If you use it daily, your computer may run out of storage space very quickly. Intentionally installed Windows apps and games take the lion’s share of the space, while temporary files with various descriptions are also a big culprit. Not only does it occupy valuable storage space that can be used to store valuable data, but it also slows down your computer by reducing the read/write speeds of your hard drive. That’s why today we’re going to show you how you can delete temporary files in Windows 10 to reclaim storage space and speed up your PC.
Delete Temporary Files in Windows 10
Windows 10 offers you several different ways to delete junk files on your computer. Today, we will discuss the best and fastest ways to delete temporary files in Windows 10. For this we will use various built-in tools such as Disk Management, Disk Cleanup, Storage Sense and more. We will also tell you how you can manually delete temporary files in Windows 10. So, without further ado, let’s take a look at how we can remove temporary files in Windows 10.
Method 1: Using System Settings
- First, go to Settings (Windows key + I) > System.
- On the next page, click on ‘Storage’ and select the local drive you want to clean.
- Now, scroll down if necessary and click on ‘Temporary files’. If you don’t see Temporary files listed, select “Show more categories”.
- When the results are displayed, select the items you want to delete and then click ‘Remove files’.
Method 2: With Disk Cleanup
- Type “cleanup” in the search box on the taskbar and select ‘Disk Cleanup’ from the list of results.
- Then, if you have multiple physical drives or partitions, you may need to manually select the target disk from the drop-down menu (as seen below). If not, you will be automatically redirected to the next step.
- Select the file types you want to get rid of from the available options. Then click ‘OK’ to manually delete temporary files and folders.
Pro Tip: If you need to free up more space, you can also delete system files by clicking ‘Clean up System Files’ and choosing the file types to get rid of..
Method 3: Using the Temp Folder
You can also manually delete temporary files in Windows 10. For this, follow the steps below:
- Open the ‘Run’ dialog (Windows key + R) and type or copy+paste “%temp%” (without quotes). Press Enter or ‘OK’.
- This will open the ‘Temp’ folder where Windows stores most of the temporary files. Select all files and folders here by clicking ‘Select All’ and press ‘Delete’ on your keyboard to throw them all in the Recycle Bin.
Note: To select individual files, hover over the filenames and click the selection box that appears..
- Finally, right-click the Recycle Bin icon on your desktop and click ‘Empty Recycle Bin’. Confirm if prompted.
Note: If you do not see the Recycle Bin icon on your desktop, you can easily get it back by checking how to restore missing features in Windows 10..
Method 4: With ‘Storage Sense’
Windows 10 comes with a built-in service to automatically delete temporary files on a schedule. The feature called ‘Storage Sense’ is turned off by default, but you can turn it on with a few simple clicks. Moreover, you can customize it and determine how it works automatically on your computer.
- To use Storage Sense in Windows 10, go to Settings > System > Storage as described in Method 1. Now click on ‘Configure Storage Sense or run now’ to manually configure it.
- Now toggle the ‘On’ property. If you leave it in this state it will work with the default options. However, Storage Sense can remove temporary files, Recycle Bin, etc. You can use the following options to determine how often it should clean.
- As you can see, not only can you configure Storage Sense to run automatically on your device, but you can also run the utility on demand by clicking the ‘Clean Now’ button to free up space on your Windows 10 computer.
Note: Storage Sense can also be configured to clear locally cached files of cloud storage services. iCloud, Single Driverand more.
Method 5: From Command Prompt
- Open Windows Command Prompt in Administrator mode by searching for ‘cmd’ in the Windows Search Bar and selecting ‘Run as administrator’.
write now del /q/f/s %TEMP%\* and press the ‘Enter’ key. This should clear all temporary files in the ‘Temp’ folder on your PC.
Reclaim Storage Space on Your Computer by Removing Temporary Files
You can speed up your PC and reclaim massive storage space by deleting junk files in Windows 10. Even if your computer has a lot of available storage space, it is a good practice to follow for optimal computer maintenance. Speaking of the best PC maintenance apps, you should also check out our Windows 10 tips and tricks to get the most out of your PC.
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