Windows NT

Clean Drives Automatically

What's the best way to clean up unwanted temporary files on a Windows NT system? I have about 400MB of junk files on the hard disk.

Robert Blackmon, Los Angeles

Like Windows 98, Windows NT and the applications running under it use temporary files. Programs create these files--usually in the c:\temp folder--but don't always remove them. After a while, the folder starts to fill up.

If you don't have any data files open, the temporary files are useless and you can delete them. To divest yourself of the lingering temporary baggage, first close all applications. Then choose Start, Find, Files or Folders, enter *.tmp in the Named field, and click Find Now. To delete those files, choose Edit, Select All, and press Delete. Don't worry that you're deleting sensitive files--if one of them is in use by a program, Windows NT won't let you delete it. If you have multiple user accounts on the machine, log off and then back on as each user in turn, and repeat the process.

You can also clear the main temporary file repository automatically each time you log on, by using a batch file. To create the file, right-click the desktop, choose New, Text Document, double-click the new document to open it, enter

rd /s /q c:\temp

md c:\temp

as the document contents, and then save the file as d:\Winnt\Profiles\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\cleartemp.cmd, where d: is the drive NT is installed on. Now, whenever you log on to NT, cleartemp.cmd will flush the Temp folder.