1
Windows 7 Disk Cleanup thinks I have 72 GB of temporary files that it's offering to delete. From what I saw in other questions, it tries to delete from the Users directory; according to WinDirStat, my Users directory is only 77 GB total. Is there a way to see what, specifically, Disk Cleanup is counting? There's no "view files" button for temporary files.
cpast
Posted 2014-07-12T23:13:25.423
Reputation: 2 279
2
Run Disk Cleanup, select the category and press "View Files"
To view the TEMP folder contents when the "View Files" button is unavailable. you can open an explorer window and type %temp%. This will open the TEMP folder ("%Temp%" is global ENV:VAR).
Everything in that TEMP folder is and should be temporary and can be deleted. Unless an app that you used was programmed wrong or a malicious app downloaded some large files into that folder. If you see an app running from the TEMP folder it is more than likely malicious.
ADDITION (by Pyscogeek): Or you have just installed something or done updates and have not yet re-booted the system. You should reboot before delete.
Disk Cleanup does not delete user files. It does delete the following:
System Files
This is not a complete list.
Logman
Posted 2014-07-12T23:13:25.423
Reputation: 3 452
-1
If you want to see what those "Temporary Files" are then use Piriform's Ccleaner. The program also can delete LOTS of other files.
Willy2
Posted 2014-07-12T23:13:25.423
Reputation: 17
The Windows 7 Disk Cleanup tool states, "You can safely delete temporary files that have not been modified in over a week" - so I would assume this rule is followed when allowing the Disk Cleanup tool to perform the task. – MrWhite – 2018-01-12T13:19:07.743