Cleaning Windows 10 from temporary files or other junk is an activity that users got used to when using the XP operating system and other earlier versions of the OS. If you believe the words of the developers of this program, then everything is completely different here. However, users who are already accustomed to cleaning their computer still ask the question: “How to clean Windows 10”? Today we will try to answer this question and do it quite simply.
Is a cleaning procedure required on personal computers or laptops running Windows operating system? How to properly delete all unnecessary files from your device?
First, let's look at the types of garbage that are present on modern computers. Most often, devices are cleared of the following files:
- Temporary files of the Windows 10 operating system itself;
- Residual files of various programs installed on the computer;
- Cleaning the system registry;
- Removing "garbage" from local disks.
It is safe to say that the Microsoft Windows 10 operating system is not only the latest version, but also the most functional OS. In theory, this version is much smarter than older versions and therefore it itself should control junk files that accumulate on local disks and slow down performance. Interestingly, software developers have expressed concerns about using a third-party application to clean their computer. In their opinion, you should not trust your computer and registry to dubious programs.
There is some logic in this statement and it is understandable why developers protect their product from third-party programs. Unfortunately, many applications have begun to be hacked, and scammers add unwanted software to them, as a result of which the entire operating system fails.
So what is the best Windows 10 cleaner? Standard or third-party features? This issue is discussed in detail in the video below, which also provides information about all the methods. Below the video you will find a text version:
Standard OS cleaning options
Let's first discuss standard operating system tools that will allow you to clean up. We will not touch the registry in any way as this is not recommended by the creators of the software. Therefore, we will delete temporary files and free up the local disk.
To do this, you can use an interesting, fairly informative tool that is not available on previous OSes. The functionality is called “Storage”.
First of all, simultaneously press two keys “Win” + “L”.
Then, after the window with the operating system parameters opens, go to the “System” section.
Select the tab we need.
The user gets the opportunity to thoroughly examine the files located on the hard drive and draw a conclusion about the need to delete something. By clicking on one of the drives, the user will receive the most accurate information about how many files are on the computer and what type they are. At the very end there is a function for showing “Temporary files” and “Trash”. Thanks to them, you may be able to clear some space on your hard drive.
Another way to clean Windows 10 involves the following steps:
- Click on the disk icon with the right button of the computer mouse;
- Select “Properties”;
- Click on the “Disk Cleanup” item.
Everything is extremely simple!
At the same time, you should not forget about the folder, in case for some reason it should be saved on a computer or laptop. If you don’t need this folder, then feel free to check the box next to it, and you will immediately free up space in the amount of 3-15 GB, depending on how much your previous OS weighed.
We have described two standard options for cleaning Windows 10 with your own hands. Now let's talk about third-party applications.
How to clean Windows 10 with third-party programs?
It was already noted above that you can use Clean Master only if you take full responsibility for the possible consequences. This application has a simple and intuitive interface. And if you download it from our website, then the interface is in Russian.
This application is not approved by the developers, as it affects the system registry, and this is not always good. Therefore, the user must carefully consider the need to use this software. And if you have already chosen it, then monitor its operation, since situations regularly arise that, as part of optimization, utilities delete the necessary files - system or user ones.
Now you know how to clean Windows 10 using standard tools and third-party applications. If Klin Master is not suitable for you, it has powerful analogues. Such as . You can choose any solution. So that you do not have to constantly return to this issue, we recommend setting up automatic operation of these tools, which will allow you to entrust all processes to programs.
8 cool ways to clean your hard drive in Windows 10
Perhaps I’ll start with the simplest method and immediately want to remind you that the longer you work on the computer, the more temporary files accumulate that need to be deleted. This is garbage from running applications, saved recovery images for the operating system, backup copies of system files (Winsxs folder), an overflowing recycle bin, etc. Accordingly, this takes up a lot of space and needs to be carried out regularly as a preventive measure. Even though you have terabytes of free space. Don’t forget, such clutter can lead to unstable operation of the OS, glitches, slowdowns and crashes.
Deleting temporary files
Go to “This PC”, right-click (RMB) on the local disk, in the context menu that opens, at the very bottom click on “Properties” and then “Disk Cleanup”. In the window that opens, check off those elements that show the most wasted space or you can select all of them. Click on the “Ok” button and finally confirm the action.
In order for the result to be even better, click on the “Disk Cleanup” button again, and then “Clean up system files”. We select the largest documents in size and, accordingly, delete them. Then go to the “Advanced” tab, where in the “System Restore and Shadow Copy” item, click the corresponding button to erase unnecessary junk.
Automatic garbage removal in Windows 10
Unfortunately, this option is only available in the latest version of the OS. To enable it, go to the “Start” menu -> “Options” -> “System” -> “Storage”. Let's activate the "Memory Control" function and change the settings as we want.
Compressing system files on your computer
There is such software in the new operating system - Compact OS. Its task is to shrink Windows 10 by erasing unnecessary elements in it and compressing the rest. As a result, you can get up to 7 GB of free space! But before you start, I strongly advise you to make a backup, otherwise you never know.
How to remove unnecessary programs from your computer
But there are also so-called pre-installed applications, those that were pre-installed in the OS. You can also get rid of some of them. How to do this, you can and.
Disk Cleanup Program for Windows 10
Find duplicates
While working on a PC, a bunch of duplicate documents, pictures, music, videos, etc. appear. These doubles are completely useless. Of course, you can do all the elimination work manually, especially if it’s not so significant... But it’s better to use utilities special for these purposes, one of which I suggest you get acquainted with at this link.
Search for empty folders
It would also be a good idea to get rid of empty folders. They appear mainly after uninstalling programs. Many uninstallers do not approach this task responsibly and after them they still have to complete their own responsibilities. To avoid this, I recommend the following software for these purposes; Revo Uninstaller, CCleaner or CleanMyPC. Well, to search for and delete empty folders, I advise Remove Empty Directories.
Find and delete large files on your computer
Well, no hard drive cleaning is complete without eliminating large, unnecessary files. There are hundreds of software that cope with this task. You can immediately forget about the manual method here. They will come to help.
For stable and fast operation of the Windows 10 operating system, there must be enough space on the disk where it is located. Recently, users are increasingly using low-volume ones, installing on them exclusively the system and programs whose fast operation is necessary. However, over time, there will be less and less space on the system hard drive, and no visible files will appear for deletion. There are two effective ways to free up disk space with Windows 10 quickly and without third-party applications - remove “garbage” and “compress” the operating system. In total, this can help free up up to 20-30 GB.
How to clear a Windows disk of temporary files
The Windows operating system “remembers” a lot of data during operation, saving it in the form of temporary files on the disk where it is installed. This could be data about thumbnails of files in folders, temporary files to restore a previous version of the operating system, “garbage” left after installing Windows, and much more. The user can delete all this information from the hard drive, which sometimes takes up tens of gigabytes, using the pre-installed Disk Cleanup utility.
Important: Before deleting any data, it is recommended that you familiarize yourself with why it was saved by the system. Most often, when cleaning disks, you can gain space by deleting “Previous Installations” and “Temporary Files” of the operating system. But it is important to understand that without them it will not be possible to return the previous version of Windows if problems arise with the current one. Accordingly, you should delete these files only if you are sure that the operating system is stable on the current version.
To clear your Windows 10 disk of temporary files, you need to do the following:
It will take a few seconds to clear the hard drive of unnecessary information, after which space will be freed up on the drive.
How to free up disk space with Windows using Compact OS
In the Windows 10 operating system, Microsoft has added a new tool whose purpose is to optimize space on the system disk. It is called Compact OS and is intended to be used from the command line. With Compact OS the user can free:
- About 2 GB on a hard drive with a x64-bit operating system;
- About 1.5 GB on a drive with an x32-bit operating system.
When using the Compact OS utility, hard disk space is freed up by compressing system files and universal applications preinstalled in Windows. Microsoft warns Windows 10 users that compressing operating system files using Compact OS may slow down the device. In practice, such a problem is not observed.
On some versions of Windows 10, file compression using Compact OS may be enabled by default. To determine whether operating system data size optimization is enabled or not, you need to run and enter the following command in it:
Compact /compactos:query
After entering the command, press Enter. Depending on whether compression is enabled or not, different messages will appear on the command line.
If file compression using Compact OS is not used by the system, you can enable it with administrator rights. To do this, you need to write on the command line:
Compact /compactos:always
After pressing Enter, the command line will display how many files were compressed, how much they weighed before optimization, and how much they weigh after it.
During its operation, the operating system creates a lot of temporary data that is stored on disk (usually drive C) in the form of files and registry entries. These can be files from update packages, archivers, shadow copies, content downloaded from the Internet, etc. Third-party programs behave in a similar way, for example, browsers that store website data in a cache. Some temporary files are deleted automatically after a certain time, others remain on the disk until they are forcibly deleted.
If the user does not regularly maintain and clean up the C drive, the free space on it becomes less and less, to the point that the disk eventually ends up filled to capacity with temporary files, which precludes further writing of any data to it and reduces its performance. There are two ways out of this situation - either increase the size of the system partition at the expense of the user volume, or perform a comprehensive cleanup of it, which is more preferable. Let's see how to free up space on your local C drive in Windows 7/10.
What can you delete if the disk is full?
The system volume contains many important files that ensure the normal operation of Windows, so deep cleaning it should be approached with the utmost care. What can you delete from the C drive to free up space and not disrupt the system? All its contents can be divided into three groups. The first includes files that can be deleted without any fear. The second consists of files, the deletion of which, although it will not harm the system, can still cause certain problems under some circumstances. The third group includes files that cannot be deleted, as this can make programs and the system inoperable. You can clean up drive C without negative consequences by deleting:
- Cart Contents.
- Library catalogues.
- Temp and Downloaded Program Files folders in the Windows directory.
- Cache of browsers and some third-party programs.
- Icon sketches.
- Logs and memory dumps for system errors.
- Old Chkdsk utility files.
- Bug reports.
- Files created by the Windows debugger.
With some caution, you can delete shadow copies () created during the installation of updates and stored in backup copies, files from previous system installations (Windows.old folder), unnecessary components and applications, folders of uninstalled programs in the ProgramData, Program Files and Roaming directories, MSOCache Microsoft Office folder. If you do not use Quick Start, you can delete the file hiberfil.sys in the root of drive C, having previously disabled these functions in the settings. It is acceptable, but not recommended, to delete the swap file pagefile.sys. Other files and folders on drive C cannot be deleted so as not to disrupt the operation of the system.
Cleaning junk and temporary files using Windows
First, let's look at how to clear drive C of unnecessary files in Windows 7/10 using the operating system itself. Windows has a built-in utility for these purposes. cleanmgr.exe, which can be launched either through the properties of the partition being cleaned or through the “Run” dialog box. After the utility scans the disk for outdated files, check the boxes on the “Disk Cleanup” tab and click “OK.”
If you click the “Clean up system files” button, reports, device driver packages, error dumps and, additionally, restore points, with the exception of the most recent one, will become available for deletion.
For a deeper and more thorough cleaning of drive C from garbage, you can use the built-in console utilities Dism And vssadmin. The first allows you to delete temporary data from the WinSxS folder, including backups created before installing Windows updates. To do this, use the following commands executed in the CMD console running as administrator:
- DISM.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup
- DISM.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /SPSuperseded
- vssadmin delete shadows /all /quiet
The first command does the same thing as the cleanmgr.exe utility, only more thoroughly.
The second deletes all backup update packages from the WinSxS folder.
The third command can delete all restore points, including the last one.
However, you should use these tools with caution, since after executing the indicated commands, you will no longer be able to roll back the system to a working state or a previous version.
Note: Before cleaning the WinSxS folder, it is recommended to set its true size, thereby making sure that it really needs cleaning. To do this, you need to run the command on the command line Dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /AnalyzeComponentStore and compare the actual size of the component store with the size indicator in the Explorer properties.
After updating Windows to a newer version, a folder appears in the root of drive C Windows.old, which can take up significant disk space.
The contents of this directory are copies of the system installation files of the previous version of Windows. If you are determined not to return to the old version of the system, you can delete the Windows.old folder. This is done again either using cleanmgr.exe or using the command line. In the first case, you need to find and select the “Previous Windows installations” item on the “Advanced” tab; in the second case, run the command in the CMD console running as administrator rd /s /q c:/windows.old.
You can get a little extra space on the C drive by removing unused components, the same ones that are accessible through the classic Add/Remove Programs applet.
The standard Dism utility is also used here. To select and uninstall an unused Windows component, run the following two commands in the CMD console running with elevated rights:
- DISM.exe /Online /English /Get-Features /Format:Table
- DISM.exe /Online /Disable-Feature /featurename:NAME /Remove
The first command displays a list of all components in the system, the second deletes the selected element. In this example, its name must be substituted for the NAME line element.
Manual removal of programs and files
With the exception of Windows 8.1 and 10 universal apps, almost all desktop programs are installed in the folder Program Files. If a program is no longer needed, it should be deleted so that it does not take up disk space, but this must be done either using a standard uninstaller or using special third-party programs. However, after uninstalling applications, folders with configuration files may remain on the disk, the weight of which can reach several hundred megabytes. Such data must be deleted manually.
Let's say you have removed Microsoft Office or Skype from your computer and you also want to get rid of all their remaining “tails” on the C drive. To do this, carefully check the Program Files and ProgramData directories in the root of drive C, as well as the folders C:/Users/Username/AppData. If the folder name matches the name of the deleted application, it can be deleted.
The AppData folder is a little more complicated. This hidden directory contains three subfolders: Local, LocalLow and Roaming. The first stores files created during the operation of various programs. You cannot clear it entirely, as this will most likely lead to the loss of saved application settings, however, half-empty folders of uninstalled programs can be completely safely deleted. You can also safely clear the contents of the folder located in it Temp.
The same applies to the LocalLow and Roaming folders; it is permissible to delete from them only those directories that belonged to previously uninstalled applications.
Note: By clearing the contents of the Local, LocalLow and Roaming folders, you lose user settings and data saved in their cache. For example, after deleting its folders in your user profile, you will lose your current messenger settings and part of your message history.
As for removing universal applications, they are uninstalled using the standard tools of the system itself or the CCleaner program, which will be discussed below. You can also move some universal applications from drive C to drive D, if they support this feature.
Transferring desktop programs to another volume is also possible; there is a special utility for this purpose SteamMover, which you can download from the developer’s website www.traynier.com/software/steammover.
Using CCleaner
Many novice users are interested in how to delete unnecessary files from drive C using third-party programs, as well as which of these programs are more effective and safe in this regard. These can be recommended CCleaner– a simple, fast, convenient, and most importantly safe Windows disk and registry cleaner. This program allows you to delete temporary data from the Internet and Windows itself, the contents of the thumbnail cache and DNS, Index.dat files, memory dumps, fragments of chkdsk files, various system logs, outdated prefetch files and a lot of other unimportant data.
Using CCleaner, you can clear the system registry of incorrect entries, optimize, enable, disable or remove browser extensions, analyze the contents of hard drives, search for duplicates and, of course, uninstall unnecessary applications, including universal ones.
CCleaner's interface is very simple, so understanding its simple functionality will not be difficult even for a novice user.
Considering, however, that the main purpose of CCleaner is still cleaning, all its additional tools have limited functionality. If your C drive is full of unknown things, and you want to find out what exactly it is, then for these purposes it is better to use specific utilities, for example, Scanner, JdiskReport or their analogues, showing more accurate information about the file structure of the media with the ability to navigate through subdirectories.
Other ways to free up space on drive C
Clearing the Driver Store
The steps described above are usually enough to free up enough space on the system volume, but what if drive C is still full? What else can you do to get additional space? One option is to clear the contents of the folder FileRepository located at C:/Windows/System32/DriverStore.
This directory contains copies of device drivers that were ever connected to the computer, and may also contain outdated versions of drivers. Before deleting driver packages from the FileRepository folder, it is highly advisable to create a complete list of them and find only outdated versions in it, and leave the rest untouched. It also wouldn't hurt to create a complete copy of all drivers installed on the system. To list the DriverStore drivers in a file, run the following command in an elevated command prompt:
pnputil.exe /e > C:/drivers.log
Compare the driver versions in the list and remove only the outdated ones.
To remove the selected driver, immediately run the command in the console pnputil.exe /d oem№.inf, where № is the name of the driver in the list.
If an error appears in the console when uninstalling a driver, it means the driver is being used by the system. There is no need to touch such a component.
As an alternative to the command line, you can use the free utility Driver Store Explorer, just designed to remove old unused device drivers.
Disabling hibernation
Thanks to the hibernation mode, the user can quickly return to work in running applications; on the other hand, its use requires the allocation of significant space on the system disk, slightly less than or equal to the amount of RAM. If having free space on your hard drive is a priority for you, you can disable hibernation mode by deleting the hiberfil.sys container file.
Launch the CMD console as an administrator and run the command in it powercfg -h off. Hibernation will be disabled and the bulky hiberfil.sys file will be removed.
Note: The hibernation file can be compressed by a maximum of two times with the command powercfg hibernate size 50.
Disabling the page file
In addition to other hidden system objects, there is also a file in the root of drive C that can be deleted under certain conditions. This is the swap file pagefile.sys. This file plays the role of a RAM buffer, and if an application does not have enough RAM to operate, its data is temporarily written to . Accordingly, if there is no swap file, a heavy application will slow down greatly or simply freeze while waiting for faster RAM to become available. Therefore, disabling and deleting the paging file is not recommended unless the computer has a very large amount of RAM.
If your PC has more than 10 GB of memory or you do not intend to run resource-intensive applications, you can try carefully disabling swap. To do this, open Advanced system settings and on the “Advanced” tab in the “Performance” block, click the “Options” button.
This will open another window. Switch to the “Advanced” tab, and then click the Change button in the “Virtual Memory” block.
Uncheck the “Automatically select paging file size” checkbox, turn on the “No paging file” radio button, save the settings and reboot. The pagefile.sys file will be deleted.
Removing the MSOcache folder
Users who have installed Microsoft Office have a hidden folder in the root of the system volume MSOcache, the weight of which can reach several gigabytes.
This folder is an office suite cache and contains files that may be needed to restore Microsoft Office if it becomes corrupted. The MSOcache folder is not involved in launching Microsoft Office or working with documents, so it can be deleted in the standard way. Just keep in mind that if Microsoft Office is damaged for some reason, you will have to restore the package from the installation disk with its distribution.
Compressing the contents of a system volume
You can free up some free space on drive C without deleting anything from it at all. Instead, all system files can be compressed. To do this, just open the properties of drive C, on the “General” tab, check the box “Shrink this drive to save space” and click “OK”.
To compress system files in Windows 10, you can use the function Compact OS by running one of two commands in the CMD console running as administrator:
- compact /CompactOs:query
- compact /CompactOs:always
The second command performs the same actions as the first, but in forced mode. It is used if you really want to shrink the system volume, and the first command rejects the operation, considering it inappropriate. Compression is completely reversible and to return the file system to its normal state, just execute the reverse command compact /CompactOs:never.
In addition to NTFS compression, LZX compression is available in Windows 10, but it has a number of disadvantages, which is why it is not widely used. LZX compression is applicable to read-only files and directories, but an entire system volume cannot be compressed with its help due to the risk of an unbootable system.
Truly wisdom is right - the more you have, the more you want. On average, modern computers use hard drives with a capacity of about 500-750 GB. Many people (including yours truly) have even larger HDDs installed. For example. I have 2 screws of 2 TB. This is quite a lot for a home computer. But I still constantly run out of space and am thinking about buying another hard drive. But while I’m saving money for it, I somehow have to make do with what I have and try to free up space by deleting old unnecessary files, duplicates, temporary files, etc. If you are faced with the same thing, then you may be faced with the question - how to clean the disk from unnecessary files and garbage? Windows 7, 8 and the new Windows 10 have a special built-in Disk Cleanup wizard. Let's start with him.
Standard Disk Cleanup utility
All modern versions of Windows have a special program that allows you to clean your disk from temporary files, error reports, system-loaded and unused installer files, updates, components, IE or Edge browser cache and much, much more. This tool is, of course, simple and cannot, for example, search for duplicates. But even this sometimes allows you to free up from one to a couple of tens of gigabytes of space. Especially on the system drive C:, because waste products from the Windows operating system itself accumulate there.
Go to “My Computer”, right-click on the C: drive and select the “Properties” menu item. A window like this will open. 
In it, on the “General” tab, click on the “Disk Cleanup” button and thereby launch the program.
After analyzing the contents, the utility will display an approximate cleaning result.
If you click on OK, the data deletion procedure will start, after which you will receive free space. But there is one more trick here. If you click on the “Clean up system files” button:
Then we’ll get another window like this:
As you can see, by deleting components, updates, and a bunch of other unnecessary stuff, you can still free up space. We tick the boxes that we will delete and click on “OK”.
Note: Separately, check the “Windows Update Log Files” item - it will help significantly, which stores a bunch of different files from components and updates.
The program will ask - are we out of our minds?!
We agree to complete removal and wait for the result. In this way, it is possible to free up from one to several gigabytes on the system disk. I would recommend doing the same procedure for the remaining logical partitions of the computer.
Third-party disk cleanup programs:
- nCleaner
A good free program for home use that allows you to perform a comprehensive cleaning of your computer, including clearing the disk of old log files, caches of Internet browsers and IM clients, temporary or outdated files.
- Wise Disk Cleaner Free
Another good free disk cleanup program for Windows 10. It perfectly cleans temporary and unused files. It has a very convenient manual search by file type. If necessary, you can use a special Wizard.
The only negative is the presence of advertising. But this is an inexpensive price for such functionality.
—CCleaner
The best utility in its class. Despite the fact that its strong point is working with the registry, the program has rich functionality! This is a natural combine that, in addition to working with the registry, perfectly cleans the disk of everything unnecessary:
Also, in the “Service” section there is an excellent tool for finding duplicates of existing files:
It’s unlikely that any other program can do a better job of removing any junk from the system than CCleaner. The only fly in the ointment is that the utility asks for money for use. You can download it for free from any torrent tracker. Or, as an option, use the free version of the program. It is stripped down, of course, but the functionality that is available is enough to clean the Windows 10 system of unnecessary files!