The temporary files were born, in principle, to improve our experience as a user , through them the applications that we have installed and browsers can remember our data and suggestions to be able to perform more quickly the user interaction.
Unfortunately, these temporary files not only carry out these good practices, they also have a hidden side and that is that when stored on our computer they begin to take up a lot of space on our disk and especially in the RAM memory causing it to lose efficiency.
In this article we are going to show you how we can delete temporary files without compromising operating system kernel. We will also analyze the best tools that exist today to be able to perform this task in an automated way.
Index:
What are temporary files and what are they for in your OS?
Temporary files, which are created with extension «.TMP» on Windows, while for Linux or MacOS the «~» , are created in these two situations:
- When a program needs to perform its tasks and does not have enough memory, it generates a file that is hosted in a certain folder.
- If the system operational needs to make certain changes in its structure, and for security measures you need to have copies of the original files, temporary files are generated that are saved according to the original structure of the operating system.
When the software stopped working on our computer, for example because we have logged out, it does not delete the temporary file that it created, so it is stored in the folder of these garbage files.
This folder begins to fill up without us noticing, generating the decrease of storage spaces in the SSD and the decrease in the performance of our device.
Why is it necessary to delete virtual memory and temporary files from your Operating System?
Recall that RAM is a fast storage unit that was designed so that the user, when he needs information that uses it frequently, the operating system can provide him with a fast and efficient way.
By not cleaning the temporary files folder our memory will be occupied with those files , causing it to work to a greater extent until we find the information we request. In this way, losses are generated in the performance of our computer and also in the memory itself.
Another point to consider with regard to memory is that if we have it empty we can enter the information really necessary for us, and thus be able to have a wider range of applications that we use permanently without leaving any of them out of RAM.
When we do not delete the temporary files, our hard disk begins to have fewer spaces to store information, so we need to install a large file many times it could not work efficiently because it does not have enough space.
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By having temporary files we can produce logical errors in the operating system , because there would be folders that could contain similar information and it would take longer for the system to find the correct folder or issue a logical command.
One point to consider is also our security, since malicious files can be installed in temporary archive folders and from there control all our activity.
What are the benefits of removing this type of data from your computer?
When we delete these types of data on our computer we can obtain:
More disk space , being able to install really useful applications for us that we might not be able to do or would not work efficiently because they need more memory space, when the disk is full.
With this also we would avoid writing about data that already exists on any storage unit that is in an environment close to the disk.
A more efficient RAM memory, measured through operations of “input and output per second” , causing it to actually work with the necessary files to increase our user experience. We increase our security because malware or adware files can be installed in that folder.
Longer life in our microprocessor, hard drive, RAM and other kinds of hardware. This happens because they work with less effort and less wear occurs in each of them.
What programs leave data in the cache of your computer?
As we were saying, there are different programs that use and store files on our computer that are unnecessary and that take place in our memory cache below the origin of these temporary files according to the source program.
Next, we will mention each one of them:
Installed applications
Within our device we have installed different apps that leave files so they can be used by other applications in the future.
For example, when we edit a photo and need to send it to print, there is a record of that modified photo ready to be used by the printer , in turn in the printer development codes There are also these files that were already printed and that are useless.
That is, there are duplicate files in two places on our device, one in the SSD and the other in the temporary files .
Internet sites
It is a very common source of temporary files that are installed through our browser, these files have as main purpose to improve our user experience for which they keep certain information that when we enter that one again web we can have faster access and have our preferences predetermined.
If we deleted these files, the only drawback we would have would be that it would take a little longer for the page to reload, but we would gain a lot of space on the different disks.
Operating system
As mentioned earlier, the operating system generates these garbage files, which are mainly backups, that are generated when the user makes or edits changes in the structure.
It also happens that operating systems save previous versions of the applications that we currently use, therefore, if we needed to open a file with an earlier version we could do it quietly thanks to these temporary files.
Steps to delete temporary files and virtual memory from your Windows 10
In order to delete the temporary files in our Windows 10 operating system we can perform these steps according to the tool we use.
With the disk space freezer
Windows offers us the tool to clean the temporary files.
For this we will have to follow this small procedure:
- We go to the “Start” button
- We write “Disk cleanup”
- We click in «Disk Cleanup»
- We chose to activate «Downloaded program files»
- We also call « Temporary Internet files »
- And we choose « Thumbnails »
In this way we make sure to clean all kinds of garbage files that we have
If we need to clean more deeply to get more disk space, we will do this task:
- We will choose «Clean system files»
- We will select next what kind of files we want to delete. We must be careful because if we select “Windows.old” we can delete the version before the update that we have of Windows and if we wanted to return to it we could not do it anymore.
- We click on «Accept»
- Select «Delete files»
From the storage options
To delete temporary files from storage we will follow this guide:
- We will go to «Start»
- We select the option «Settings»
- We choose «System»
- We click on «Storage»
- Select «This equipment (C)»
- We click on «Temporary files»
- We choose the option «Remove temporary files»
- Select all the options that will appear to us
Releasing RAM memory
To erase RAM in Windows 10 we will follow this step by step:
- We click on «Start»
- We look for the option «Control Panel»
- Let’s “System”
- We click on “Advanced system settings”
- We choose the “Advanced options” tab
- We click on “Performance”
- We select “Settings”
- We are looking for the “Advanced options”
- tab Select “Virtual memory”
- We click on “Change”
- Select the hard disk
- Click on “Custom size”
- Choose the initial size and maximum size
- We click on admitted Accept for
With an external program
There are many programs that are dedicated to the cleaning of garbage files, generally we can find it in the application stores in the antivirus section, since almost all the antivirus currently offers these tools.
We are going to use “Mem Reduct” , which is an application that allows us to free RAM in Windows 10 and has very simple steps to manage it.
They are:
- For this we will have to previously download the application and follow the steps for its installation.
- When we have the application open we will choose permittedScan•
Later we will choose the option «Memory Reduction»
Steps to remove cache and temporary data from your MacOS
If we need our Mac computer to be cleaned of information in the cache and also in the temporary files folder, we can do it with two tools.
The first we can do through our Mac and the second with an external application.
Next, we will explain the step-by-step steps you have to follow for each one of them:
From the system
To perform the cleaning we will follow this guide:
- We go to «Finder»
- We look for the option each Go ahead
- We click on «Go to the folder»
- We select the path with which we want to remove the cache
- If it is the user’s cache , we will write «~ / Library / Caches»
- In the case of browser cache the command will be «/ Library / Logs»
- And for the memory system cache we will execute «/ Library / Caches»
- We select the files we want to delete, the which will be displayed in a Finder window
- If we want to delete all we can go to “Edition” and then to “Select all”
- We drag the selected ones to the trash
- Choose «Empty Trash»
With CCLeaner
This external program on our Mac is very simple we just have to follow this step by step:
- Once we have installed hello application we will have to open it
- We go to the left side where «Cleaner»
- all the files that we can delete will appear separated by category
- We choose which one we want to delete
- Select «Analyze»
- Then we click on «Run the cleaner»
Steps to delete cache and residual files in Linux
If we use as Linux operating system we can clean the cache and all those residual files as follows:
- We will type the command “sudo su”
- Then we will use “sync && echo 3”
- We will write «/ proc / sys / vm / drop_caches»
- And then we’ll go out with permittedExit
If we want to create a script to be able to do this process automatically, we can do it as detailed below.