PC help: Clear up unwanted temporary files in Windows

What temporary files do, where they are kept on the hard disk and how to delete them

Q I have been told that all the websites I look at are saved by my computer and that sometimes temporary files created by software such as Word are not deleted. Is there any point in deleting these files and do I run the risk of running out of hard disk space?

Salvador Howells

A Internet Explorer does indeed save the files that make up websites on to the hard disk of a computer. This can help save time as files that have not changed since the last time a website was visited can be reused instead of downloaded again. The amount of space set aside for these files is very small, but it is worth checking to make sure.

Left-click on the Tools menu in Internet Explorer 7, then on Internet Options. Left click on the Settings button in the Browsing history of the General Tab (the one that should show when the window appears). The window that appears can be used to adjust the amount of space used by Internet Explorer for temporary files, as well as to change their location on the hard disk.

The latter should be left alone, but the ‘Disk space to use’ can be adjusted if required. We recommend choosing a figure between 50MB and 250MB, as the window suggests. If the hard disk is so full that this amount of space cannot be spared, the performance of Windows will be significantly impaired and you will need to upgrade to a bigger disk.

It is also true that Word, like other members of the Office family, creates temporary files while documents are being editing. These are normally deleted when the document is closed, but may be left behind if the computer crashes. Like internet files, they are very small, unless they contain lots of images. The files are created in the same folder as the original document, but are hidden.

To see them, click on the Tools menu in Windows Explorer and then on Folder options. Click on the View tab, then click on the circle labelled ‘Show hidden files and folders’. Click OK. The icon for the hidden file will be a paler colour than ordinary files and the name will start with a ~ (tilde) character.

You should only attempt to delete these files if you are sure that the document’s most recent version has been saved and that there are no Office applications open.