Quick overview:
Disk Cleanup is a useful tool for maintaining and cleaning your PC. We will show you how to activate an advanced disk cleanup under Windows Vista!
[By Raimund Machacek]
Normally, disk cleanup can be found under "Start/All programs/Accessories/System programs". This allows you to efficiently clean up various things by default, such as temporary files that accumulate while surfing, for example, with little effort.
Unfortunately, only a few options are available in this standard version (here Windows Vista Ultimate). However, you can activate an improved disk cleanup with just a few simple steps, which can remove significantly more files.
To do this, right-click on the desktop and select "New/Link". Now enter the following in the following window: "%SystemRoot%System32Cmd.exe /c Cleanmgr /sageset:65535 & Cleanmgr /sagerun:65535".
After clicking on "Next" you can select a name for the link and start the wizard by clicking on "Finish" Exit the program. Now start the program by double-clicking on the shortcut you have just created - you will now be presented with many more options with which you can maintain the system.
Finally, I would like to explain what you can clean up here:
"Temporary Setup Files"These are files that are created by the installer during the installation of programs/games/drivers etc. (usually on C: or in the Temp folder). These temporary files are no longer needed after installation, which is why they are normally deleted by installation programs. However, if this is not the case, these files take up unnecessary disk space. You should therefore always clean up these files!
"Downloaded program files"are e.g. ActiveX or Java elements that are downloaded when viewing certain websites. These are always installed, you can always delete the original files.
"Temporary Internet files"Internet browsers store elements such as images, HTML pages or animations on the hard disk when pages are called up so that they are loaded from the hard disk and not via the Internet the second time they are called up. This speeds up the loading process, but this is where a lot of junk data accumulates (depending on the number of pages visited). You should therefore clean this folder regularly.
"Offline websites"Pages that are saved in full. These can then also be viewed in offline mode, for example.
"Debug Dump Files"A so-called "dump" is a memory image that is used to analyze errors in programs (see also dump for Windows blue screens). These can normally be deleted.
"Old CHKDSK files"CHKDSK is the file name of the disk check. If these files are used for repairs, they are stored in the root directory of the hard disk. If you no longer need them, you can delete them.
"Previous Windows installation(s)"This cleans up old Windows installations and deletes their data on the same partition.
"Wastebasket": Corresponds to the manual "Empty recycle bin"
"Setup Log Files"Log files are usually created for error analysis during installations. These can usually be deleted without risk.
"Temporary files"Files that are saved in C:WindowsTemp (default) when running programs or Windows. You can safely delete these, because if they are needed again, they are simply created again.
"Temporary Windows installation files"Contains files that are created during the Windows Vista setup. These should actually be deleted automatically after installation. However, if this goes wrong, they may still be present. In this case, you should perform the cleanup, as these files are no longer needed.
"Thumbnails" = In each image folder you will find the "Thumbs.db", which caches thumbnails in Explorer. This means that the Explorer no longer has to read them out again! This is a particular advantage for network connections. Unfortunately, these DB files require quite a lot of memory, which is why you can also delete them.
"Files discarded during Windows uprade"These are files of which a copy was created during the upgrade. If you are sure that no personal files are missing, these can be deleted.
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