Guide

How to find and clean your Windows Temp folder with PowerShell

Published 23 October 2026

A dark Windows PowerShell window showing the Temp folder size in gigabytes

Short answerMeasure the size of $env:TEMP with Get-ChildItem and Measure-Object, preview the cleanup with -WhatIf, then delete only files older than seven days. Files in use are skipped. Old Windows Update files are in Settings > System > Storage > Temporary files.

Every Windows account has a Temp folder. Installers, updaters, browsers and crash reports drop files there and almost never clean up. After a year it can be several gigabytes.

Step 1: How big is yours?

PowerShell

'{0:N1} GB' -f ((dir $env:TEMP -Recurse -File -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | measure Length -Sum).Sum / 1GB)

Example output

6.4 GB

$env:TEMP is your own Temp folder, usually C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Local\Temp. To look inside, press Win+R, type %temp% and press Enter.

Step 2: Preview the cleanup

This deletes only files older than 7 days, so nothing an app is using right now. Add -WhatIf first: it lists what would be deleted without deleting anything.

PowerShell

dir $env:TEMP -Recurse -File -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | ? LastWriteTime -lt (Get-Date).AddDays(-7) | Remove-Item -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -WhatIf

Step 3: Delete

Happy with the list? Run it again without -WhatIf:

PowerShell

dir $env:TEMP -Recurse -File -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | ? LastWriteTime -lt (Get-Date).AddDays(-7) | Remove-Item -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

Files an app still has open are skipped quietly. Nothing breaks: apps recreate what they need. Run step 1 again to see what you got back.

Example output

0.8 GB

The bigger junk: Windows Update leftovers

Old update files live elsewhere. Open Settings > System > Storage > Temporary files, tick Windows Update Cleanup and Delivery Optimization Files, and click Remove files. Leave Downloads unticked, or it deletes your Downloads folder too.

Storage Sense (same page) can clean Temp automatically every month.