Safe Removal of Temporary Files

[joh07956]

Newbie here with a few quick questions (and a little background first).

I work for a company that deals with many different clients (and in-turn, lots of sensitive information and data), and when a project is completed, anything related to it should ideally be saved in one location (or deleted if it was intermediate-type work).

To do the work we do, several different programs are used (might be more):

• 2013 Microsoft Office products (especially Word, Outlook, Lync, Access, and Excel)
• SAS
• R

As the thread’s title states, I’m looking for a safe and efficient way of deleting any “temporary”/”dump” files that get created by any program I may have used. I listed some example file paths that I know exist and consistently build up with these temp/dump files, which for risk mitigation purposes should probably have their contents cleared out:

• C:\Users\’UserName’\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.Outlook
• C:\Documents and Settings\’UserName’\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel
• C:\Windows\Temp

Just from looking at some of these locations, it appears as though each individual program has its own default “temporary”/”dump” folder location. It would be a bit of a headache to track each location down and manually delete its contents. It also could be potentially disastrous if I wrongly were to delete something crucial to the computer’s or a program’s operation.

Additionally, I have done a limited amount of research on both a third party program (CCleaner) and the Window’s program “Disk Cleanup”, and am a little concerned with some of the potential risks of using them. Is there a better alternative to using one of these programs to clear out these “TEMP” files? I also entertained the thought of creating a batch file that can be ran to delete specific folder contents, but again I’m hoping for an easier (safer?) solution.

Thanks for bearing with my lack of technical lingo. For good measure, here are some of the computer and program specs of and on my machine:

• Windows 7 Enterprise
• 64-bit Operating System
• 2013 Microsoft Office (64-bit version)
• SAS version is 9.3

Thanks again for the help.

 

[voyagerfan99]

Just run CCleaner. Why do you have concerns about using it?

 

[johnb35]

TFC Temporary File Cleaner is a bit better then ccleaner but I always run ccleaner first as it will get the majority of temp files and TFC will get the rest.

 

[Agent Smith]

Files are still recoverable just to let you know. I have a program on my desktop that shreds data, but I'm not sure what the name is now off hand. I use SystemNinja and Ccleaner periodically.

Edit- It's called eraser! You can set up schedules and specific paths. http://www.snapfiles.com/get/eraser.html

Here's a list of others. http://www.snapfiles.com/downloadfind.php?st=eraser&action=s&ref=2&search=Find+it&lc=1

 

[gamblingman]

Files are still recoverable just to let you know. I have a program on my desktop that shreds data, but I'm not sure what the name is now off hand. I use SystemNinja and Ccleaner periodically.

Edit- It's called eraser! You can set up schedules and specific paths. http://www.snapfiles.com/get/eraser.html

Here's a list of others. http://www.snapfiles.com/downloadfind.php?st=eraser&action=s&ref=2&search=Find+it&lc=1

I use eraser and I've tested it's effectiveness. I feel that it works at a level acceptable for any normal person or business.

 

[joh07956]

Thanks for all the replies. After a little more research, I think CCleaner is best option for my company's needs. The area of concern with that product (or any) is the registry cleaner, which I have no intention of using anyway. Does anyone know if it's worth getting either the Business or Professional Plus versions of the software? It looks like the business version doesn't off much of an upgrade to the freeware and it's $20+ a computer to license at the moment.

 

[gamblingman]

Thanks for all the replies. After a little more research, I think CCleaner is best option for my company's needs. The area of concern with that product (or any) is the registry cleaner, which I have no intention of using anyway. Does anyone know if it's worth getting either the Business or Professional Plus versions of the software? It looks like the business version doesn't off much of an upgrade to the freeware and it's $20+ a computer to license at the moment.

I believe if it's for a business you're supposed to pay for it, but almost nobody does.

Don't clean the registry unless you know what you're doing. Hitting the registry tool's "fix all" button is not the proper procedure.