

TIP: If you want those types of things to be cleaned up, you’ll need to look beyond Windows for other programs to do that. The Windows Disk Cleanup tool doesn’t address all of the data on your computer - like personal documents and photos.Here’s how to do it:ĭisk Cleanup is very easy to use - even tech newbies can do it!Īre There Any Disadvantages To Using Windows Disk Cleanup? Windows Disk Cleanup is also one of the only ways to clean up error files - which are difficult to find and remove otherwise. Here’s a really helpful video showing how to use Windows Disk Cleanup. Go ahead and check all items in the list - because they’re all unimportant.Īfter confirming, Windows will begin the process of deleting all of the junk files on your computer! The next screen will be a list of all items to be cleaned.Once the correct drive is selected, hit OK.(If you want another hard drive cleaned, you can simply select it from the drop-down menu.) Choose the C: drive - because this is most often where data is stored.

It will ask which drive you want to clean up.(The correct application should appear even before you finish typing.) Open the Start Menu on your Windows PC.Here are the steps to run Windows Disk Cleanup: Without the ESD files, you would have to download Windows installation media in order to “reset your PC”.īefore you attempt the steps below, I recommend that you restart your computer to ensure that all Windows update operations are complete and make sure that you’re starting with a clean slate.Deleting them will make your life harder if you ever want to use the “reset your PC” feature in the future.ESD files are the ones used to reset a PC to its factory default settings.Deleting them could free up a few gigabytes of hard disk space, but you probably don’t want to remove them. These are the types of files that are safe to remove with Disk Cleanup (or any other disk cleaner):ĭon’t delete “Windows ESD installation files”. Often, a quick cleaning is all it takes to get your computer back to full capacity. This frees up valuable space - so you can save more documents and programs on your hard drive. In a simple and user-friendly way, Windows Disk Cleanup finds data which hasn’t been (or won’t be) used for a long time… and deletes it! If you have 2GB of RAM and your computer has ever experienced a blue screen error, running Disk Cleanup will recover at least 2GB of space. This file, called a “memory dump,” is as large as the amount of RAM in your computer. For example, Windows writes the contents of the computer’s memory to the hard drive by default if the computer crashes. It is not uncommon for Disk Cleanup to recover hundreds–if not thousands–of megabytes of storage space. Recover hard drive space. Disk Cleanup frees up hard drive space for you.Compressing files increases the amount of free space on your hard drive without deleting any of those files. Compress large files. Disk Cleanup searches your computer for files that you haven’t used for awhile and compresses them.Although you could find and delete all of these files manually, Disk Cleanup does it in a lot less time. Save you time. Disk Cleanup deletes files from a variety of locations (such as cached interactive content and temporary files saved by Internet Explorer).Windows Disk Cleanup will do these things: The Windows PC cleaner makes it easy to remove old and unnecessary files that clog up your hard drive space. However, it remains obscure and untouched by many of us - because most people don’t even know it’s there! System cleanup tips to keep your PC running smoothly all the time.ĭisk Cleanup is a free tool that comes with every Windows computer ( since Windows 98).What to look for when choosing a different PC cleaner.How the Windows Disk Cleanup tool works & why you should use it.So I’m going to break it down for you, and here’s what you’ll learn: Windows includes a tool for this very dilemma! (I completely forgot about it, until recently.) It’s called Disk Cleanup. And I can never seem to effectively remove it. Over time, my hard drive fills up with mysterious data - which really slows down my computer. It’s helpful to know how Disk Cleanup works on a PC - and how it can improve the speed of your computer. Is hard drive clutter a big problem for you? Join the club. If you buy thru these links, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
