Temp Files

[Dave]

I just want to confirm some information I received from
an online instant support tech from HP. In view of the
fact that I had received some bad information from HP in
the past, I like to confirm what they tell me before I
use it.
They tell me there is another step in the routine
maintenaince that doesnt seem to be mentioned anywhere
else. I was told to do a search for the following files
and delete them prior to doing a defrag:
*.tmp
*.bak
*.old
~*.*
Is this information true? And while I'm at it, can
someone shed some light on the symbol ~ ?
What does that symbol stand for?
Thanks

[Thorsten Matzner]

"Dave" > wrote:

>I just want to confirm some information I received from
>an online instant support tech from HP. In view of the
>fact that I had received some bad information from HP in
>the past, I like to confirm what they tell me before I
>use it.
>They tell me there is another step in the routine
>maintenaince that doesnt seem to be mentioned anywhere
>else. I was told to do a search for the following files
>and delete them prior to doing a defrag:
>*.tmp
>*.bak
>*.old
>~*.*
>Is this information true? And while I'm at it, can
>someone shed some light on the symbol ~ ?

The information is ok. These are temporary files and you should remove
them to tidy your system before defragging it. If you defrag first and
delete the files afterwards you will cause some new fragmentation.
However, this is not a critical step and if you forget to delete the
files you will not gain noticeable worse results during the defrag
process assuming that you defrag regularely and that you also delete
temporary files from time to time.
For a perfect defragmentation you should also delete the Internet
Explorer's cache and all Cookies that are no longer needed and you
should also delete all files from the Recycle Bin which are not
necessary to keep for a longer time.
The ~ character is in the first line a mathematical symbol which
stands for "approximately". The character is not used very often,
therefore it is used by several applications to name temporary or
backup files. F. e. if you start Word and then have a look into the
folder that keeps your document templates, the NORMAL.DOT (and maybe a
home-made DOT file as well) will appear in two versions: one with the
~ and one without. The ~NORMAL.DOT is a copy that is currently used by
Word; the file will disappear as soon as you close the application.
Other programs are not so smart and the ~*.* files will be left on the
disk even after the program has been closed. The same happens after an
abnormal termination of an application that uses such files.

--
(tm)

[Unknown]

..bak is a backup file. Sure you want to delete?
"Dave" > wrote in message
...
> I just want to confirm some information I received from
> an online instant support tech from HP. In view of the
> fact that I had received some bad information from HP in
> the past, I like to confirm what they tell me before I
> use it.
> They tell me there is another step in the routine
> maintenaince that doesnt seem to be mentioned anywhere
> else. I was told to do a search for the following files
> and delete them prior to doing a defrag:
> *.tmp
> *.bak
> *.old
> ~*.*
> Is this information true? And while I'm at it, can
> someone shed some light on the symbol ~ ?
> What does that symbol stand for?
> Thanks