use the disk clean-up utility to clean up temporary files 
  • If you are going directly into the file path and deleting then do not force delete every file and if Windows is not allowing to delete some of the files then do not try to delete them.