Windows Built-In Capabilities for Hard Drive Cleaning

To keep a PC running smoothly, regular maintenance is critical. Many users shy away from maintenance tasks, thinking it is a long, drawn out manual affair, but the Disk Cleanup Utility can easily determine which files on a hard drive may no longer be needed and delete those files. In addition to freeing up potentially significant amounts of hard drive space, using Disk Cleanup on a regular basis can significantly improve system performance.

How do I use the Windows disk clean up tool to clean hard drive data?

The Disk Clean Up tool helps you free up space on your hard disk by searching your disk for files that you can safely delete. You can choose to delete some or all of the files. Use Disk Clean Up to perform any of the following tasks to free up space on your hard disk:

• Remove temporary Internet files.
• Remove downloaded program files.
• Empty the Recycle Bin.
• Remove Windows temporary files.
• Remove optional Windows components that you are not using.
• Remove installed programs that you no longer use.

You Can Start Disk Clean Up by Doing Any of the Following:

• Click Start, and then click Run. In the Open box, type cleanmgr, and then click OK.
• Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Clean Up.
• In Windows Explorer or My Computer, right-click the disk in which you want to free up space, click Properties, click the General tab, and then click Disk Clean Up.

Disk Clean Up - Remove Files Stored on Your Hard Disk
To remove files stored on your hard disk that you no longer use, follow these steps:

• Click Start, and then click My Computer.
• Right-click the disk in which you want to free up space, and then click Properties.
• Click the General tab, and then click Disk Clean Up.
• Click the Disk Clean Up tab (if it is not already selected), click to select the check boxes next to the files that you want to remove, and then click OK.
• Click Yes to proceed with this action, and then click OK.

File Categories in Disk Cleanup Utility
There are a number of different types of file categories that Disk Cleanup targets when it performs the initial disk analysis. Depending on the individual system, you may or may not have all the categories listed below. An excellent example of this would be Backup Files from a Previous Operating System. If a clean install of XP was performed then this category will not exist. It pays to click on each of the categories and note that the [View Files] button can change depending on the category selected.

• Downloaded Program Files

These are ActiveX controls and Java applets downloaded from Web sites that are temporarily stored in the Downloaded Program Files folder. It’s not program files or zip files that you have downloaded from other locations.

• Temporary Internet Files

This refers to Internet Explorer’s cache of Web pages that are stored on the hard drive for quicker viewing. None of your personal web settings are affected by selecting this category, nor does it delete any cookie files.

• Recycle Bin

The main thing to be aware of in this category is that it only refers to the Recycle Bin for the selected hard drive or partition. This is important since XP uses an individual Recycle Bin for each drive and partition, not just one as is the case in some Windows versions.

• Temporary Remote Desktop Files

These files are the result of using the Remote Desktop utility. If you repeatedly use Remote Desktop with the same computer or group of computers, leaving these files intact will maintain the speed of future connections. Deleting them will necessitate downloading the remote systems icons and wallpaper the next time a connection is established.

• Setup Log Files

These are really pretty useless unless you have a specific reason to go back and see what occurred during XP setup.

• Backup Files For Previous Operating System

I mentioned this category earlier as one you may not have, but if you did upgrade from a previous Windows version and selected the option to be able to uninstall XP, it may well exist. It takes some major hard drive space to copy all the files necessary to back up a previous system’s core files, drivers, etc. This entry can range anywhere from a few hundred megabytes up to a gigabyte, so unless you are still considering dumping XP this is a good category to select.

• Offline Files

Users with slower dialup connections and those using laptops frequently make websites they use often available offline. Depending on how many levels deep you save the sites, they can eat up gigabytes of hard drive space very quickly. Worse than taking up space, the sites often contain outdated information. A good candidate for deletion.

• Compress Old Files

Unlike the other categories, Compress Old Files doesn’t delete any files from the drive. It compresses files that Windows hasn’t accessed for a specified period of time. The files are still available, but there will be a slight increase in access times because the files will be decompressed the next time they are accessed. Note that when Compress Old Files is highlighted an Options button appears. Clicking it will allow you to set the number of days to wait before an unaccessed file is compressed.

There may be other categories that appear in your Disk Cleanup window, but in all cases, highlighting the item will display an explanation of the category in the Description area.

Disk Clean Up - Remove Windows Components
To remove Windows components that you are not using, follow these steps:

• Click Start, and then click My Computer.
• Right-click the disk in which you want to free up space, and then click Properties.
• Click the General tab, and then click Disk Clean Up.
• Click the More Options tab, and then under Windows components, click Clean Up. The Windows Components Wizard starts.
• In the Components list, click to clear the check box next to the component(s) that you want to remove.
• A shaded check box next to a component indicates that only some of its subcomponents are installed. If you want to remove a subcomponent, click Details, click to clear the check box next to the subcomponent(s) that you want to remove, and then click OK.
• Click Next.
• In the Completing the Windows Components Wizard page, click Finish.
• Click OK, click Yes to proceed with this action, and then click OK.

Disk Clean Up - Remove Installed Programs
To remove programs that you no longer use, follow these steps:

• Click Start, and then click My Computer.
• Right-click the disk in which you want to free up space, and then click Properties.
• Click the General tab, and then click Disk Clean Up.
• Click the More Options tab, and then under Installed programs, click Clean Up. The Add or Remove Programs dialog box is displayed.
• In the Currently installed programs list, click the program that you want to remove, and then click Remove (or Change/Remove).
• If you receive a prompt to confirm the removal of the program, click Yes.
• Repeat step 5 and 6 to remove other programs that you no longer use, and then click Close.
• Click OK, click Yes to proceed with this action, and then click OK.

Disk Clean Up - Remove Restore Points
To remove all restore points except the most recent restore point, follow these steps:

• Click Start, and then click My Computer.
• Right-click the disk in which you want to free up space, and then click Properties.
• Click the General tab, and then click Disk Clean Up.
• Click the More Options tab, and then under System Restore, click Clean Up.
• Click Yes to remove all but the most recent restore point.
• Click OK, click Yes to proceed with this action, and then click OK.

Delete Cookies in Internet Explorer

1. Open Internet Explorer and click on the "Tools" menu.
2. In the "Tools" menu, click on "Internet Options".
3. The Internet Options pop-up window appears.
4. Under the General Tab select the "Delete Cookies" button.
5. Delete cookies by clicking "OK".

Optional:

• Select the "Delete Files" button to clear the Internet cache. Make sure to check the box to "Delete all offline content".
• Delete temporary Internet file history data by selecting "Clear History".

Delete Cookies in Firefox

1. Open Firefox and click on the "Tools" menu.
2. In the "Tools" menu, click on "Options".
3. The Options pop-up window will open.
4. From along the left side of the window select the "Privacy" icon. This displays the Privacy Settings in the right side of the window.
5. The option to erase the temporary Internet file "Cookies" is near the bottom of the list.
6. Click "Clear" to delete cookies.

Optional:

• Delete all temporary Internet files by selecting the "Clear All" button.
• Delete specific temporary Internet files such as History or Cache files by selecting their individual "Clear" buttons.

Delete Cookies in Netscape

1. Open Netscape and click on the "Tools" menu.
2. From the Tools menu select "Options".
3. The Options pop-up window will open.
4. From along the left side of the window select the "Privacy" icon. This displays the Privacy Settings in the right side of the window.
5. The option to delete cookies labeled "Cookies" is near the bottom of the list.
6. Click "Clear" to delete cookies.

Optional:

• Delete all temporary Internet files by selecting the "Clear All" button.
• Delete specific temporary Internet files such as "Page History" or "Cache" by selecting their individual "Clear" buttons.

Automate Disk Clean Utility in Windows XP
Disk Cleanup utility allows you to delete temporary internet files, recycle bin contents, temporary files, web client files, as well as compress files that have not been accessed for a while to free up space on your hard disk. You can also automate Disk Cleanup utility to run at periodic intervals and store the settings in the Registry for subsequent runs.

Disk Cleanup utility uses sagset/sagerun command line options in combination with the Task Scheduler to automate disk clean.

/sageset:n - Displays Disk Cleanup Settings and stores the selected values in the Registry. ’n’ can be any integer from 0 to 65535. You can select different Disk Cleanup Settings and assign a value for each of them. For example, you can assign a value of ’1’ to clear Temporary Files and schedule it to run on a daily basis and assign a value of ’2’ to delete Recycle bin and schedule it to run on a weekly basis and so on.
/sagerun:n - This runs the tasks that are defined by sageset:n

• Select Start > Run and enter cleanmgr /sageset:100 in the dialog box ( You can enter any value from 0 to 65535 as the value).
• Click ’OK’. Disk Cleanup Settings window appears.

• Select the files to be deleted by cleanmgr and click OK.
• Open Service panel and ensure ’Task Scheduler’ service is running. If not, start the ’Task Scheduler’ and proceed with the below mentioned steps.
• Select Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Scheduled Tasks.
• Open Add Scheduled Task. ’Scheduled Task Wizard’ appears.
• Click the <Next> button.

• Click the program you want to run. Click the ’Browse’ button to select more programs. Select cleanmgr (for this example it is located at c:’windows’system32 directory).
• Check an appropriate ’Perform this task’ option. Options are:

* Daily
* Weekly
* Monthly
* One time only
* When my computer starts
* When I log on. Click the ’Next’ button.

• Select the Start Time and Start Date for this task. Click ’Next’.
• Enter the username and password of the user. The task will fail if no user credentials are supplied. Click ’Next’.
• Select ’Open advanced properties for this task when I click Finish’ checkbox to set runtime properties. This is required step for Disk Clean automation.

• Append the following in the ’Run’ field /sagerun:100 (100 is the value of sageset parameter in this example. Substitute this value if you had entered a different sageset value).
• Click the ’Apply’ button. Enter Account Information details and click ’OK’.
• Disk Clean utility will run at the designated schedule based on the parameters defined.

Sources and Additional Reading:
http://www.whitecanyon.com/disk-clean-up.php
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312
http://www.theeldergeek.com/disk_cleanup_utility.htm
http://www.referpages.com/reference/computing/35-windows/60-diskclean.html