How To Delete Kaspersky Temporary Files

More than once I have mentioned here that Kaspersky Internet Security is the security software that I trust the most when it comes to PC security. Kaspersky Internet Security includes all features present in Kaspersky Antivirus plus two-way firewall, anti-spam and more.

Recently, one of my PC’s hard drive was running out of free space. After running the portable version of SpaceSniffer software I shocked to know that the temporary files of Kaspersky were using ~1200 MB of the drive space. Just like many other antivirus, Kaspersky also stores temporary files in a folder deep under the system drive.

Users who are running out of disk space can follow the below mentioned instructions to safely delete Kaspersky temporary files to free up valuable disk space.

NOTE: This method should work fine on Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1, and Windows 10.

Step 1: Open Kaspersky home screen by double-clicking on the Kaspersky icon in the system tray area.

Step 2: Click Settings located on the right upper corner of the dialog and then switch to Advanced Settings by clicking on the box icon (see picture).

Step 3: Disconnect your PC from the Internet as we are going to temporarily disable Kaspersky.

Step 4: Here, under Advanced Settings, click Advanced Settings located in the left pane and then uncheck Enable Self Defense option that appears on the right. Click Apply button.

Step 5: Right-click on Kaspersky system tray icon and click Exit button.

Step 6: Open Windows installation drive and then navigate to:

ProgramData\Kaspersky Lab\AVP12\Data\Updater

Please note that you need enable Show hidden files and folders option before moving to view ProgramData folder. To enable Show hidden files and folders, first open up Folder Options dialog, switch to View and then locate the entry named Show hidden files and folders to and finally enable it. You can follow our how to enable show hidden files and folders option guide for step-by-step instructions.

Step 7: Here, select Temporary Files folder, and delete it. That’s it!  Once done, run Kaspersky, enable Self Defense by navigating to Settings and then Advanced settings.