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Last Update: 9/17/2006 (software)
7/17/2007 (site)

Temper
version beta 0.9.19 - Download below
If you find this program useful,
please leave a donation:

Important note:
Temper has never been tested on Microsoft Vista!
It probably works, but the automatic detection will not work due to changes in folder structures in Vista.
Use caution!

NOTE: You are using this program at your own risk. It can possibly cause harm to your Windows installation if a folder is selected to be emptied that is not supposed to be emptied. Emptying folders marked in bold should be safe, but cannot be guaranteed.


What is Temper:

Temper was originally intended for Sys Admins who need a tool to delete all the temp garbage in Temp and Temporary Internet Files folders.

It will autodetect your Windows drive (in case it is not C:) and start scanning for all folders that are called Temp or Content.IE5 (i.e. the Temporary Internet Files folder). Folders that I know to be safe to be emptied under normal circumstances will be marked in bold and automatically selected - other folders can be selected manually.
Once you click EMPTY SELECTED FOLDERS it will first empty the local Temporary Internet Files, next create a list of all files in the selected folders and delete them, then a list of all folders inside the selected folders and delete them. If the Cookies check box is selected, it will also remove all cookies (default). Temper will not remove the cache or cookies from other browsers unless they reside in folders that were selected.
Sometimes there are items that cannot be deleted (because Windows is still using them etc.), and Temper will show these files when it is done. There is a Test Mode (disable deleting - to see how it works without making any changes) and an Expert Mode (remove confirmation boxes).

What makes my program different from others I have tried is that there is no need to install it - it runs from wherever you put it. Older Windows versions may require installing Visual Basic 6 Runtime files which can be downloaded for free from Microsoft's download section.

This program is Freeware and supplied as is.
I take no responsibility for any damage or loss that it causes. To my knowledge it cannot cause any damage (except for crashes which have to do with Visual Basic 6 and/or the VB6 Runtime files, but not my programming, and except for emptying folders that contain needed files - but every programmer that puts important files into a folder called Temp should look for a new job, anyway). The only two commands that influence your computer in any way are the two lines that delete the files and the folders, and these can be disabled by going into Test Mode.

News:

12/12/2009 I apologize to anyone who might have tried to contact me - I just realized that my contact form was broken and probably has been for over a year... It is fixed now. I also fixed broken links - no idea how these snuck in there...
At this time, I do not have plans to keep working on Temper - the fact that I have not written her in 3 years may be a clue to that.
However, if I do get enough requests or comments I might change my mind.
On the other hand, in the 4 years since I first released Temper, I have not received even one donation, so maybe people don't find the program as useful as I thought...
9/23/2006 Temper seems to be somewhat internationally successful. Not only does my site get hits from all over the world, but it got picked up by a freeware site which notified me in an email written in Spanish. When visiting their site I realized that one of the major benefits of Temper was not working on a version of Windows that is not English. Temper cannot identify "safe-to-empty" folders and mark them because the folders have different names in different languages... I have added that to my to-do list.
9/16/2006 A new version 0.9.19! After nearly 7 months I worked a whole day to finally get some of my plans for Temper into motion. It seems I have most of the most annoying bugs sorted out - I ran the new version on a few computers, and it ran beautifully, and faster.
Please let me know what you think about the new version, and there's still more features that I am planning to implement some day (log file, summary, display of deleted files and saved space etc.).
  Earlier entries and older downloads can be found in the News Archive.


Version history:

beta 0.9.19

Added features:
-automatic mode - use at your own risk! I recommend you run Temper regularly at least once to see what it finds. This mode was implemented on popular request to allow Temper to run as a scheduled task without the need user interaction
-options screen to hide the check boxes
-a configuration file now saves the current settings so the automatic mode knows when to turn on
-a few interface changes
Fixed bugs (again hopefully):
-some hidden files were not deleted before
-folders and files are falsely reported as "could not be deleted" - hopefully fixed for good this time
-a few minor display issues

beta 0.9.16 Fixed bugs (hopefully):
-temp folders with capital letter combinations other than what I used in my code are not automatically selected as standard temp folders
-folders are falsely reported as "could not be deleted"
improved display of deletion progress
beta 0.9.14 Increased deleting speed.
  Earlier entries can be found in the History Archive.


Known bugs/limitations in current release:
  • Unconfirmed: Occasional Error 6 error when scanning huge folders - I found a computer that produces this error, so I will include this in my next release.
  • Unconfirmed: Occasional Error 9 Subscript Out Of Range error when scanning huge folders - I have not seen this myself yet, but I'll work on that for my next release. It may be resolved since 0.9.9, but I'd like to wait for more test results.
  • If a file is currently in use, Temper cannot delete it. This is a Windows "limitation", not one of Temper.
  • Sometimes a user account has two account folders, one of which has a "messed up" folder name with ~ signs, e.g. "c:\Documents and Settings\ADMINI~1~OFF\LOCALS~1\Temp\" - Temper does not automatically recognize these as safe-to-delete folders.
  • When Temper is done emptying folders, the Empty button needs to be disabled.
  • Add support for international versions of Windows (safe temp folders are not identified in non-English versions of Windows)

If you notice any other bugs or can confirm one of the unconfirmed bugs, please send me as much information as you can either via email or using the contact form at the bottom of this page. Temper is an open project in that I rely a lot on outside input - please let me know what you think!


Planned updates (other than fix bugs):

  • Files desktop.ini and index.dat: don't show automatically, but create checkbox to activate it
  • Faster way to list folders
  • Find temp files in other locations, i.e. ~*.* or *.bak etc.
  • Check if user has Administrator rights
  • Show unreadable folders in new window as opposed to message box
  • Create log files
  • Runtime Error 53 File not found with invalid file names - catch that
  • Animation showing that program is still working, generally improving interface responses to user
  • Improve interface and help screen
  • Add buttons "Select All" and "Select None", maybe right mouse button menu
  • Show number of files in ALL folders (not just the current one) during deletion
  • Show amount of space that will be or was recovered by emptying the folders


Comments/Suggestions/Ideas/Questions

I'd love to hear what you think about my program, so please drop me a few lines. If you include your email address, I'll gladly answer questions you may have.
Please use the comment box below.
Thanks!

Temper Software Contact Form
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Download

Temper

If you find this program useful,
please leave a donation:

Temper beta 0.9.19 (ZIP file ~99kB) Most current version
Temper beta 0.9.16 (ZIP file ~92kB)
Temper beta 0.9.14 (ZIP file ~92kB)


Screenshot (GIF file ~21kB)

If Temper quits with an error about a missing file MSCOMCTL.OCX please also download and extract this file into the Temper folder:
MSCOMCTL.ZIP (ZIP file ~500kB)
This file is not included in the main ZIP file to reduce download time. Nearly every Windows XP user should have this file, possibly also slightly older versions like Windows 2000.