Jake's Tech Talk Advanced Temp Files

In Windows 98, a new feature, Disk Cleanup, is available from the Drive Properties window. This is a "one-stop shopping" approach to removing unneeded files, removing temporary files, temporary Internet files, and downloaded program files. As a bonus, it even empties the Recycle Bin. We finally have a program that takes out the garbage for you!

For those of us still in Windows 95, the same things can still be done manually.

1 - Emptying the temp folder can also include files other than the familiar .tmp files. Some programs leave their installation files there also, including some .exe files. In general, any files left in the Windows\Temp folder can be safely deleted.

2 - Windows\msdownld.tmp is a folder that would normally be empty. If files are present, any that are more than a week old can be safely deleted.

3 - Another folder, Windows\Temporary Internet Files, contains cookies from using Microsoft's Internet Explorer. These files can be safely deleted. However, since some cookies are used to maintain your online profile on a particular website, you may want to choose carefully whether or not to remove them.

4 - And finally, the contents of the Windows\Recent folder can be deleted. If looking at what appears to be your data files is a bit too unnerving, there is an alternate method. Right click on an open area of the TaskBar, select Properties. Select Start Menu Programs, and click on the Clear button within the Documents Menu. These are not the original data files; they're only a reference to them.

Often, there will be files that do not appear to be temporary files in the temp folder. As I mentioned above, these are usually installation files. As a rule of thumb, if you're not certain of a file, leave it alone. If you want to test the need for them, instead of deleting the files, move them to a different folder. Then try all of your regular and new programs. If they all work normally, you can safely delete the questionable files. If not, move the files back and try again.

Pegasus Mail also will collect files that can safely be removed. From My Computer or the Windows Explorer, go to Winpmail\Mail. (For multi-user setups, select the individual user folders under mail.) Any files with a .PM$, .$$$, or a .CNX extension can be safely deleted.

In Netscape, the contents of the cache files should be cleaned out regularly. The best way to do this is from within Netscape. Click on Edit, Preferences. First select Clear History and Clear Location Bar to remove these entries. Then click on Advanced, Cache. Select Clear Memory Cache and Clear Disk Cache. If your web browser has been somewhat sluggish, this can make a noticeable improvement.

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