diff --git a/BizHawk.Client.Common/BizHawk.Client.Common.csproj b/BizHawk.Client.Common/BizHawk.Client.Common.csproj
index c0b0e2935c..6ca260c29c 100644
--- a/BizHawk.Client.Common/BizHawk.Client.Common.csproj
+++ b/BizHawk.Client.Common/BizHawk.Client.Common.csproj
@@ -228,6 +228,7 @@
     <Compile Include="SevenZipWriter.cs" />
     <Compile Include="SharpZipWriter.cs" />
     <Compile Include="SystemInfo.cs" />
+    <Compile Include="TempFileCleaner.cs" />
     <Compile Include="tools\Cheat.cs" />
     <Compile Include="tools\CheatList.cs" />
     <Compile Include="tools\RamSearchEngine.cs" />
diff --git a/BizHawk.Client.Common/TempFileCleaner.cs b/BizHawk.Client.Common/TempFileCleaner.cs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b6a7f0eda6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/BizHawk.Client.Common/TempFileCleaner.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+using System;
+using System.IO;
+
+namespace BizHawk.Client.Common
+{
+	/// <summary>
+	/// Starts a thread which cleans any filenames in %temp% beginning with bizhawk.bizdelete.
+	/// Files shouldn't be named that unless they're safe to delete, but notably, they may stil be in use. That won't hurt this component.
+	/// When they're no longer in use, this component will then be able to delete them.
+	/// </summary>
+	public static class TempFileCleaner
+	{
+		//todo - manage paths other than %temp%, make not static, or allow adding multiple paths to static instance
+
+		public static void Start()
+		{
+			lock (typeof(TempFileCleaner))
+			{
+				if (thread != null)
+					return;
+
+				thread = new System.Threading.Thread(ThreadProc);
+				thread.IsBackground = true;
+				thread.Priority = System.Threading.ThreadPriority.Lowest;
+				thread.Start();
+			}
+		}
+
+		static void ThreadProc()
+		{
+			var di = new DirectoryInfo(Path.GetTempPath());
+			for (; ; )
+			{
+				var fis = di.GetFiles("bizhawk.bizdelete*");
+				foreach (var fi in fis)
+				{
+					try
+					{
+						fi.Delete();
+					}
+					catch
+					{
+					}
+
+					//try not to do more than one thing per frame
+					System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(100);
+				}
+
+				//try not to slam the filesystem too hard, we dont want this to cause any hiccups
+				System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(5000);
+			}
+		}
+
+		public static void Stop()
+		{
+		}
+
+		static System.Threading.Thread thread;
+	}
+
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/BizHawk.Client.EmuHawk/Program.cs b/BizHawk.Client.EmuHawk/Program.cs
index 8267396640..794f97fac4 100644
--- a/BizHawk.Client.EmuHawk/Program.cs
+++ b/BizHawk.Client.EmuHawk/Program.cs
@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@ namespace BizHawk.Client.EmuHawk
 				}
 			}
 
+			BizHawk.Client.Common.TempFileCleaner.Start();
 			Application.EnableVisualStyles();
 			Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
 			string iniPath = Path.Combine(Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location), "config.ini");