How to Delete Temporary Files in Windows 10 PC?

What is a tmp file?

Tmp files (temp files), also known as Temporary Files, are files that programs save on your computer to keep information for a short amount of time in case the system needs the same data again. Other sorts of temporary files in Windows include those left over after installing a new version, upgrade logs, error reporting, temporary Windows installation files, and more.

Is it OK to delete all temp files?

Usually, temp files won’t cause any issues. However, the problem is that they grow quickly and take up free space on the hard drive, which can be the reason preventing you from installing a new version of Windows, or they can be the reason you are running out of space on your computer.

They are only useful when they are generated for specific programs. So, when you cease the running program, some of them will be outdated and useless. The new temp files will emerge when users run the program. Thus, it’s safe to delete all temp files.

How to delete temporary files in Windows 10/11?

In this part, we’ll show some ways to help you delete temporary files from Windows.

Way 1. Use Disk Cleanup to clean temp files

Disk Cleanup can help you get rid of most temp files on the C drive.

Step 1. Type "Disk Cleanup" in the search bar and press "Enter".

Step 2. Select the target drive and click“OK”.

Step 3. Then, tick the Temporary files and click "OK" to delete them.

Way 2. Use Storage Settings to delete temp files

Windows 10 and Windows 11 allow users to clean storage junk files in Settings.

Step 1. Open start bar and turn to "Settings" > "System" > "Storage".

Step 2. Click “Temporary files”.

Step 3. All temp files will be listed, and you can click “Remove files” to delete these temp files.

Way 3. Delete the Temp folder to clear all temp files

After using the first two ways to clear the temp files, you can open File Explorer to check the Temp folders whether there are some temp files are kept or not.

Step 1. Press “Windows + R”, type in “%temp%” and hit Enter.

Step 2. If there are many temp files, you can select the temp files and delete them.

Powerful cleanup tool for cleaning all junk files on the disk

You see, to delete all temporary files, you might need at least 2 tools in the system. And there are not only temp files, but also system cache files, Thumbnails, installer files, registry files… It’s impossible for users to find them all and safely delete them. Thus, a convenient cleanup tool will be very useful.

AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard is a free disk and partition manager for Windows 11/10/8/8.1/7/XP users to efficiently organize disk and system resources. The “PC Cleaner” feature of this software can scan all disks and the system to filter all junk files from the deep storage locations. After the scanning, you only need to check them and click a button to clean them all.

What’s more, after the cleanup, if you have an HDD, you can use the “Disk Defrag” feature to optimize your HDD. And there are other helpful functions like merging partitions, cloning MBR data disk, converting data disk between MBR and GPT without data loss, etc.

Here is how to use this practical tool to clean all junk files.

Step 1. Install and run the tool, and click "Free up" and "PC Cleaner".

Step 2. Then, click "Start Scan" in the new pop-up window.

Step 3. After starting the scan, please wait for a while until the progress bar is loaded.

Step 4. Unneeded data will be automatically selected, you can directly click "Clean All" to delete them. If you still have other unnecessary files, you can tick the boxes of the corresponding files.

Step 5. When you see a correct symbol displayed in the interface, you can click "Back" to leave the function.

All junk files will be removed from your PC.

Bonus tips: Move the programs from C drive to another location

After you deleted temporary files, your drive will have more available space. However, if you find cleanup junk files can’t release enough space, you can check if there are some programs installed on the C drive. Upgrade to the Professional Edition, you can unlock the “App Mover” function. This feature can scan all installed programs on your drive, and you can choose some of them to move to another location without reinstalling and resetting any programs.

Final lines

You can delete temporary files in Windows 10 with the built-in tools, but if you want to optimize your PC further, AOMEI Partition Assistant is a better option. And if you want some advanced management, you can try the Pro edition which has more helpful features like cloning the system disk, converting the system disk to MBR/GPT, Migrating OS to another disk…

And if you’re using a Windows Server system, you can choose the Server Edition that supports Windows Server 2025/2022/2019/2016/2012(R2)/2008(R2)/2003.