Which pc files are safe to delete? (1 Viewer)

I just ran a virus scan on my pc and was amazed to discover that I've got nearly 60,000 files on it. The scan took 1 hr 20 mins.
Could someone advise me whether there's a safe way of 'declogging' my machine. Eg by deleting all the temporary internet files.
Thanks,
Ken

What operating system are you using?.
In general, all the temp internet files.
Anything in a temp directory ( generally speaking ), but check first.
Anything with an extension of .TMP
contents of recycle bin.

Thats all I can think of immediatly.
Oh, any applications that you no longer use, de-install.

I don't know how much you'll get back, but deleting your temp internet files from within your browser would be a start.

Although you don't particularly want to delete any cookies, in reality it's never been a big issue for me... eg, next time you come to BF you'll have to log in again, but you will get rid of all the rubbish you visit once a flood.

Thanks, everyone. I'm still using Windows 98SE and IE 5.5
I'll start with the internet files!

Surreybirder said:

Thanks, everyone. I'm still using Windows 98SE and IE 5.5
I'll start with the internet files!

Click to expand...

Any temp. files can be deleted safely. The ones that can't will be being used and you cannot delete them anyway as access will be denied.

Why not try a third party disk cleanup utility to get rid of excess baggage or even use Windows own clean up utility.

Hi Ken,

First place to delete files from is C:\Windows\Temp; all files there can be deleted, once you have rebooted. I have seen PC's that have half of the disk space taken up by files there; they should have been deleted automatically after an installation. Also check your C:\Windows directory for files that begin with a ~ and end with .tmp (old office temp files).

Cheers,

Andy.

PS it's good to see you back, Osprey, where've you been?

Ken here is a website that contains all the answers you will need. http://www.answersthatwork.com/

Especially check the famous task list. This gives a list of all the files that windows runs as you start up. Most of them are just rubbish and not necessary. They clog up your system and slow things down. The Task list tells you which files you should not delete and which are perfectly safe.

You will find lots of other helpful advice in there too.

mickporter, thanks for that website. Very informative.

60,000 files I wish. Last time I took any notice there were 190,000 on this machines.

There can be all sorts of junk littering your hard disk. The temporary files are just one, actually two because on my machine I get stuff in
Windows->Local Settings->Temporary Internet Files

and
Windows->Temporary Internet Files

who knows why but one month the junk is in one place and the next month the other.

Then there are the hidden directories of gunk, and the multiple copies of data files of programs you have updated but whose install didn't clean up properly. I've had 100s of files from multiple java updates littering the disk.

About once a month I do a search of the windows directory for all files modified in the last 30 days, and junk about 95% of them.

Zonealarm seems to leave loads of rubbish in the "Internet Log" folder. I've just check and there is 60Mb of the stuff since the begining of March.

As for caches I have my browser cache space set to 0, and it doesn't seem to have had too much affect on speed.

Actually the best speed up I had recently was to remove that stupid stimon.exe damn thing was always crashing, locked up the digital camera downloads, and was forever accessing the hard disk.

<snip>

PS it's good to see you back, Osprey, where've you been?[/QUOTE]
Bird watching! Instead of being a computer Geek.

Has anybody purchased the Ultimate Troubleshooter on sale for $20 from the site that mickporter mentioned. If so do you consider it worthwhile as it certainly looks interesting. I am a bit wary of giving my credit card details to an American firm though.