I'm running Windows XP Home (SP2) and Internet Explorer. I try to keep the clutter to a minimum by periodically emptying the Temporary Internet Files folder, among other things. When empty, if I right click on the Temp. Internet Files folder and select Properties, it says 1521 files, 9 folders occupying 16.7 MB on the hard drive. How do I delete all of that stuff that I can't see (choosing View Hidden Files in Folder Options does not make them visible)?

 

One thing to try is to go into folder options and uncheck the "Hide protected operating system files" box. This will make other file types viewable. You can also delete them within IE by going to: Tools, Internet Options, Delete Files (under the Temporary Internet Files section), check the box to delete offline content. This usually does a decent job cleaning things up.

Good luck. By the way, be careful what you delete when you uncheck that hide protected OS files box. Those files are usually hidden for a reason. The ones in IE TIF should be ok to delete, but be careful everywhere else.

 

Chrisman - My advice would be to get a small freeware application called CCleaner (Crap Cleaner) from www.ccleaner.com You can configure it quite easily to clean up things quite nicely. I use it every couple of days, right-click on your Recycle bin and select Open Ccleaner...
One thing I have noticed is now they have included the Yahoo toolbar in the installation as a preset. Just uncheck it during installation.

 

Herring: Thanks for the tip re CCleaner. I just downloaded and ran it and it cleaned up about 1 gig on my PC.

 

You're most welcome.

 

A setting that I always use is in the Internet Options Advanced tab, select to "Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed".

I've never noticed a delay, but I suppose you could, especially the first time. This will also reduce caching (increase bandwidth usage) but since I am usually shutting down for the day or week if I'm exitting the browser, that doesn't affect much either.

 

>>Start >run>type %temp% then under edit = select all then delete all - windows will dump all it should have before and will not allow you to dump what you are not supposed to.