What is Disk Cleanup?

Disk Cleanup is to identify and delete unnecessary files such as temporary files, system files, and cached files. In this article, we will discuss the functions and working of disk cleanup.

It’s a maintenance tool provided by the Microsoft Windows operating system. This tool is designed to free up unnecessary space from your disk like temporary files, junk files, and other unwanted files that come into the disk after every Windows operating system update. In other words, Microsoft designed its Disk maintenance application utility tool to free up disc space.

Disk Space: The term disk space refers to the total amount of storage or the total storage capacity of a storage device it is measured in units like gigabytes, terabytes, and petabytes.
System Files: System files are important files that play an important role in the operating system to operate properly or to function properly their files are also called system reserved files.
These files are mostly located in the DiskC reserved for the operating system in the computer or desktop.
Cleanup: This process includes removing unwanted files available on the disk: temporary, junk, and delivery optimization files to free up disk space and improve functionality.
Temporary Files types: The files that are created by the programs running on your machine for temporary use, these types of files are not important they can be deleted later once they are no longer needed.
Recycle Bin: Recycle Bin is a folder/directory in the Windows operating system that temporarily stores the deleted files, from where you can also restore them within a given time.
Deletion of files (Permanently or Temporarily): Press Shift + Del for Permanently (files get deleted permanently from the computer). Press Delete or Del for Temporarily (files go to the recycle bin).

The primary function of disk cleanup is to identify and delete unnecessary files such as temporary files, system files, and cached files.

Below are some functions of disk cleanup.

Temporary file cleanup: It removes temporary files generated by various applications and programs, these files can be deleted later after being used if these files are not removed they can acquire a lot of space in the disk.
System files cleanup: It can also identify and delete system files such as old Windows files that are no longer needed.
Recycle bin cleanup: It can also delete the files presented in the recycle bin by permanently deleting them.
Cleanup of temporary Internet files: It deleted temporary files stored by web browsers, such as cache web pages and memory.

Disk Cleanup works by scanning the system’s storage drive (hard drive) to identify the files that are no longer needed and can be deleted without any problem.

Scanning: when the user starts disk cleanup process it starts scanning the drive to analyze the type and size of the file that can be deleted safely.
Identification of Files: During the scanning, it identifies various types of files such as Temporary files, cache files, Recycle Bin files, system files and old Windows files.
Space Analyzing: After the completion of the scanning, it shows the storage occupied by the files.
Selection of the Files: After the scan is finished the user can select the files from the given list that can be cleaned up.
Deletion: After the selection of the files, disk cleanup proceeds to remove them from the hard drive.

There are 2 methods by which you can perform disk cleanup.

Method 1: Using Search Bar

Step 1: Open the search bar type Disk cleanup press enter.

Step 2File Explorer: After selecting disk cleanup from the menu select the disk on which you want to perform disk cleanup.

Select Disk from the menu

Step 3: After selecting the disk select which files to be deleted then click OK.

select files to be deleted

Step 4: After clicking OK, click the Delete Files confirmation window.

conformation window

Method 2: Using File Explorer

Step 1: Open File Explorer in File Explorer select the drive from This PC menu.

Select the disk from This PC

Step 2: After selecting the Disk right-click on the disk and select properties from the options then click Disk Cleanup from the dialogue box.

properties and disk cleanup

Step 3: select which files to be deleted then click OK, then click “Delete Files” from the confirmation dialogue box.

Removing Temporary files from the storage drive (hard disk) Is very necessary Temporary files as by the name temporary, files are files that can be deleted safely after being used, these files are created by various programs or software for temporary purposes You can delete temporary files using the RUN command or by Disk Cleanup.

Step 1: Open the search bar (windows + S) type Disk cleanup press enter.

Step 2: After selecting disk cleanup, from the menu select the disk on which you want to perform disk cleanup.

Step 3: After selecting the disk select files to delete such as temporary files, system files, and cache files are available in the list.

Step 4: Check the box next to temporary files or any files that you want to delete.

Step 5: After clicking OK, click the Delete Files confirmation window.

Disk Cleanup	Disk Defragmentation
Free up disk space by removing unnecessary and temporary files	Arrange your computer’s files, making them easier to access and freeing up space.
Scan the disk for the files that can be removed safely like – temporary files, system files, old window updates	Arranges scattered data into neat, continuous blocks for better performance.
Free up disk space improving system performance by removing unnecessary files	By reducing read and write time, especially fragmented files.
It’s recommended to run periodically, especially when running low on disk storage	It’s automatically running in the background but manual defragmentation may be necessary

Can I undo the disk cleanup changes made by Disk Cleanup?

Unfortunately, you can’t undo disk cleanup or restore the deleted file using disk cleanup.

Can I automate Disk Cleanup?

Yes, you can automate disk cleanup by scheduling it to run at regular intervals using task schedular.

Does Disk Cleanup remove personal files or programs?

No, Disk cleanup doesn’t delete personal files or installed programs. it only tracks system files and temporary files.