Bits'n'Bytes

As heard on CJCD

Episode 46

One of the things that can slow your computer down is having a lot of temporary files on your hard drive. I always recommend deleting your temporary internet files using Internet Explorer's Tools, but you should also clean up the other temporary files on your hard drive. These files are used by Windows and other programs when they're running. When the program stops running, it's supposed to delete these temporary files, but very few programs do it properly - and Windows is the worst offender of all.

Windows XP comes with the Disk Cleanup utility to help with some of the housekeeping on your computer. You can access it by clicking on Start, then Programs, then Accessories, System Tools and Disk Cleanup. It will delete a lot of temporary files you don't need. The problem is, it really only does a good job in the Windows Temp folder. If you have temporary files stored anywhere else on your hard drive, it won't delete them.

So, here's a quick way to get rid of pretty much all the unneeded temporary files on your computer. First close all the programs you can. Try to make sure nothing is running - you may even have to restart your computer in Safe Mode to be sure no programs are running. Now, click on Start, then Search and pick "All files and folders". In the search window, type in asterisk dot t-m-p, then a comma, then asterisk dot c-h-k, then another comma, then a tilde - that's the little wavy character at the top left of your keyboard followed by an asterisk, a dot and another asterisk. Click on the Search button. Any files that show up in this search, with very few exceptions, aren't needed and you can probably delete. If you get a message saying you aren't able to delete some of the files it means those ones are currently being used by a program. Skip those ones and delete all the rest.

Once you're done, you can even click on File at the top of the Search window and click on Save Search, so the search can be done with only a click or two.

Stay tuned next week when I talk about fixing a problem with Microsoft Word.

I’m Computer Dave, thanks for your time.