What is the operating system?

Some programs create temporary files and then leave them behind - they do not delete them. This can happen because the program crashed or the developer of the program simply forgot to add the code needed to delete the temporary files after the program is done with them. The temporary files left behind can accumulate over time and consume a lot of disk space.

The temporary directory is set by the environment variable TEMP. Originally, the default was c:\Temp, then %Windows%\Temp. In the XP era, the temporary directory was set per-user as Local Settings\Temp, although still user-relocatable. For Windows Vista, 7 & 8 the temp location has moved again to within the AppData section of the User Profile typically C:\Users\User Name\AppData\Local\Temp. In all versions of Windows the temp location can be accessed, for example in Explorer, Run... boxes and in application's internal code by using %temp%, as with other environmental variables it is synonymous with the full path.

TFC will do a nice job at getting rid of them.

Clean out your temporary internet files and temp files.

Download TFC by OldTimer click Here to your desktop. Click the Save file tab, save it to the desktop. Then double click it to run it.

Double-clickTFC.exe to run it.

Note: If you are running on Vista, right-click on the file and choose Run As Administrator

TFC will close all programs when run, so make sure you have saved all your work before you begin

* Click the Start button to begin the cleaning process.
* Depending on how often you clean temp files, execution time should be anywhere from a few seconds to a minute or two.
* Please let TFC run uninterrupted until it is finished.

Once TFC is finished it should restart your computer. If it does not, please manually restart the computer yourself to ensure a complete cleaning.

TFC,

More info:
TFC (Temp File Cleaner) will clear out all temp folders for all user accounts (temp, IE temp, java, FF, Opera, Chrome, Safari), including Administrator, All Users, LocalService, NetworkService, and any other accounts in the user folder. It also cleans out the %systemroot%\temp folder and checks for .tmp files in the %systemdrive% root folder, %systemroot%, and the system32 folder (both 32bit and 64bit on 64bit OSs). It shows the amount removed for each location found (in bytes) and the total removed (in MB).

Before running, it will stop Explorer and all other running applications. When finished, if a reboot is required the user must reboot to finish clearing any in-use temp files.
-- TFC only cleans temp folders.
-- TFC will not clean URL history, prefetch, or cookies. Depending on how often someone cleans their temp folders, their system hardware, and how many accounts are present, it can take anywhere from a few seconds to a minute or more. TFC will completely clear all temp files where other temp file cleaners may fail.

Have you just gone to Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disc cleanup

Thanks for explaining Zep516, that's very helpful.

We are running Windows 7 Professional.

I was just interested to know where the temp files are and if you can look at them, so now that I know I've cleaned it all up and we're good to go again for awhile.