Thursday 24 May 2012


How to clean junk files off your Windows PC


Windows Disk Cleanup utility How to clean junk files off your Windows PCIs your Windows hard drive starting to feel a bit cramped? A quick way to clear some hard drive space is to haul out the junk—that is, temporary files, old program setup files, cached thumbnails, and other bits of digital detritus that pile up over time.
I just ran a quick scan of my own system with Disk Cleanup, an essential utility that lives in the Windows Control Panel, and found that I had more than two gigabytes of unneeded files on my hard drive.
I just ran a quick scan of my own system with Disk Cleanup, an essential utility that lives in the Windows Control Panel, and found that I had more than two gigabytes of unneeded files on my hard drive.
Among the biggest space hogs that Disk Cleanup found on my system were 1.89 GB worth of so-called “temporary files,” or spare data from my various programs that are supposed to be regularly purged.
The tool also found 274 MB of setup files used by Microsoft Office (which you don’t really need as long as you have your physical Office DVDs handy), 183 MB of “system error memory dump files” (which you can safely deep six), and 164 MB of temporary Internet files, not to mention 116 MB of garbage sitting in the desktop recycle bin.
The Disk Cleanup tool gives you a nice overview of all the junk files on your system, checking those that you can delete without a second thought. You can also click on other items in the list and decide whether you keep them or lose them after reading a brief description.
Here’s how to get started:
  • Click the Start menu in the bottom-left corner of the screen, then click Control Panel, System and Security. Next, under the Administrative Tools section, click the “Free up disk space” link.
  • In a second or two, the Disk Cleanup utility should open, complete with a summary of potential files to delete and the grand total of disk space they’re using.
  • If you want to play it safe, you can stick to deleting the items that Windows has already checked for you—most likely “Downloaded Program Files” (basically, temporary helper files for viewing specific web pages), “Temporary Internet Files” (a cache of old web pages stored on your computer to speed your browsing), and Thumbnails (the tiny icon images used for music, videos, pictures, and other documents on your hard drive, which your system can always regenerate later). Just click the “Clean up system files” button, and you’re all done.
  • Want to zap more junk off your hard drive? Click each item in the list, read its description, and check the box next to the items you want deleted. Once you’re all set, click the “Clean up” button.

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