How to use Disk Cleanup on Windows

[Wolfie]

Hi all,

to clean up any or all old files that your system collects and stores, use "Disk Clean-up", a simple way to clear your computer of unnecessary files:

Open Windows Start Menu by pressing the Windows symbol (

) on your keyboard and type the word "disk", you will then be presented with the tool "Disk Clean-up", open the tool and select which boxes you want to tick and then on "OK":

It will clean all selected boxes and close automatically.

Re-open the app and then select "Clean up system files", a different window will open (looks the same but has a couple of differences to the first window).

Once again it will scan for files to delete, depending on what boxes you have ticked, it will take a long time so be patient!.

*Note the difference between the first and second windows!.

Again, it will close automatically once it has finished.

That's it. I hope it helps.

Wolfie

There is also an app called "CCleaner", it has a free and a pay version, you decide which one you wish to use:

https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download/standard

 

[Regedit32]

I thought your were supposed to throw away your disk and buy a new one

Nice work their Wolfie!

 

[Wolfie]

I thought your were supposed to throw away your disk and buy a new one

No Regedit32, that only applies to a brand new Mercedes once the tank is empty!.

 

[davehc]

I think the disk cleaner is a very useful tool, and worthy of more.
1. A quicker way to the objective: press the Windows key + R
2 Type cleanmgr
3. Select which disk you wish to clean up. (C: ?)
4. Make sure you have all the boxes , as wished, selected.
5. In the new window, bottom left, select the option to clean up system files., and OK
According to the size of your disk, the op may take a couple of minutes.

How about putting it on the taskbar or desktop
!. Go to Windows/System 32
Scroll down to cleanmgr.exe. According to your choice, right click the utility and pin to the taskbar or start.
2. Scroll down the start menu to Windows Administrative Tools. It is in there. You can right click it, move it and pin it etc.....

Whenever you choose to do a cleanup, you can right click and "run as Administrator", which will take care of the system files, or just run, as in Wolfies post.

 

[davehc]

Ccleaner update. Piriform was bought by Avast a couple of years ago. Avast now run Ccleaner as a separate site

https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/download/standard

Disk cleaner can be considerably enhanced, if you desire. As a result of a link posted on another site, I got hold of this and added a bit of my own.

In the "run" box (Right click the start and select) Type cleanmgr /sageset:50
You will be presented with a long list of items which can be deleted..
Select as you wish, and press enter
Now you must enter a slightly different command cleanmgr /sagerun:50
OK. It will take a while and then you must reboot the computer.

This may seem awkward, you can automate it however.
You can avoid the double "run" option like this:
Run the first command, cleanmgr.exe /sageset:50 and set your options and click OK to save.
Open a notepad and type cleanmgr.exe /sagerun:50 and save it as .bat or .cmd file to a convenient place (Desktop? or even in the start menu)

 

[Wolfie]

The newer tool (Storage) is also now available and will eventually replace the old disk clean-up utility.

Settings > System > Storage:

https://www.howtogeek.com/365762/disk-cleanup-is-going-away-in-windows-10-and-we-miss-it-already/

 

[davehc]

Pretty much an example of what I am interested in, referring to my thread regarding "improvements" in Windows 10.
Maybe more to it, but it seems, like the snipping tool and others, that all that has occurred is that they have moved a few menu items around and rebadged it

For anyone reading in this thread, I would suggest you urgently look at this facility and the options, or you might find items you need suddenly disappearing!

 

[Person who needs help]

Hi all,

to clean up any or all old files that your system collects and stores, use "Disk Clean-up", a simple way to clear your computer of unnecessary files:

Open Windows Start Menu by pressing the Windows symbol (View attachment 7883 ) on your keyboard and type the word "disk", you will then be presented with the tool "Disk Clean-up", open the tool and select which boxes you want to tick and then on "OK":

View attachment 7880

View attachment 7879

It will clean all selected boxes and close automatically.

Re-open the app and then select "Clean up system files", a different window will open (looks the same but has a couple of differences to the first window).

View attachment 7881

Once again it will scan for files to delete, depending on what boxes you have ticked, it will take a long time so be patient!.

*Note the difference between the first and second windows!.
View attachment 7882

View attachment 7880

Again, it will close automatically once it has finished.

View attachment 7886

That's it. I hope it helps.

Wolfie

There is also an app called "CCleaner", it has a free and a pay version, you decide which one you wish to use:

https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download/standard

Is it ok for me to delete the file called "Temporary Files"?

 

[Wolfie]

Hi Person who needs help,

yes you can delete the temp files no problem!. That is, as long as you don't mean the actual folder "Temp files!.

 

[monkeylove]

What I did was run the ff. command:

%windir%\system32\cleanmgr.exe /sageset:1

and then select what to clean. After that, I created the shortcut:

%windir%\system32\cleanmgr.exe /sagerun:1

to run what I set, and also added it as a task in the task scheduler.

Finally, there's also an advanced replacement called Cleanmgr+:

Cleanmgr+ 1.50.1300 | built by Bel ❤︎

Release notes

www.mirinsoft.com

 

[Rab89]

CCleaner was my main reason for dumping it, to many of my installed files suddenly disappeared after clean session. Free copy, sure but with adverts.

 

[Wolfie]

Hi Rab,

@davehc also points out the newer "Storage" feature (also commented above) which is eventually set to replace "Disk clean". Time will tell if that is better than the old one?.

 

[JustinC]

Aren't these steps to use Disk Cleanup in Windows 10:

1. In the search box on the taskbar, type disk cleanup, and select Disk Cleanup from the list of results.
2. Select the drive you want to clean up, and then select OK.
3. Under Files to delete, select the file types to get rid of. To get a description of the file type, select it.
4. Select OK.

 

[Wolfie]

Open Windows Start Menu by pressing the Windows symbol (

) on your keyboard and type the word "disk", you will then be presented with the tool "Disk Clean-up", open the tool and select which boxes you want to tick and then on "OK":

Already shown in the guide above!.