How To Delete Hidden Junk Files In Windows

It is another week, and I get to teach you something new and helpful! Last week we covered how to stop Steam from stealing bandwidth. If you missed that, you can find it here:

How To Stop Steam From Stealing FPS

I’m going to jump over to a different subject this week. I’m going to teach you something about your Windows computer that should be helpful to you. What could you be teaching this week? Great question. We are going to teach you how to free up some space on your hard drive. I already know how to do that, Jason! Yes, but I’m going to show you how to clean out the hidden junk/temp files easily without using a program. Many times, those programs are filled with bloatware, but this is a process your computer can handle on its own. Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? Before I get this lesson started, make sure to check out these other articles I have written for everyone:

Time to pull out those Windows laptops and learn something new and useful.

How To Delete Hidden Junk Files In Windows

I will be showing you how to do this on a Windows 11 computer. What this will do for you is clear up some space on your hard drive.

Step 1: Turn on your Windows computer and look to the bottom left of the screen. Here you should see the search box.

Step 2: Type “Command Prompt” in the box, and it should bring up the Command Prompt app.

Step 3: Right-click on Command Prompt, which will give you a menu. From that menu, choose Run as Administrator at the top…

Or you will see Run as administrator to the right of the programs. It will give you a menu of choices like you saw right-clicking the Command Prompt icon. All you need to do now is click on Run as administrator.

Step 4: Now the Command Prompt window will appear. You need to type Del /q /f /s %temp%\* next to C:\Windows\System32>. So it should look like this.

C:\Windows\Sytem32>Del /q /f /s %temp%\*

After doing that, hit Enter on your keyboard.

Step 5: The system will run the command that deletes all files and subfolder contents inside your current user’s temporary (%temp%) folder.

del /q /f /s %temp%\* is a Windows command-line instruction that forcefully and quietly deletes all files and subfolder contents inside your current user’s temporary (%temp%) folder.

That is all you need to do. Done!