What is all this garbage in temp and app files?

[meredith101]

I just used a hard drive scanner and there are about 3.5 gigabytes of useless hidden data on my hard drive! Why was it there? Is it ok to just delete it? It's in hidden temp drives under my username. Ugh!

[rojash]

Many programs store temporary info there - they should clean up after themselves, but they don't always; sometimes because they crash out, sometimes because the programmers just couldn't be bothered to write a cleanup routine. Some of it may actually be in use (depending on what other programs were running when you examined the contents.

The safest way to get rid of such stuff is to use the disk cleanup tool: Right-click the drive, choose properties, click the Disk Cleanup button.

[plowter]

rojash is correct but forgot to mention that when you view a webpage the browser actually downloads a copy of it in these temp folders.

That's one of the easier ways to find out if you've been looking at rude pictures.

[meredith101]

rude pictures? on the internet? huh?

[daffy654]

There is also a perfectly safe and free small program called ATF CLEANER that if run regularly will clean up all the unnecessary files on your PC.I use it and have never had a problem because of it.
http://www.atribune.org/content/view/40/2/

[cheries]

Yeah, that's what causes your computer to run slow. I've found all sorts of waaaaaaay dodgy stuff on my laptop that I haven't looked at but sometimes adverts download themselves on to temp files too.
Ahem.