Windows XP: Disk Cleanup Problem in Windows XP

Disk Cleanup Problem in Windows XP

During work on the computer, a large amount of unnecessary information accumulates on the hard disk. This is all sorts of temporary files downloaded from the Internet web page, as well as unused application files. The more programs you install and run, the more often you go online - the more chances of the appearance on the hard drive of various useless garbage, which takes up precious free space. To maintain order on your PC you need to periodically clean up. The operating system Windows XP provides the user with many useful utilities, among which there is a program called "Disk Cleanup."

For the first time this utility appeared in Windows Millennium and became very popular among users, thanks to the convenience and simplicity. Subsequently, the program was included in the utilities of newer versions of the operating systems of the Windows family. Thus, the Disk Cleanup Wizard has migrated to Windows XP. Let's turn to the example of the Disk Cleanup Wizard, in order to evaluate all the advantages of this utility, and at the same time learn how to effectively use it.

The "Disk Cleanup" utility is located in the standard Windows XP utility set. To start it, activate Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup. Otherwise, the program can be launched from the command line by typing its name: cleanmgr. After running the utility, the working window of the program appears on the screen.

To continue working, you must select the logical drive that will be subjected to the cleaning procedure. By default, the selected drive is always a drive (C . You can also start the wizard by going to "My Computer" by selecting the appropriate drive, and by right-clicking on it, activate the "Disk Cleanup" tab. Then the cleaning procedure will be immediately launched specifically for the selected disk. After you define the disk that you want to clean, you can click OK. In this case, the Disk Cleanup Wizard will proceed to the procedure for checking the status of files on this disk. It is necessary to show a little patience, as this procedure, as a rule, takes quite a long time.

After the analysis of the current state of the disk is completed, the utility will present a report on the work done, indicating how much space can be released. In addition, the wizard will display a summary of what can be used to free up disk space. Let's try to understand this report by analyzing the line-by-line information provided by the Disk Cleanup Wizard.

The wizard displays a list of file categories that can be deleted or compressed without affecting the performance of the system. However, the user is asked to determine on his own what is to be deleted and what should not be deleted. A check mark indicates the file groups to be deleted. At the end of each line, the volume in kilobytes is displayed, which can be released by deleting this category of files.

In order to confidently make your choice, the user needs to understand what the listed file groups are. So, the Disk Cleanup Wizard offers to delete the following procedure:

• Downloaded and installed program files (Downloaded Program Files);
• Temporary files from the Internet (Temporary Internet Files);
• Files in the Recycle Bin
• Temporary application files (Temporary Files);
• Temporary offline files;
• Offline files;
• Stand-alone Web pages (WebClient / Publisher);
• Installation log files;
• Compressed files that have not been accessed for a long time;
• The content indexer directory files used by the OS during the last indexing.

Let's look at each group in a little more detail. The "Downloaded Program Files" folder is intended for temporary storage of ActiveX controls and Java applications that are automatically downloaded from the Internet, when loading and viewing various web pages. The folder can be safely cleaned at any time.

In the "Temporary Internet Files" directory, there are web pages that are automatically saved to the hard disk while you are browsing the Internet, for quick browsing by re-accessing them. With a good connection, the loading time of pages in a new way is not very large, and therefore there is no sense in preserving the contents of this folder. Because it accumulates a fairly large number of files, you should try to clean it regularly enough.

In the Recycle bin, the files are placed after they are deleted from the disk. This is the last line, when the files are not yet permanently deleted, and they can be restored until the Trash is cleaned. The scattered user, who accidentally deleted the files, can easily find them here. The name of the basket speaks for itself - it is designed for garbage, and for its overflow it is necessary to follow. Cleaning the Recycle Bin will save the disk from previously deleted files.

Some programs often store temporary information in files, in a specially designated TEMP folder. Typically, before closing such programs, these files are usually deleted. However, this does not always happen, and therefore a lot of unnecessary information can accumulate in the folder. Temporary files that are stored for more than a week can be safely removed.

Temporary offline files are local copies of recently used network files that are automatically cached. This makes it possible to access them in a disconnected state from the network.

Offline files are almost the same as temporary offline files, with the only difference being that they are local copies of network files to which offline access has been explicitly requested. Both can be safely removed without negative consequences for the operation of the system.

The WebClient / WebPublisher service stores files on the disk that have been accessed appropriately. They are necessary to increase the speed, and therefore can be painlessly removed.

One way to save space is to compress files that have not been accessed for a long time. At the same time, Windows keeps the ability to access these files at any time, and no information is deleted. True, the information about the space to be released in this case will be approximate, since the files are compressed with varying degrees.

The indexing service is designed to speed up the search for files on disks. By creating indexes of existing files on the disk, this service significantly expands the ability to detect the necessary information. However, old indexes can be stored since the last indexing operation and are to be deleted.

Thus, having read the report of the Disk Cleanup Wizard, you can determine which of the detected files should be deleted. If necessary, selecting a group of files from the proposed list, you can view its contents. To do this, just click the "Browse Files" button. This is useful when only a few files need to be saved from the entire group. They can be rewritten in another directory, and the rest of the files can be ruthlessly deleted. It is also worth noting that the composition of the components to be removed depends on the type of disc. For example, for non-bootable logical disks, the report generally specifies only the contents of the Recycle Bin and the content indexer directory files.

Using the "More Options" tab, you can free up additional disk space by removing unused Windows components or installed programs. Each user should try to determine which applications he uses when working on the computer. Anything else can be deleted.

After all the information to be deleted is determined, you can safely click OK in the wizard's report window. All selected files will be deleted, and the "Disk Cleanup" utility will automatically shut down.

In conclusion, I want to note that there are many different utilities that allow you to perform the disk cleaning procedure. Some developers offer comprehensive solutions to optimize Windows (Norton Utilites, Fix-It Utilites, System Mechanic, etc.). There are also specially developed programs for this purpose. Nevertheless, it makes no sense to dwell on their descriptions in detail, since the differences in the work of such programs are not significant. Experience shows that the standard "Disk Cleanup" utility is the most convenient and safe tool for freeing up disk space. In addition, it is not always possible to release enough space, removing only useless information. In this case, no utilities will not be able to help, and you will have to think out yourself, due to what you can get more free space. Over time, each user acquires enough experience to get rid of unnecessary and useless information on their own, so to speak, "hands", simply deleting unnecessary files and not being afraid to damage the system. This is the most effective method of maintaining order on the computer. And at the initial stage with this problem will always help master disk cleaning. Moreover, he is always at hand. Successful cleaning!

Additional tips for using the Disk Cleanup utility:

1. The System Volume Information folder is used by System Restore. Here are the so-called recovery points. By default the size of this folder is 12% of the disk volume - that is, quite a lot. You can change the size of the reserved space, disable monitoring of one of the disks or completely disable the restore function. The size of the reserved space changes in the control panel on the System Restore / System tab. You can uninstall restore control points by running the "Disk Cleanup" program. After selecting the disk, go to the "Advanced" tab, then "System Restore" and click the "Clear" button. The operation allows a very significant release of disk space.
2. It is possible to configure the configuration of the Disk Cleanup Wizard in advance.
   
   To do this, you must run the wipe wizard from the command line using the "Run" procedure in the Start menu. The line will look like this:
   
   Cleanmgr [/ d <drive>:] / sageset: <a numeric value from 0 to 65535>
   
   The / d switch identifies the disk to be cleaned. If this option is not present, all disks in the system will be cleared. The / sageset option describes the composition of the parameters in the Cleanup Wizard report dialog box. The numerical value of this key describes different sets of parameters.
   
   Unfortunately, after starting the wizard from the command line on the screen, there will still be an annoying window showing the cleaning process.
3. If the Disk Cleanup Wizard does not please you for some reason, another utility can be installed instead of it. To do this, you must run the "Run" procedure of the Windows registry editor by typing regedit on the command line. Then you need to open the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ MyComputer section. In this section there are subsections allocated to disk utilities. The CleanupPath subkey must be created for the Disk Cleanup Wizard. The default value is "% SystemRoot% \ system32 \ cleanmgr.exe / D% c" This string can be changed by specifying the path to another, its own disk cleaning utility, with its parameters. In addition, in this line, you can enter the startup parameters of the Disk Cleanup Wizard itself, described in the paragraph above.