Where Does Windows 8 Store Update Files

Where does Windows store its temporary files?

The temporary files generated by Windows tin pile up and become a security hazard. Learn how to rails them downward and tidy upwardly your systems.

Windows stores temporary files in several places -- both on a per-user and per-organization ground. While these locations are documented, they're not always well understood, especially in terms of which kinds of temporary files are stored in which folders. It's of import to know where Windows keeps these files -- and to what end -- since temporary files can be a security trouble and a maintenance issue.

C:\TEMP
This directory is used for temporary files generated past applications similar the Windows Startup Repair and boot loader. Most of the files written here are diagnostics generated by those programs, so you lot can generally remove them without any ill furnishings unless a program has locked information technology for use.

C:\WINDOWS\TEMP
This directory stores temporary files generated by Windows itself. Most of what's stored here tin be deleted equally long as it's not locked for apply.

%AppData%\Local\Temp and %AppData%\LocalLow\Temp
These ii related directories are the other virtually crucial temporary data folders in the organisation.

%Appdata% is a variable, a generic mode to refer to the path to folders that store awarding data for the user currently logged in. If you lot open an example of Explorer and blazon %Appdata% into the address bar, you'll see it resolve to the total path for your AppData folder. In Windows Vista and Windows 7, this is typically something like C:\Users\<your username>\AppData. In XP, information technology'southward C:\Documents and Settings\<your username>\Application Data.

Local and LocalLow (and a tertiary folder, Roaming, which isn't central to this discussion) were introduced in Vista to carve up application data that does non roam with the user (Local) from data that does (Roaming). LocalLow stores data specific to programs running under depression system integrity, such as Internet Explorer add-ons, which are run with reduced privileges as a security measure. (You can read more well-nigh the intended uses for these folders at the Microsoft Knowledge Base and at the Vista PC Guy web log.)

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All 3 of these folders shop application-specific data, but only Local and LocalLow typically have a "Temp" subfolder. As with the other folders, programs will habitually dump temporary data there and not always clean upwards later themselves. This results in a a growing mass of files that tin affect functioning and a potential security risk on an unsecured organisation, since those temp files could incorporate personal data.

The first of these two bug is not difficult to sympathize, merely the second can be deceptive. For example, on my own system, I have an automated backup process that runs once a day and makes differential backups of my Appdata folder (amid other things) to a network repository. If there are many megabytes of junk in the Temp folder, they become backed up along with everything else, which slows down the backup process and eats into my backup infinite allotment. So keeping those directories make clean -- and, if possible, away from prying optics -- is worth the endeavor.

Tidying up
Considering these temp files can pile up over time, and because many programs don't clean up after themselves (or in the example of programs that crash, they never become the chance to exercise so), it pays to take some extra measures.

1. Apply the Disk Cleanup utility
In Windows Vista and Windows 7, you lot can run the Disk Cleanup utility from the Start menu. Type "Deejay Cleanup" to bring information technology up, select "Temporary files" from the list of cleanup options that appears, and click OK.

2. Schedule a cleanup
Windows XP featured a mode to directly schedule a disk cleanup performance. Unfortunately this option isn't around in later operating systems, but yous tin manually schedule a cleanup operation.

iii. Delete the files manually
This is the to the lowest degree convenient option, merely information technology'southward useful to know how to do it by hand. Browse to the advisable temp binder in Explorer, select all, hit Delete, and click OK. Close all open applications earlier doing this, just to brand sure none of the temp files at that place are existence held open up past programs you lot're running. Note that some files might still exist in use past the system and volition not be accessible. If you get a warning that a file cannot be deleted because information technology's in use, just select "Skip" and "Exercise this for all current items" to avoid further nag boxes.

About THE AUTHOR:
Serdar Yegulalp has been writing about personal computing and IT for over 15 years for a variety of publications, including (amidst others) Windows Magazine, InformationWeek and the TechTarget family of sites.