How to Run Disk Cleanup Utility for Windows 7, Vista and XP

To Remove Temporary Internet Files

Any time you surf the net and visit a website, your computer will automatically download all the texts, images and objects such as videos and audios so that they can be displayed to you. To prevent your system having to download the same things again whenever you visit the same page, your computer will store these files into a folder named Temporary Internet Files so that they can be retrieved directly from your hard disk. This means the web pages can be loaded faster, but as time goes on, users may not realise how much space has been taken to store the temp files. Eventually, your temp files can eat up a lot of disk space and slow down your system.

To Empty Your Recycle Bin

Whenever you delete a file, it will be moved to the Recycle Bin first. This is to give you a chance if you change your mind not to delete the file. Over time your recycle bin can take up lots of space too and will slow down your computer as well.

To Uninstall Unwanted Programs

People like to install stuffs into their computer. Some of the installed programs will be used quite a long time but some are no longer in use anymore. If you don’t uninstall them, you’re wasting precious space of your hard disk.

To Remove Unused Restore Point

People like to play around with their computer even though they don’t know what they are actually touching at and end up crashing their system. Thus, Microsoft provides a feature called System Restore for all windows. This feature will save a restore point everyday and if you accidently crashed your windows, you can restore them by using System Restore Utility. As time goes on, these restore points can also eat up a lot of space and eventually slow down your computer.

Therefore, we strongly recommend you to cleanup your disk regularly in order for your PC to run faster and save up some precious disk space.

What Disk Cleanup Utility can do for you?

The Disk Cleanup tool helps you free up space on your hard disk to improve the performance of your computer. The tool identifies files that you can safely delete, and then enables you to choose whether you want to delete some or all of the identified files.

Use Disk Cleanup to:

• Remove temporary Internet files.
• Remove downloaded program files (such as Microsoft ActiveX controls and Java applets).
• Empty the Recycle Bin.
• Remove Windows temporary files such as error reports.
• Remove optional Windows components that you don’t use.
• Remove installed programs that you no longer use.
• Remove unused restore points and shadow copies from System Restore.

Tip: Typically, temporary Internet files take the most amount of space because the browser caches each page you visit for faster access later.

How to Use Disk Cleanup Utility?

1. Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, click System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup. If your computer has multiple drives, you might be prompted to specify which drive you want to clean.

2. Disk Cleanup will now calculate how much space you will be able to free on your selected drive. This may take a few minutes to complete.

3. Upon its completion, a new window as shown in the screenshot below will be opened up. It shows you the total amount of disk space you can free by using Disk Cleanup. Scroll through the content in the Files to delete list, check the check boxes for files that you want to delete, and then click ok.

4. For more options, such as cleaning up System Restore and Shadow copy files, under Description, click Clean up system files as shown in the screenshot above, specify the drive you want to clean, wait for the calculation to be done again, then click the More Options tab.

5. To uninstall programs and features that are no longer in use, click Clean up under the Programs and Features section.
To remove shadow copy files and system restore points, click Clean up under the System Restore and Shadow Copies section.

6. Congratulation, you’re done! You’ve just bathed your computer and it is as clean as you wish now!