Thread: Tech Question about DOCUME~1

It seems that you are confusing "memory" with free hard drive space. Once you delete the contents of the temporary folder, you should get the free space back, but System recovery, if active, may keep the deleted files in case you will need to "turn back time". Once you fill up the disk more, the system recovery will discard those files.
WinRAR will also delete it's own temporary files upon the nearest opportunity, so you shouldn't need to do anything manually if you adhere to the rule of closing the setup you were running from the archive prior to the closing of the WinRAR window.
You may also create a new shortcut that would automatically delete the temp folder, like cmd /c deltree /y C:\DOCUME~1\Owner\LOCALS~1\Temp\
but that's risky and generally unneeded.

There are some more utilities that will keep the files not deleted, like All to Recycle Bin or Norton Protected Recycle Bin, but I don't think you have those judging from your question.

Grumble grumble grumble

The ~1 your seeing in file names is actually an artifact of mapping 'extended' file names to the legacy DOS 8char.3char system. I use Windows file explorer myself and set it to view 'invisible' files to avoid the confusing naming system...

You are correct that temp file do build up in the C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Temp directory. Every time I run Nero to burn a DVD archive of fansubs, I have to go in and manually delete the left over temp files. (a good practice is to do this Monthly...) This is simply the result of lazy programmers who don't clean up after themselves in applications...

Zdenek was right. It was system restore. I had it set to the max ammount of memory space available for system restore. Like about 13&#37; of my whole 120GB. I then set it to the min(200MB). This caused all those build of files to be deleted.Then i set it back to max, and made a new system restore point. I got 10GB back!!


Yeah len, I always delete those files in C/Documents and settings/Owner/Locals/Temp

Originally Posted by LenMiyata

Grumble grumble grumble

The ~1 your seeing in file names is actually an artifact of mapping 'extended' file names to the legacy DOS 8char.3char system. I use Windows file explorer myself and set it to view 'invisible' files to avoid the confusing naming system...

You are correct that temp file do build up in the C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Temp directory. Every time I run Nero to burn a DVD archive of fansubs, I have to go in and manually delete the left over temp files. (a good practice is to do this Monthly...) This is simply the result of lazy programmers who don't clean up after themselves in applications...

I second this: if you create a lot of media (video, CAD, images), Windows (XP, anyway) tends to accumulate these files. Large files = large temp folder hidden from user's eyes. If you can keep at least 30% of your harddrive empty, you won't usually have a problem. An almost full harddrive will bog the system down without fail.

Originally Posted by Miroku4444

Zdenek was right. It was system restore. I had it set to the max ammount of memory space available for system restore. Like about 13% of my whole 120GB. I then set it to the min(200MB). This caused all those build of files to be deleted.Then i set it back to max, and made a new system restore point. I got 10GB back!!


Yeah len, I always delete those files in C/Documents and settings/Owner/Locals/Temp

How do I check my windows to see what my settings are?

Grumble grumble grumble

Originally Posted by Pyoro-Pyoro

How do I check my windows to see what my settings are?

Thats Control Panel -> System Properties, then select the System Restore Tab...If you ever want a flush your system restore (such as having a virus infecting one of the restore points) you set the System Restore to Zero, reboot, then set it to the value you want...