How does Windows ‘Disk Cleanup’ work? 10 things it does

Ah! the old Disk Clean-up most of us only ever come across it only when we reach our hard disk’s full capacity and are in dire need of space or when we hit the properties section of the hard drive.

Have you ever wondered how it works? well, that’s what we aim to explain to you here.

Also read: Is partitioning your Hard Disk Drive (HDD) a good idea? Pros and Cons

Disk Clean-up targets the following ten file categories:

• Compression of old files: Compressed files which have been unused for a specific number of days Files deemed unrequired by Disk Clean-up manager.
• Temporary internet files: Is a folder Windows which serves as a cache for the internet explorer to store temporary media form the site’s you visit. (If you ever use IE that is).
• Downloaded program files: You may mistake this for the application files you’ve downloaded but Disk Clean-up categorizes it as ActiveX control files and Java applets from sites you’ve visited.
• Temporary windows files: Temporarily created files by the operating system usually stored in the %system%\Windows\Temp folder. It mainly consists of profiles, temporary rules and setting data from various programs that the user runs.
• Recycle bin: Files stored in the Recycle bin.
• Setup log files: Files created by Windows setup application upon the installation of a new program.
• Offline (cached) web pages: Pretty self-explanatory, Offline web pages cached by Microsoft to provide for quick offline access to the user.
• Removal of optional windows components or applications: Windows comes with optional components and applications preinstalled these components range from regional language packs to Legacy components be careful when you choose to remove these as you may require them in the future.
• Temporary Sync Files: Temporarily stored files during the synchronization process.
• Temporary Remote Desktop files: Files created temporarily during a remote desktop session.

The Disk Clean-Up program rounds up all these data for deletion to save space on your hard drive and serves as a nifty tool when in need for free space and now since you know how it does it hopefully, you’ll utilise it in an efficient manner to make the most of it to free up some space on your hard drive.

Also read: Does force shutting down your PC hurt the CPU?