Can we delete manually "content.MSO" files in user logged in folder

Hi Bala,

Yes, you can safely delete the Content.MSO files under C:\Windows\InetCache\Content.MSO in user profile directories. These files are temporary cache objects created by Office applications (mainly Outlook and Word) when handling email attachments or embedded content. They are not critical system files, and removing them will not impact Office functionality—new cache files will be recreated automatically when users open attachments again.

The only impact is that if a user had an attachment open directly from Outlook and hadn’t saved it elsewhere, deleting the cached file would remove that temporary copy. As long as users save attachments properly to another location, clearing Content.MSO is a safe way to reclaim disk space. For best practice, you can automate cleanup using a scheduled task or a script that targets %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.MSO across profiles, ensuring you don’t touch files currently in use.

Hope this answer brought you some useful information. If it did, please hit “accept answer”. Should you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment.

content.MSO files are temporary Office document cache files stored under each user profile (for example, in …\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.MSO). They can safely be deleted to reclaim disk space, as they are recreated as needed when Office opens or edits documents.

However, there are two important considerations:

1. Impact on users
   • Deleting these files may cause Office to re-download or re-cache documents the next time they are opened, which can make the first open slower, especially for large files or on RDS/VDI environments.
   • Files with pending uploads or unsynced changes should not be removed if relying on the Office document cache for upload; administrators can control this behavior via policies such as AgeOutPolicyIncludingFilesPendingUpload so that even files with pending uploads can be aged out from the cache.
2. Operational guidance on an RDS server
   • Manual deletion is possible (for example, via script or scheduled task running under an admin account) as part of disk space maintenance.
   • Regular cleaning or rebuilding of the Office document cache is supported, but expect that large files may need to be re-downloaded, which can affect performance for users after cleanup.

In summary, content.MSO files in user profiles on an RDS server can be deleted to free C: drive space. The main impact is that Office may need to re-download or re-cache content, which can temporarily slow opening of some documents, especially large ones or those stored online.

References:

• Managing Office document cache size