A quick scan for large files on your system might find a lot of space occupied by .tmp files. You might’ve considered deleting those files to free up disk space, but can you delete .tmp files in Windows?
You can safely delete all .tmp files on your system, as .tmp files are temporary files created by Windows or applications to store data temporarily. But before deleting .tmp files, make sure to close running apps to avoid deleting temporary files in use.
The temporary files in Windows are usually located on C:\Windows\Temp, and we can conveniently delete them.
The temporary files created by different programs are spread in their respective folders, and manually finding them is downright impossible.
The process to delete the temporary files created by Windows and applications is slightly different. Below I will show you how to delete all .tmp safely on Windows.
Step 1: How to Remove the Temporary Files from C:\Windows\Temp
You can manually delete all the .tmp files from the Windows Temp folder (located in C:\Windows\Temp.) However, Windows offers a better and safer alternative.
Windows comes with a built-in tool called Disk Cleanup, and you can use this tool to clean up system temporary files and significantly reduce the size of your Windows folder.
So you can run the Disk Cleanup tool to delete .tmp files and clean up your PC. Here is how to do it:
- On Windows Search, type Disk Cleanup and open it.
- With Disk Cleanup open, click on the Clean up system files button:
- Under files to delete, select Temporary Files, then click Ok to delete them:
You can delete all items here to free up more disk space. It is completely safe to do so.
After finishing this, you can move up to delete .tmp files created by programs.
Step 2: How to Delete. Tmp Files Generated by Programs
Windows don’t come with a built-in tool to delete the temporary files generated from applications, so we will need a light freeware called Everything to find all .tmp files on your system in a few seconds.
Here is how to find all the temporary files on your PC:
- Download and install the Everything app.
- Run Everything, and on the search box, enter .tmp to find all temporary files on your PC.
- Now click on Size to show the biggest .tmp files on top:
- Delete the temporary files one by one, or select multiple .tmp files using the Shift key and the keyboard arrows.
Before deleting, pay attention to the Path of these files to know where they are located and to which application they are related.
Conclusion
It is perfectly safe to delete .tmp files; these are temporary files created temporarily by Windows or programs to store data; these files are never used anymore.
Since applications or Windows do not automatically erase these files, try to remove them to free up disk space.
To delete .tmp files created by Windows, you can use the built-in Disk Cleanup tool. And to remove temporary files created by applications, you can use the Everything app.
To learn more about freeing up disk space, check our article on how to find large files and folders on Windows or check how to see which programs take up the most space.
