The User Profiles sheet (from System Properties) shows the three user
profiles and the guest profile I have on my Windows XP Home computer. I am
the main (and heavy) user and the size is 425MB. My wife is an infrequent
user but her size is 1.65GB. What does this size mean? I have reduced her IE
settings to 50MB and 7 days. System Restore is down to 5% and the Recycle Bin
is at 10%.
Also stored in user profiles, (unless changed in the system properties) are the Received Files, Temporary Files...and Temp setting files. Install apps that leave temp files behind can clog up a profile really quick.
I've checked the folders under Documents and Settings\Username and cleared them down to the necessary files except for the folder Application Data. Should this folder be empty if the user has logged out?
The only thing you can empty, are the temp folders. Though you can empty those from IE's control panel as well.
The Documents and Settings folder is there for individual program settings for each user/each program they use or have installed. Emptying those could cause all kinds of havoc!
I have tidied the temp folders of all users and any application data folder contents which looked suspiciously large but the user profile sizes are roughly unchanged. If there are any more suggestions as to where I should be looking please let me know.
OK my folder under Documents and Settings has roughly 21,000 files in 2,000 folders occupying 80GB. My wife's has roughly 9,000 files in ,1200 folders occupying 6GB. I am thinking about creating a new user for my wife and moving necessary files and bookmarks over.
I'm starting to think you guys save alot of your stuff in your perspective "My Documents" folders?? In Documents and Settings, you'll find a duplicate (actually the real) My Documents folders. When you add folders/files to the My Documents folder under My Computer, it stores it under the D/S folders.
To save space on our root drive, we use a second drive to store our files there. A big help if the root drive needs a fresh install.
