Deleting Temp Files 101
How to delete unnecessary temporary files and create a shortcut to do it again

****These instructions are for deleting the temporary files created when 
certain programs are run or installed.  
(Windows is SUPPOSED to do this automatically but it often misses LOTS and these files,
if left behind, can cause lots of problems with your computer.)  
These instructions will NOT delete temporary Internet files***** 

NOTE:  Many people will tell you that all you need to do is open your Windows Temp folder
and delete everything in there because that's where all temp files are stored.  
This is NOT true.  
That's where all programs are SUPPOSED to store their temp files but many don't.  
You can delete temp files that way, but I promise you that you won't get them all.  
To test this, go ahead and delete all the files in your Windows Temp folder, 
then try this method and see how many more you find.  

Once you've done this one time, use these instructions at the end to create the shortcut 
so you can do it again without these instructions.

First, close ALL open programs.

Click on your Start button, then go to Find (or in Windows XP: Search)......in this dialog box,
make sure where it says "look in:", that it is looking at your C: drive (or, if you have 
multiple hard drives or partitions, be sure "All Local Drives" is selected) and be sure there 
is a check in the box next to where it says "include subfolders" (this is in "More Advanced 
Options" in XP).....Now, click your mouse pointer in the box that says "named" 
(in XP, it says "All or part of the file name") and type the following, exactly as it is here.

*.tmp,*.chk,~*.* 

That's asterisk period t m p comma asterisk period c h k comma tilde asterisk period asterisk .....
with no spaces.  

(The "tilde" is the little squiggle above the Tab key on the left end of your keyboard.....
DO NOT FORGET THE TILDE as ~*.* will find all files which begin with ~, 
but *.* without the tilde would find all files on the drive.....and you DON'T want to do that!!)
To be sure you've got it right... 

just highlight this --->   *.tmp,*.chk,~*.*   <--- copy it and paste it in that box.

Once it finds all the files, it will list them and at the bottom it will tell you how many it found

Hit ctrl+a to select them all, then hit your delete key....If it won't delete some of them, 
that's because they are attached to some program running in the background, so you may have
to delete them one at a time. If one or two won't delete, they will probably delete when you
reboot next, so don't worry about them.  
NOTE: Windows XP tends to hang onto temp files more than the earlier versions, so you may 
run into more that you can't delete.  If so, just note the name of the file Windows won't 
delete and find it in the list, then hit ctrl+a to select them all again, but hold down 
your control key and click on the one Windows won't delete.  This will select all but that one.
Try deleting them again.  If XP finds another it won't delete, repeat this same process.  
If this won't work for you, try deleting them in Safe Mode... 
(or go to Start> All Programs> Accessories> System Tools> Disk Cleanup and use the Windows 
utility to delete them, however this won't find any that are not in your Windows Temp folder).
Bottom line is these files will be deleted by Windows when you reboot, but then will be 
recreated again and that's a necessary evil.

All of these files and folders (yes, ALL of them) are safe to delete and removing them can 
solve some crazy problems you may be having.  However, if you are concerned about this, 
leave the files you deleted in your recycle bin for a few days until you are sure all is 
working properly.  This way, you can restore the files from the recycle bin if you have a problem...
or, as is *always* the case when I do this, just permanently delete the files from the recyle bin
once you are sure all is well.

Once they are all deleted, you can save this process as an Icon on your desktop so you can 
repeat it with one click.

Still inside the Find/Search dialog box, go to the File menu and click on "Save Search"......
this will put an icon on your desktop that you can click on any time you want to delete temps again!