My camera was working slow so i contacted the support team and they told me to type %temp% and delete all the files.Further more i was told to delete prefetch and temp files in the same way.But the  slowness of camera was still there the original cause i found out yesterday was due to quick heal.As it was keeping track of camera.

As i have deleted the %temp% prefetch and temp files are they harmful for my computer because a little slow boot is noticble from yesterday.

As read from microsoft community:

Each time you turn on your computer, Windows keeps track of the way your computer starts and which programs you commonly open. Windows saves this information as a number of small files in the prefetch folder. The next time you turn on your computer, Windows refers to these files to help speed the start process.

The prefetch folder is a subfolder of the Windows system folder. The prefetch folder is self-maintaining, and there's no need to delete it or empty its contents. If you empty the folder, Windows and your programs will take longer to open the next time you turn on your computer.

Dangerous myths: Deleting the informaation in Prefetch folder

There are often claims that deleting the Prefetch folder actually results in less boot-up time and more free memory. The reasons for this vary—for example, some experts claim that Windows loads Prefetch information for all of the programs you’ve ever started on your computer into memory automatically, filling your RAM with unused data (this is not true.) These experts recommend deleting the contents of “Windows\Prefetch” on a regular basis, to keep your memory free from unused data. Ouch! Two reasons:

   1. If you don’t run a program, Windows does not access the Prefetch information.
   2. Windows maintains a maximum of 128 entries in the Prefetch folder. It cleans itself automatically.

So, if you actually delete the Prefetch folder, here’s what you should really expect to happen: Windows and applications will need noticeably more time to start, as the Prefetch data needs to be collected again. The entire performance of your system will slow down.

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I have deleted the files of %temp% folder and have just opened the prefetch and temp folder but not deleted their data.

Is it harmful please help me out.

Hi,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

We understand the concern as you have deleted %temp%, temp and prefetch files by mistake and you want to know if it is harmful. 

In this scenario, let me give you a clear picture of what %temp%, temp and prefetch files do.

Temp & %Temp%

Temporary Files in Windows are those junk files whose use is only temporary and become redundant once the task in hand is completed. Such temporary files are created to hold data temporarily while a file is being created or processed or used.

These files are created by the operating system during the normal course of its process, when there may not be enough memory allocated for the task.

Software that uses large amounts of data like Graphics, Video, or Media editing software also creates temporary files. Such created temporary files are often, left behind even when the task is over, leading to their wasting disk space.

Prefetch

Prefetch is a system service that works in the background taking up no power from the CPU. This service aims to improve the application loading time on a Windows system.

It is built into the Windows OS to improve the user experience. It is not a necessary system. So if you want to disable it, there will be no issues.

It creates a cache file where the resource information is stored. As soon as that application is launched, Windows comes back to this cache file and using the already fetched resources, and it ends up opening the application faster than usual.

These files are not so important as they get created when you run a program or app on your PC. So you need not to worry about deleting the file.

Hope it helps,

Aditya Roy

Microsoft Community – Moderator