Windows 10: How can you identify and locate Temporary Files

Under Windows 10 Start->Settings->System->Storage->C: - my 1TB drive shows 746GB used and 184GB Free - and the breakdown from there is:


Other: 231GB

Temporary Files: 128GB <-------??

Pictures: 118GB

Other People: 105GB

System & reserved: 73GB

Apps & Games: 36GB

Documents: 34GB

OneDrive: 16GB

Music: 695MB

etc.


First of all, I don't know what Other: and Other People: are:


1 but clicking on the "Other", the breakdown shows a bunch of Folders from an Older computer, I guess that I had backed up on the C: drive - and I am OK with that.


2 Clicking on the "Other People", for a breakdown all I get is:

"You can manage other user accounts on this PC below"

"Manage other people" <-- in clickable Blue, but clicking on it does nothing

AND THEN NOTHING

I am assuming that this is my Admin User account - and am OK with that, it that is what it is


3 MY CONCERN is with the 128GB of Temporary Files.

When I click on "Temporary Files" to get a breakdown, all I get is a list of Categories of temporary files with a total size of 2.18GB selected to be removed if I check on every one of the categories listed.

So where are the other 126GB of Temporary Files.


I have searched everywhere, but frankly really don't know what to look for. I have tried Disk Cleanup - and that didn't help either.


WARNING ABOUT DISK CLEANUP: In trying to recover some Disk space, there was an item in Disk Cleanup that was labeled as "Deletes of System Restore Points" - which was supposed to Delete "old" System Restore points but save the new, last Restore point. IT DOESN"T - it deleted my single last Restore point. System & reserved was 226GB before the "Deletes of System Restore points", and 73GB after it wiped out my Restore point - not happy that it did that, but not too likely to need the Restore point, although it was recent, created by Windows when doing the Windows Version 20H2 update. [OK, I won't belabor this point farther - the Restore point is gone and I did pick up some disk space.]


But back to my questions of where or how can I recover the 128GB that Windows has identified as Temporary Files. Trying to do some large backups from OneDrive to an External Hard drive and need some additional space on my C: drive.


ron in shawnee

:)

 

How To Delete Temporary Internet Files And Temporary Files In Windows 10

Hi,

As you are saying that you are not able to delete the temporary internet files and temporary Files in Windows 10.

Provide us with the below details for better clarity on the issue.

1.Have you installed any third party applications to clean up temporary Files?

2.In the Disk Cleanup had you checked the Temporary Internet files and Temporary files before doing disk cleanup?

I suggest you to follow the below steps and try deleting the temporary internet files.

• Open Internet Explorer by typing Internet Explorer in Search Bar. Click the
  Tools button, and then click Internet Options.
• Click the General tab, and then, under Browsing history, click
  Delete.
• In the Delete Browsing History dialog box, select the check boxes for the information you want to delete, click
  Delete, and then click OK.

I also suggest you refer the Microsoft article on View and delete browser history in Microsoft Edge
and check if it helps.

View and delete browser history in Microsoft Edge

Let us know if the issue with the deletion of temporary files is resolved we will be glad to assist you further.

 

Issue with temporary files

Hi Junaid,

I unhide the files as per the article "Show hidden files" but it does not help to see what takes up to 29GB in my temporary files (settings/system/storage/temporary files).

The other two methods you mentioned have already been tried without success.

Regards,

Guy

 

How To Delete Temporary Internet Files And Temporary Files In Windows 10

Hi Anup,

Thank you for your reply.

I would respond as follows:

1. No, I have not installed any third party applications to delete Temporary Internet Files or Temporary Files.

2. Yes, as mentioned in my message, I had chcked the relevant boxes for Temporary Internet Files and Temporary Files before performing Disk Clean-up. But still the files won't delete.

Your suggestion is about deleting Browsing history. I don't have any issues with deleting Browsing history. It's about deleting Temporary Internet Files and Temporary Files. Browsing history can be deleted via Internet Options or from the option available
in the Hub of Microsoft Edge.

Any help on how to delete Temporary Internet Files and Temporary Files would be greatly appreciated.

Regards.