A temporary file management method for operating system or applications is disclosed, which comprises steps of creating a to-be-deleted-next-time-content directory beforehand and at least one not-to-be-deleted-next-time-content directory; saving temporary files in the to-be-deleted-next-time-content directory or the not-to-be-deleted-next-time-content directories when the operating systems or the applications is running; deleting the files in the to-be-deleted-next-time-content directory when a pre-set temporary file cleaning condition are triggered; specifying a not-to-be-deleted-next-time-content directory; switching and saving files in the specified not-to-be-deleted-next-time-content directory in the to-be-deleted-next-time-content directory. The present invention prevents the temporary files from occupying the storage space for a long time, which ensures the operating system runs with high efficiency, space saving and good user experience.