How to clean your computer of unnecessary windows xp programs. We clean the computer without reinstalling Windows. Removing the driver cache

Computers are so ingrained in our lives that it is simply impossible to imagine a world without them. Despite this, many users do not know how to take care of their "iron horse". For example, not everyone knows how to clean up the C drive. This article will help you fill the knowledge gap.

Filling up the system disk can lead to a number of inconveniences. If the C drive is low on space, then the following problems may occur:

• You cannot install new programs;
• No room for operating system updates;
• The speed of the PC slows down.

The first problem can be easily solved. If there is not enough space on the C drive, then you can install new programs in other partitions (D, E, etc.). But what about the second and third points? There is only one way out - you need to clean up the system disk. How can this be done? How do I free up space on the C drive? The answer can be found in this article.

How to free up space on the system drive?

Many people don't have the faintest idea of ​​how to clean up the local C drive. People mistakenly think that it is very difficult. Cleaning your computer is a quick and easy process that does not require any specialized IT knowledge. However, this procedure should not be neglected. The system disk should be cleaned at least once a month.

There are many ways to clean your computer from junk. We will consider the most effective in this article. Before you start, it should be noted that the methods below can be used to clean up the C drive from junk on Windows 10, Windows 7 and other versions of this OS.

Removing unnecessary programs manually

Of course, software takes up the most space. Therefore, when you need to clean the C drive from garbage, first of all, you need to pay attention to the software.

How to clean drive C from unnecessary files? To uninstall the program, you need to use the built-in Windows utility. To start it, you need to enter the "Start" menu and select "Control Panel" in the drop-down tab. Then you need to go to the "Remove Programs" section.

A new window will open containing information about all programs that are on the computer. They can be sorted by size, date, or title. What can be removed? First of all, software that is not used at all is subject to uninstallation. As a rule, these are completed games. In order to uninstall the program, click on it with RMB, after which the corresponding tab will appear.

Built-in Windows utility

You can free your computer from garbage using a standard Windows utility. This is done very simply. You need to go to "Computer" and click the RMB on the disk that we will clean up. In the drop-down list, click on the "Properties" item, after which a new window opens with information about the memory partition. We are interested in the "General" tab. We go there and click on the "Disk Cleanup" button.

The built-in utility will start analyzing the data and looking for unnecessary files. This will take a certain amount of time. After the program analyzes the computer memory, it will display a list of unnecessary files. They must be ticked off and then click "OK".

You can't free up a lot of memory this way, but you can win a couple of tens of megabytes.

Temporary files

To carry out the correct installation or update of programs, antiviruses, etc. temporary files are created on the computer. The operating system stores them in the Temp folder, which is located on the C drive. Temporary files are not needed for the daily operation of programs. Therefore, software that uses intermediate resources removes them after the installation or update is completed in an automatic mode.

However, sometimes a crash occurs due to which temporary files are not deleted. This leads to the fact that the Temp folder begins to gradually become clogged and take up more and more space on the system disk. To fix this, you need to manually delete the intermediate files. This is done very simply. You need to go to the Temp folder, which is located at "Computer"> C drive> Windows folder. To free up memory on the C drive, you must uninstall the contents of this folder.

In Windows 10, Windows 7 and other OS versions, there are two folders for storing temporary files. You can get to the second one through the "Start" menu. You just need to enter the search term% Temp%. The folder needs to be opened and emptied. It should be noted that sometimes the operating system may issue a warning that some files are not being deleted. This suggests that they are currently being used by some program. If such a message appears, then just click the "Skip" button.

"Basket"

Recycle Bin is a special folder that is temporary storage for deleted files. Everything that is stored there takes up computer memory. Therefore, the "Basket" needs to be cleaned from time to time. To do this, you need to right-click on the folder and click on the item "Empty Trash" in the drop-down list. After that, the folder will be freed from garbage, and there will be more memory on the C drive.

"Downloads"

Users quite often download movies, music, games through the standard browser downloader. Files from the Internet are automatically saved to the Downloads folder. And it, as you know, is located on the C drive. If the user often downloads some files from the Internet, then the free disk space very quickly dries up. To avoid clogging the C drive, you need to check the boot folder from time to time for large files.

You need to open "Computer" and go to "Downloads".

It is necessary to check the folder for the presence of large files and if there are any, then they must be deleted or moved to another disk.

Paging file

There is a paging file in Windows OS. How does it affect memory and why is it needed? Sometimes the system does not have enough RAM to perform certain operations. In such cases, the file takes a certain amount of permanent memory from the disk and uses it as RAM.

To free drive C, you need to make the paging file take resources elsewhere. You need to go to the "Computer" folder, and then click RMB. In the tab that appears, click on "Properties". A window will appear. In it we open "Additional system parameters".

Then click on "Options".

In the new window, go to the "Additional" section and click on "Change".

Install the disk from which the paging file will take memory. This is done as follows. Select the C drive and put a check mark in front of the "No paging file" property. To confirm, click on the "Set" button. With the other disk, we do everything the other way around and mark the property "System size".

If the window does not allow changing the properties (the field with disks is highlighted dim), then uncheck the box next to the "Automatically select paging file size" option.

Hibernation

To save space on the C drive, you can turn off hibernation on your computer. You need to activate the command line (combination Win + R) and write in it: powercfg.exe –h off. Press Enter and voila - hibernation is disabled. After restarting your computer, you may notice that there is a little more memory on the system disk.

However, unless absolutely necessary, it is better not to turn off hibernation mode. This is an extremely useful feature that allows you to restore the operation of previously launched programs, even if the computer was turned off. To reactivate hibernation, write the command powercfg.exe –h on in the console and restart the PC.

Control points

Checkpoints are created after various changes in the system (updating drivers, installing new software, etc.). They allow you to roll back the system in case of any problems. But for such an opportunity you have to pay with system memory. You can delete checkpoints to free drive C. This will give a couple of megabytes of memory. In this video, you can learn how to delete restore points and thus clean up the local drive C:

Conclusion

The memory on the C drive gets clogged up pretty quickly. This can cause a lot of trouble. To avoid problems, you need to monitor the amount of free space and clean the system disk from time to time. Cleaning the C drive has a positive effect on the performance of your computer and does not take much time. There are many free ways to free up disk space that is full of memory. Moreover, these methods are the same on all operating systems from Microsoft. That is, disk cleaning on Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows Vista is identical.

Cleaning disks. How do I clean my computer memory? We do disk C cleanup in Windows 7 or XP.

The topic of our lesson is to quickly and easily clean up the C drive. It is far from a secret that many people like to store files on their computer in order to have quick access to them. But sooner or later you are faced with the problem of lack of free disk space. Next, we will consider the simplest, but therefore no less effective ways to clean up the computer's internal memory.

Disk Cleanup C. Video tutorial.

First, watch the video tutorial, and after that, to consolidate the material, you can read the article.

How to clean computer memory from unnecessary files manually?

No matter how trite it sounds, but first of all you should Empty trash... For example, at the very beginning of my acquaintance with the computer, I did not know that simply deleting files is not enough to completely get rid of them. Then you also need to empty the Recycle Bin, into which they are carefully placed by the operating system in case you deleted something by accident or change your mind and want to restore some files.

1. So, if we are talking about deleting a specific file, right-click on it, select Delete and approve.
2. After that, right-click on the Trash, select Empty Trash and also approve.

By the way, there is another way to delete files, which does not require deleting them from the Trash again. Select the file with a single left click on it, and then simultaneously hold down the Shift + Delete keys. A window appears with a question, answer Yes.

The file was deleted from the computer, bypassing the Trash. On the one hand, it is quite convenient and fast, on the other hand, this method requires caution: you can not on purpose, but automatically delete the file permanently, making it impossible to restore it from the Recycle Bin. So take this method into service only if you are firmly sure that you are deleting completely unnecessary files and exclude the possibility of error.

Cleaning the disk in Windows from garbage. We remove all unnecessary at once.

So, we looked at how to delete individual files manually, but this is still not enough to. The fact is that a hard disk, also known as a hard drive, is usually split into several local disks. As a rule, this is the system C drive and one or more local drives. So, on the system disk, in addition to the operating system itself, many temporary files are stored that are automatically created to ensure the performance of various programs. Cleaning drive C from debris, is needed not only to free up disk space, but also to improve system performance. Therefore, if you want to ensure maximum performance of your computer, clean the C drive from debris at least once a week.

Now let's look directly at how to clear computer memory.

1. To do this, open My Computer and right-click on the local disk, then select Properties

2. Select the Disk Cleanup item

The accumulation of remnants of deleted applications, unnecessary registry entries, temporary files, logs that remain after updating Windows and programs, and other debris slows down the computer's performance. If all this is not removed, over time, the PC becomes so slow and annoying that the user can not stand it and reinstall the system. However, after a couple of months everything is back to normal - brakes, low FPS, and all sorts of glitches. Meanwhile, the problem is solved simply - it is enough 1-2 times a month to do prophylaxis using a computer cleaning program. We will talk about them today.

We have prepared a brief overview of the capabilities of the best Windows utilities that can give your system acceleration up to 50-70% relative to the original level. All of them are free and designed for newbie users.

CCleaner is one of the most popular Windows cleaning utilities in the ranking of users. And one of the safest. Cleaning the registry and applications in CCleaner is configured in such a way that, if you want to, you will not be able to delete something important, thereby disrupting the system's performance. In this part, the program can be used fearlessly by novice users. However, it also has such functions that it is better not to touch without proper knowledge. One of them is erasing disks. If you accidentally confuse it with Disk Cleanup (built-in Windows optimization tool), you can permanently lose any important data, as the program destroys it irrevocably.

Competent use of CCleaner allows you to speed up your computer by 5-50%. The result depends on the initial trash of the system and the amount of information on the disks.

CCleaner functionality

All functions of the application are divided into 4 groups, and the groups are divided into subgroups. The first group - "Cleaning", includes sections:

• Windows (Edge and Internet Explorer web browsers, File Explorer, System Components, and more).
• Apps (third party browsers, media, internet apps, system apps, etc.).

Clearing both of them removes only temporary and unnecessary data, without affecting the main one.

The second group - "Register", has no subgroups. Here is a tool for fixing registry errors and cleaning it from junk.

The third group - "Service, contains the following sections:

• Management of startup programs.
• Browser add-on management.
• Analysis of the distribution of disk space.
• Search for duplicate files.
• System Restore.
• Erasing discs.

The fourth group is "Settings". It includes:

• The main parameters of CCleaner.
• Browser Cooke files (setting exceptions).
• Inclusions (objects that should always be deleted).
• Exception (objects that the program should not handle).
• Application tracking (autovacuum setting).
• Trusted users.
• Additional options (for experienced).

CCleaner supports many languages, including Russian, Ukrainian, Kazakh. You can download it in both installation and portable versions. The latter can be launched, for example, from a USB flash drive.

Wise Care 365

Wise Care 365 - is an impressive package of utilities for computer optimization, most of which are available for free (the application is available in two versions - free and premium, in the free version some items are locked). As in CCleaner, Wise Care 365 scans the system for garbage, errors, incorrect (from the point of view of developers) settings and makes it possible to fix it - both individually and in bulk.

With this program, the user can clean and optimize Windows without thinking about the purpose of a particular function. It is enough to start scanning and press the "Fix" button after it.

Wise Care 365 functionality

Wise Care 365 features are also divided into groups. The first tab - "Check", is designed for a comprehensive search and elimination of problems in the entire system. The following parameters are checked:

• Safety.
• Unnecessary files (temporary, cache, logs, etc.).
• Invalid registry entries.
• System optimization (the presence of factors affecting performance).
• Computer history (opening documents and visiting web resources through Internet Explorer).

After scanning, the program determines the index of the "health" of the PC and offers to correct errors by pressing one button.

On the same - the first tab there is a panel of additional utilities. The free version includes:

• Deleting files that cannot be deleted using Windows tools.
• PC shutdown timer.
• Recovering deleted files.
• Optimizing memory.
• Uninstalling programs.

The second tab - "Cleaning", contains several subsections:

• Cleaning the registry.
• Fast disk cleanup.
• Deep cleaning.
• System cleaning (unnecessary Windows components).

The third tab - "Optimization", contains:

• Subsection "Optimization" (here you can change the registry settings to stabilize and speed up Windows, improve network performance, shorten the time to turn the computer on and off).
• Defragment disks.
• Compression and defragmentation of the registry.
• Startup management.

The "Privacy" tab contains the following subsections:

• Disk wiping.
• Wipe files.
• Password generator.

On the last tab - "System", the application shows running processes and a list of PC equipment.

Wise Care 365, like Ccleaner, is translated into Russian and is released in installation and portable versions.

Windows Cleaner

The Windows Cleaner utility includes tools to free the system from unnecessary files, registry entries and unused programs that can be launched manually and on a schedule. From optimization tools, there is only startup control. There are no options for improving the performance of your computer (apart from cleaning tools).

Windows Cleaner keeps a history of previous cleanings. If you accidentally delete an important registry entry or file, the program allows you to undo the last operation - perform a system restore to a checkpoint.

Functionality of Windows Cleaner

In the Cleaning section of Windows Cleaner, there are two tabs: Files and Registry. The first is a list of unnecessary file system objects, the second is the registry entries. The program supports 4 cleaning modes for both:

• Fast.
• Optimal.
• Deep.
• Custom.

After scanning, Windows Cleaner displays a list of objects to be removed. Strange, but the user has no way to remove any file or record from it. Only the entire group of objects (temporary files, memory dumps, report logs, etc.) can be excluded from scanning.

The "Service" section contains the "Startup" and "Uninstall programs" tabs.

The "History" stores records of previous transactions.

In the "Tinctures" you can set the scheduled cleaning parameters: interval, time, mode.

Windows Cleaner was developed in Russia. The official website contains background information on working with the program in Russian, as well as a feedback form with the developer.

Glary utilities free

Glary Utilities Free is a free harvester application for computer optimization. Its set includes more than thirty utilities for all occasions, and some of them are unique for products of this class or are found only in paid versions. For example, finding and removing spyware (spyware), checking for updates to programs installed on your computer, encrypting files, optimizing memory, splitting and merging files, etc. A list of commonly used utilities is shown in the screenshot above.

Glary Utilities Free features

Glary Utilities Free features are divided into 3 groups:

• Short review.
• "1-click".
• Modules.

The "At-a-glance" section contains general program settings and Windows startup controls.

The "1-click" contains tools for fast system optimization:

• Cleaning the registry.
• Fixing shortcuts.
• Removal of spyware.
• Recovery (check) of the disk.
• Privacy.
• Removing temporary files.
• Startup manager.

In the list of problems, there is an explanation next to each item. In addition, the user has the ability to prohibit the correction of any item by unchecking the box next to it.

The "Modules" section contains all the components (utilities) of the program that the user can run separately - as needed. This includes tools for cleaning, managing disk space, files, etc. The bottom bar of all tabs in the main window contains shortcut buttons for some of them.

Glary Utilities Free has another cool feature - making a portable version of itself. The option is in the "Menu".

WinUtilities Free

The functionality of the free version of WinUtilities Free, like Glary Utilities, is very diverse for applications of this class. It includes 26 modules for system maintenance and cleaning. There is also a one-click Windows optimization function, and its own task scheduler for performing scheduled operations.

WinUtilities Free Features

The "Modules" tab of WinUtilities Free contains a list of all application components, divided into groups:

• Maintenance (cleaning drives, registry, shortcuts, etc.).
• Optimization (defragmentation of disks, registry, startup management, etc.).
• Security (cleaning history, managing running processes, deleting and restoring files).
• Files and folders (document protection, disk space analysis, duplicate search).
• Registry (backup, search for partitions and keys, context menu manager).
• System (running Windows utilities, system management, task scheduler, setting up automatic shutdown of the computer).

The "Maintenance" tab contains settings for quick scanning and system optimization with one click.

The "Tasks" section includes 4 options for scheduled PC maintenance:

• Cleaning disks.
• Clearing history.
• Cleaning the registry.
• Disk Defragmenter.

The Status section displays information about the product.

InfoMan

InfoMan is an easy-to-use information management manager for PC. Consists of five modules that run separately. The cleaning module is used to find and delete temporary files in the program or user list.

Other InfoMan modules are intended for:

• Synchronization of data in two specified directories.
• Store passwords.
• Event reminders.
• Application settings.

After starting the program icon is placed in the system tray. Modules are launched from its context menu.

Advanced system care

Advanced System Care is the latest program for comprehensive computer maintenance from the well-known developer IObit in our review. In addition to cleaning and optimization tools, it contains tools to improve performance and protect various system components.

Advanced System Care Features

As with the rest of the reviewed applications, Advanced System Care features are divided into categories:

• Acceleration.
• Protection.
• Cleaning and optimization.
• Tools.
• Center of action.

The "Acceleration" tab contains tools to improve computer performance: turbo acceleration, hardware acceleration, etc.

"Protection" contains tools to improve security - video identifier of the user's face, anti-tracking tools in the browser, safe web surfing, and more.

The "Cleaning and Optimization" contains utilities for removing garbage from the file system and registry.

"Tools" lists all modules of the application plus other IObit products.

Action Center contains tools for automatically updating programs installed on your PC and downloading other IObit products.

In addition, Advanced System Care installs a widget into the system, which is constantly on the screen and displays the percentage of RAM and processor utilization.

The applications included in today's review support all editions of Windows, from XP to Windows 10. We decided not to talk about programs whose authors limited themselves to supporting systems prior to Windows 7, since they are out of date today.

» How to quickly and efficiently clean a Windows XP system?

How to quickly and efficiently clean a Windows XP system?

In the process of each, without exception, installation and removal of programs, using an object such as a recycle bin, some changes are made in the computer's operating system. Such transformations are not always positively reflected in the Windows XP registry. Moreover, in the process of working on a computer, its system slowly but surely accumulates a large number of unused and unclaimed files.
All this can lead to a slowdown of the entire system as a whole, which ultimately will lead to a complete loss of Windows XP functionality. It is for this reason that in order to extend the life of the operating system, it is required to carry out a process such as cleaning after certain periods of time.
It is known that you can clean up the computer system manually by using the built-in tools of Windows XP, but this is quite painstaking work that will take a lot of time, and also requires certain skills and knowledge. Fortunately, at the moment, quite a few programs have been developed and are successfully used that make it possible to automatically complete a process such as cleaning Windows XP, that is, all its system folders and registry. In this way, you can not only clean, but significantly increase the efficiency of the entire system and optimize the computer as efficiently as possible.

CCleaner program

One of the programs that is able to effectively clean the system is CCleaner. The utility is downloaded completely free of charge, therefore it is available to any user of a personal computer, moreover, it is ideal for Windows XP.

The main functions of such a program include:

• cleaning the system registry of the computer;
• cleaning the file system;
• control over installed applications, as well as various objects downloaded automatically.

It should be noted that in order to avoid possible problems in the process of cleaning the registry, it is recommended to use a special built-in system for creating insurance copies of the Windows XP registry before starting the cleaning process.

So, to start the process, you need to download the program, its installation is simple, therefore it does not require special attention. It is important to note that the installation process simply prompts you to automatically install the Yahoo search toolbar. If this panel is not needed, you should uncheck this item. After installing and then launching the program, you will be able to see the corresponding window.

System cleaning process

As a rule, to clean the system, you just need to delete unnecessary files, but the Recycle Bin is not suitable for this. The "cleaning" section allows you to find and delete those objects that are no longer needed on a particular computer. Very often these are just temporary files that belong to the Windows XP operating system. The working area of ​​the module performing cleaning consists of two fields - left and right. In the left part of the window, you can enable or disable the cleaning process for different areas of programs that the utility supports, and the right one is usually empty during the startup process. While the program is running, the right side of it displays information about the progress of the cleaning process.

Registry cleaning

In order to properly clean Windows XP, it is necessary to put the system registries in a certain order. The program discussed in this article does an excellent job of this. Its cleaning module allows you to quickly find and correct all erroneous entries in the system registry, the presence of which affects the speed of the entire system as a whole, and delete them. It is worth noting that in the workspace of the module it is possible to select areas of the registry that are necessary or, conversely, do not need to be processed. In order to start looking for a problem in the registry, you just need to click the "search for problems" button. Despite the fact that CCleaner is a very reliable program, it is always worth keeping backups before performing the cleaning procedure.

If during the analysis of the registry more than one error was detected, which usually always happens, the program will ask for an action that must be taken, and this is done for each error it finds.

Program management

The CCleaner program has a special section "Service", which is designed to remove programs that are installed on the computer, and is also able to configure the list of applications that are automatically launched during the boot process of the operating system.

Particular attention in the process of cleaning the system deserves the removal of unnecessary programs. In a special subsection "Uninstall programs" usually displays a list of different applications that have been installed on the computer over the entire time. In the standard deletion system, through such a thing as the trash can, which is present in the operating system panel, some objects may not be displayed, since such a function is provided by some developers. But unlike Windows, CCleaner is able to display all programs that have been installed on a computer at one time or another by using the installer.

There is another important feature of the CCleaner application - it is a special function associated with removing programs that were uninstalled incorrectly through an application such as the trash can. As a rule, this happens in a situation where the standard uninstaller of one or another program to be removed did not work quite correctly, and also if the program files were manually deleted by the user without using it. In order to uninstall a program using your own installer, select it in the CCleaner window and start the uninstallation process.

If for some reason the uninstaller did not work, you will need to click the "Remove" button. In this situation, the utility will find and delete not only the file of this program from the disk, but also all the traces left from it in the registry of the personal computer. It is important to remember that the Uninstallation mode in CCleaner is ideal only for uninstalling those applications that cannot be uninstalled with the usual standard means.

Another rather interesting function of the cleaning program is the ability to rename any reinstalled program. In some situations, this function is extremely necessary.
With regard to such a process as autoload, this is one of the most useful partitions in the system. In order to properly clean the operating system, it is required to reduce the number of downloaded programs to the minimum indicators at an automatic level. This section is intended for managing the list of programs that start automatically when the system boots. Quite a lot of programs during the installation process create special autoloading modules designed to automatically check for updates via the Internet, and often the user does not even know about it, and the basket will not help here.

Such applications greatly slow down loading, consume a certain amount of traffic, reduce processor power, and also take up a certain amount of RAM on a personal computer. It is not so easy to find and disable such automatically launched programs on your own, even when using the usual mechanisms. This is based on the fact that many are designed in this way to mask their automatic activities. CCleaner is designed in such a way to see and immediately disable those programs that were loaded automatically and are completely unnecessary.

System Restore

The latest version of the cleaning program has a new section that allows you to manage special checkpoints for the recovery of the Windows XP operating system. In fact, these are archives of a special format, which are created by the operating system at an automatic level and, as a rule, take up a lot of space.

Configuring CCleaner

In the "Settings" section of the described utility, you can define the rules and parameters of the application action associated with the cleaning process. For example, in a special subsection "coockie files", if necessary, you can configure similar files of those sites that you want to delete, or perform the opposite actions with sites that you want to leave. As a rule, experts recommend deleting adware cookies, which can be erased without much regret, but this should not be done with frequently used sites.

Conclusion

The CСleaner utility makes it possible to significantly speed up and also effectively stabilize the work of a personal computer by completely removing files from it that are not used by any other programs, but at the same time take up disk space, and, no less important, take up system resources.
To maintain optimal system performance, it is recommended to run the system at least once a week, then the PC will constantly work stably and quickly. At the same time, it is recommended to use the program for the process of defragmenting the hard disk. All this will ensure the efficient operation of the entire system as a whole.

While working at the computer, a lot of unnecessary information accumulates on the hard disk. These are all kinds of temporary files downloaded from the Internet web page, as well as unused application files. The more programs you install and run, the more often you go online, the more chances you have of various useless garbage on your hard drive, which takes up precious free space. To maintain order on your PC, you need to periodically clean up. The Windows XP operating system provides the user with many useful utilities, among which there is a program called Disk Cleanup.

This utility first appeared in Windows Millennium and became very popular among users due to its convenience and simplicity. Subsequently, the program was included in the utilities of newer versions of Windows operating systems. Thus, the Disk Cleanup Wizard migrated to Windows XP. Let's move on to an example of the Disk Cleanup Wizard in order to appreciate all the advantages of this utility, and at the same time learn how to use it effectively.

Disk Cleanup is included in the standard set of Windows XP utilities. To start it, activate Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup. Otherwise, the program can be run from the command line by typing its name: cleanmgr. After starting the utility, the working window of the program will appear on the screen.

To continue working, you must select a logical disk that will be subjected to the cleaning procedure. By default, the selected drive is always (C :). You can also start the cleaning wizard by going to "My Computer", selecting the appropriate drive, and by right-clicking on it, activate the "Disk Cleanup" tab. Then the cleaning procedure will be immediately launched specifically for the selected disk. Once you've identified the drive you want to clean up, you can click OK. In this case, the Disk Cleanup Wizard will proceed to the procedure for checking the status of files on this disk. It is necessary to show a little patience, as this procedure usually takes quite a long time.

After completing the analysis of the current state of the disk, the utility will present a report on the work done, indicating how much space can be freed. In addition, the wizard will display a summary of how disk space can be freed. Let's try to understand this report by analyzing the information provided by the Disk Cleanup Wizard line by line.

The wizard displays a list of file categories that can be deleted or compressed without affecting system operation. However, the user is encouraged to independently determine what should and should not be deleted. The tick marks the groups of files to be deleted. At the end of each line, the amount in kilobytes that can be freed up by deleting this category of files is displayed.

In order to confidently make his choice, the user needs to understand what the listed filegroups are. So, the Disk Cleanup wizard offers to subject the following to the removal procedure:

• Downloaded Program Files
• temporary files from the Internet (Temporary Internet Files);
• files in the Recycled Bin
• temporary files of applications (Temporary Files);
• temporary offline files;
• offline files;
• stand-alone web pages (WebClient / Publisher);
• setup log file
• compressed files that have not been accessed for a long time;
• Content indexer catalog files used by the OS during the last indexing.

Let's take a closer look at each group. The Downloaded Program Files folder is for temporary storage of ActiveX controls and Java applications that are automatically downloaded from the Internet when you download and view various web pages. The folder can be cleaned up at any time.

The Temporary Internet Files directory contains web pages that are automatically saved to your hard drive while you browse the Internet for quick viewing when you access them again. With a good connection, the loading time of pages in a new way is not very long, and therefore it makes no sense to protect the contents of this folder. Since a large number of files accumulate in it, you should try to clean it up regularly enough.

Files are placed in the Trash after they have been deleted from the disk. This is the final frontier before files are permanently deleted and can be recovered before the Trash is emptied. An absent-minded user who has inadvertently deleted the files he needs can easily find them here. The name of the Recycle Bin speaks for itself - it is intended for garbage and should be monitored for overflow. Emptying the Recycle Bin will rid the drive of previously deleted files.

Some programs very often store temporary information in files, in a specially designated TEMP folder. As a rule, these files are usually deleted before closing such programs. However, this does not always happen, and therefore a lot of unnecessary information can accumulate in the folder. Temporary files that are stored for more than a week can be safely deleted.

Temporary Offline Files are local copies of recently used network files that are automatically cached. This makes it possible to access them in a disconnected state.

Offline files are essentially the same as temporary offline files, with the only difference that they are local copies of network files that have been explicitly requested offline access. Both those and others can be safely removed without negative consequences for the operation of the system.

The WebClient / WebPublisher service saves appropriately accessed files to disk. They are necessary to increase performance, and therefore can be painlessly removed.

One way to save space is to compress files that have not been accessed for a long time. At the same time, Windows retains the ability to access these files at any time, and no information is deleted. However, the information about the freed space in this case will be approximate, since the files are compressed with varying degrees.

The indexing service is designed to speed up the search for files on disks. By creating indexes of files on the disk, this service greatly expands the ability to find the information you need. However, old indexes may be retained from the last indexing operation and should be dropped.

Thus, by reviewing the report of the Disk Cleanup Wizard, you can determine which of the detected files should be deleted. If necessary, by selecting any group of files from the proposed list, you can view its contents. To do this, just click the "View files" button. This is useful when only a few files from the entire group need to be saved. They can be rewritten to another directory, and the rest of the files can be mercilessly deleted. It is also worth noting that the composition of the components proposed for removal depends on the type of disc. For example, for non-bootable logical drives, the report typically only lists the contents of the Recycle Bin and the content indexer catalog files.

Using the More Options tab, you can free up additional disk space by removing unused Windows components or installed programs. Each user should try to determine what kind of applications he uses when working at a computer. Anything else can be deleted.

After you have identified all the information to be deleted, you can safely click OK in the report window of the cleaning wizard. All selected files are removed and Disk Cleanup exits automatically.

In conclusion, I would like to note that there are many different utilities that allow you to perform the disk cleanup procedure. Some developers offer comprehensive solutions to optimize Windows performance (Norton Utilites, Fix-It Utilites, System Mechanic, etc.). There are also programs specially designed for this purpose. Nevertheless, it makes no sense to dwell on their descriptions in detail, since the differences in the operation of such programs are not significant. Experience has shown that the standard Disk Cleanup utility is the most convenient and safe way to free up disk space. In addition, it is far from always possible to free up enough space by deleting only useless information. In this case, no utilities will be able to help, and you will have to figure out how you can get additional free space. Over time, each user gains enough experience in order to get rid of unnecessary and useless information on their own, so to speak "by hand", simply deleting unnecessary files and not being afraid to damage the system. This is the most effective method of keeping your computer in order. And at the initial stage, the Disk Cleanup Wizard will always help you with this problem. Moreover, he is always at hand. Happy cleaning!

Additional tips for using the Disk Cleanup utility:

1. The System Volume Information folder is used by System Restore. This is where the so-called restore checkpoints are stored. By default, the size of this folder is 12% of the disk space - that is, quite a lot. You can change the size of the reserved space, disable monitoring of one of the disks, or completely disable the restore function. The size of the reserved space can be changed in the control panel on the "System Restore" / "System" tab. Restore milestones can be removed by running Disk Cleanup. After selecting the disk, you must go to the "Advanced" tab, then "System Restore" and click the "Clean" button. The operation allows you to very significantly free up disk space.
2. It is possible to pre-configure the configuration of the Disk Cleanup Wizard.

   To do this, you must run the cleanup wizard from the command line using the Run procedure in the start menu. In this case, the line will look like this:

   cleanmgr / sageset:<числовое значение от 0 до 65535>

   The / d switch specifies the disk to clean up. If this parameter is absent, all disks in the system will be cleaned up. The / sageset switch describes the parameters in the cleanup wizard report dialog box. The numerical value of this key describes different sets of parameters.

   Unfortunately, after starting the wizard from the command line, an annoying window will still appear on the screen showing the cleaning process.

3. If the Disk Cleanup Wizard did not please you for some reason, you can add another utility to the system instead. To do this, use the "Run" procedure to start the Windows Registry Editor by typing regedit at the command line. Then you need to open the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWAREMicrosoft WindowsCurrentVersion ExplorerMyComputer section. This section contains subsections for disk utilities. The CleanupPath subkey must be created for the Disk Cleanup Wizard. By default, the following value is used: "% SystemRoot% system32cleanmgr.exe / D% c" This line can be changed by specifying the path to another, own disk cleanup utility, with its own parameters. In addition, in this line you can enter the parameters for launching the Disk Cleanup Wizard itself, described in the paragraph above.