What is the difference between .TEMP and .TMP files. Can these be deleted safely? Are they deleted at disk cleanup?

Description of the Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows XP http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310312

There are times when these files may still be in use and you do not want to delete them. To ensure that they are no longer in use you could reboot, then delete them, manually or otherwise.

Some OS/apps software created/looked for/used the tmp suffix, some temp. Some used tmp as the folder name, some used temp as the folder name. You can also find both in a given system. Windows has (used to have?) a line set tmp=temp in one of the ini.files... thus allowing a single temp folder to be used for both versions of temporary files. There was usually a similar line in the dos config file. temp/tmp files can (usually) be safely deleted. "Ideally" there should be nothing the temp folder at boot up. Well behaved apps/utils/OS my use the temp folder (as a temporary workspace/storage area), and then clean out their droppings etc. when finished. But not all are well behaved... which is why there is frequently an assorttment of abandoned files, junk etc... And if you crash an OS/app etc. then almost certainly there will be junk etc. left in the temp folder - which you have to remove one way or another. You can write/run a routine to clean out the temp folder (and also internet temp fles folder etc.) at shutdown/startup for '9x; for NT/W2K/XP it can be done at boot-up (a script routine...) although tweakXP (not tweakuixp) is said to allow it at shut down for XP...? If not sure about removing (deleting) a (tmp/temp) file/s then save it/them to somewhere safe and run the OS/apps/util to verify it is not needed; then if all is well - delete it/them.

Hi: What is "OS/apps/util"?