Skip to contentGo to the directory tree
Windows Directory Tree
  1. C:
  2. Windows
  3. Temp
FolderRisk: Safe

Temp C:\Windows\Temp

C:\Windows\Temp: temporary folder of the System account, services and elevated installers. Safe to empty, except files in use.

Updated on By AltF4 Formation

What it’s for

The TEMP and TMP system variables point here: it is the temporary folder of the System account, so of services, installers and programs run as SYSTEM. The GetTempPath API also falls back to it as a last resort when TMP, TEMP and USERPROFILE are missing. Local Service and Network Service have their own temporary folder in their profile under ServiceProfiles.

What it contains

  • Temporary files from services, updates, MSI installers or programs run as administrator.
  • Installation logs and temporary extractions.
  • Files locked by running services.

Risks and best practices

  • The content can be deleted safely, except for files in use, which Windows refuses to erase. You need administrator rights to write to the folder.
  • Empty the contents, not the folder: Windows and services rely on its existence and permissions. Avoid doing it during an installation or an update.
  • Unusual growth often points to a faulty service or installer: look at the largest files and their dates to find the culprit.
  • Take a look during a security analysis: programs running with elevated rights drop files here.

Useful commands

Fenêtre de terminal
# The 10 largest files, to find what is making it grow
Get-ChildItem "$env:windir\Temp" -Recurse -Force -File -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue |
  Sort-Object Length -Descending | Select-Object -First 10 FullName, Length, LastWriteTime


# As administrator: simulate cleaning files older than 7 days
Get-ChildItem "$env:windir\Temp" -Recurse -Force -File -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue |
  Where-Object LastWriteTime -lt (Get-Date).AddDays(-7) | Remove-Item -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -WhatIf

Report a mistake