Jump to content

Welcome to Geeks to Go - Register now for FREE

Need help with your computer or device? Want to learn new tech skills? You're in the right place!
Geeks to Go is a friendly community of tech experts who can solve any problem you have. Just create a free account and post your question. Our volunteers will reply quickly and guide you through the steps. Don't let tech troubles stop you. Join Geeks to Go now and get the support you need!

How it Works Create Account
Photo

TMP File


  • Please log in to reply

#1
jek1862

jek1862

    Member

  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 52 posts
This is not a major issue, but has been bugging me of late, so thought I would post it on the forum for some feeback.
One of the utilities I use has an 'unnecessary files' feature to clean up, well, unnecessary files on my system. It does a good job of cleaning up unnecessary files, but it always 'leaves' a few stating 'cannot delete file, may be in use'.
For every one but one, I can understand why it does not delete certain files. Another thing is that this file is using up a considerable amount of space on my disk, over 26mb.
It is related to the anti-virus program I choose to use, Avira. The whole thing, it says, is taking up about 33mb.
Now here is the file in question:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Avira\AntiVirDesktop\TEMP\avguard.tmp

It says it is a "TMP file", which I am not quite sure exactly what that is.

As I said, it will not delete this 'unnecessary' file, as it 'appears to be in use'. So I disable my Avira anti-virus, to see if it will then delete the file. Nope. Then I UNINSTALL Avira. The file remains, and I STILL cannot get this software to delete it! Even with the Anti Virus deleted it still says 'cannot delete, appears to be in use', which makes no sense to me, since it has been uninstalled.

Then I try to FIND this file. I cannot. I look for it both manually and using the Search function. It does come up during the Search, but I get stopped cold after 'all users'. After 'all users', I do not then see 'application data', so I can go no further in trying to manually delete this file. If anything, I just want to look at this file's properties, even if I can't delete it.
Is there 'another' Documents and Settings folder somewhere on my computer? That is the only thing I can think of why I can't locate this complete file.

I need to know what this all means. Does the TMP file HAVE to remain, and cannot be deleted? I can understand if the AntiVirus is in use, but it still refuses to delete it even after I disable it, and amazingly, even after I uninstall the software.

I am just trying to free up unnecessary space on my disk, as I am always looking to free up some memory and ram as I only have 512 right now. If this is 26mb of 'junk' I can properly delete, then I naturally want to. If it must remain, for some reason, then I need to be told that and why.

Thanks for any help on this problem
  • 0

Advertisements


#2
dsenette

dsenette

    Je suis Napoléon!

  • Community Leader
  • 26,047 posts
  • MVP
http://forum.avira.c...p;postID=791899

from the avira site...basically you can't delete it because avira has a function to protect itself (and it's files) from being deleted so that a virus can't just go deleting it's files and making it useless..

if you REALLY need to get rid of that file to save space (that file size is virtually non existent compared to most files these days) then you can disable this feature in avira. but i wouldn't unless you absolutely need to

i think one of the issues that you're having may be the language used in the application you're using to clean up temp files...temp (tmp) files aren't always unnecessary files...they're just files that aren't persistent...avira is using that file for something (probably for the real time protection based on my research) so even if you delete it...once you start avira again it will put it back
  • 0






Similar Topics

0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users

As Featured On:

Microsoft Yahoo BBC MSN PC Magazine Washington Post HP