Buzz
Computer junk files may not require sanitation like human waste, but they can be just as bothersome. Typically generated during usage, they include temporary files, browser and app caches, redundant shortcuts, faulty registry entries, and more.
Guide to Cleaning Your Computer, Deleting Junk Files for PC and Laptop
This article aims to assist you in deleting junk files and cleaning up your computer directly using the built-in Windows tools, without the need for third-party software. Refer to the steps below to learn how to perform these tasks and maximize your computer's performance.
1. Deleting Windows.old and Windows Update Files
For those using Windows 10, you may notice that Windows.old and Windows Update files occupy a considerable amount of space on your machine. Windows Update consists of files that Windows downloads but hasn't yet installed or has already installed.
On the other hand, Windows.old is a backup created when you update your Windows 10. Deleting this file means you won't be able to revert to the previous version. However, Windows.old is sometimes unnecessary, and you can safely delete it if desired.
Step 1: To delete Windows.old and Windows Update files, open the Start Menu and type Disk Clean-up.
Step 2: Here, we choose drive C, where Windows.old and Windows update files are located.
Step 3: This is the familiar Disks Clean Up interface, but you won't see it until you click on Clean up system files.
Step 4: Here, you will see Windows.old and Windows update files if your computer falls into the scenario we mentioned earlier. Simply click on them and then press OK to finish.
2. Setting up automatic junk file deletion mode
Windows 10 offers a feature that automatically deletes some unnecessary files after 30 days. Although 30 days might be too long and there's no option to adjust the timing, it's still a handy tool in case you forget to delete files.
Step 1: Open StartMenu, type Storage, and access the search results.
Step 2: Here, you'll find Storage Sense. Toggle it ON to enable this automatic junk file deletion mode.
Step 3: Additionally, remember to regularly check the Temporary files or Other sections on drive C. These areas often occupy a significant amount of your hard drive space.
1. Cleaning up junk files
For older computers and laptops, the hard drive tends to fill up over time due to data storage. This is the reason why the performance of computers and laptops gradually slows down over time. The process of searching for files and programs takes longer.
To address this issue, delete junk files and duplicates on your computer to free up hard drive space. Typically, deleting music and image files significantly frees up space. Using Easy Duplicate Finder will help you save a considerable amount of time in cleaning up junk files and duplicates on the system.
Additionally, you can utilize built-in tools and features on the system to free up hard drive space by cleaning up files in the Recycle Bin, deleting temporary files, and files that are no longer in use.
On Windows 8, type Disk Clean-up into the Search box from the Start menu. From the search results list, click on Clear Disk Space by deleting unnecessary files. On Windows 7, navigate to Start => All Programs => Accessories => System Tools
Disk Cleanup will search for junk files on the system, calculate, and inform you about how much free space will be released after deleting those junk files. Click on View files to see the files that Disk Cleanup has found. If there are files among them that you want to keep, simply uncheck the box next to those files. Then click on Clean up system files to delete all junk files, unnecessary files on your Windows computer, including old Windows installation files, ... freeing up tens of gigabytes of space.
2. Uninstall unnecessary programs that you no longer use
The next step is to uninstall programs that you no longer use. On Windows 8, type Uninstall into the Search Charm box, then from the search results list, click on Uninstall programs to free up Disk Space. On Windows 7, navigate to Start => Control Panel => Programs => Uninstall a program.
Here you will see a list of programs installed on your computer and the amount of space each program occupies. Scroll down the list, find and select the program you want to uninstall, then click Uninstall to remove the installation. Note that you should only uninstall programs that you no longer use.
It's not always possible to completely remove all traces of a program using the built-in utilities on Windows. In this case, you need the assistance of a third-party tool like Revo Uninstaller.
On the Revo interface, double-click on the icon to remove the program from the system. Additionally, you can scan and remove any remaining files or registry entries.
3. Defragment your hard drive
After deleting files and uninstalling unnecessary programs on your computer, the next step is to compress the remaining data so that your computer can access it as quickly as possible.
In principle, defragmenting or preventing fragmentation of the hard drive will significantly speed up your computer or laptop. Suppose when data is stored on the hard drive, small data packets are stored in random locations across the entire hard drive. The process of the Windows computer reading data to understand information will take a lot of time.
By defragmenting or compressing that data, Windows will eliminate the gaps between data packets, moving them to a location on the hard drive. This way, the process of accessing the hard drive to read data will be much faster. Overall, this will significantly improve and speed up your computer or laptop.
The only exception to note is that if your computer uses an SSD, defragmenting will shorten the lifespan of the SSD.
To defragment your hard drive on Windows 7, click the Start button => All Programs => Accessories => System Tools => Disk Defragmenter.
Next, click on Defragment Now.
Windows 8 and Windows 10 computers or tablets will automatically defragment by default weekly on the Optimise Drives interface.
If you haven't changed any settings, you don't need to defragment. But if you're unsure and want to check the status or manually defragment the hard drive, type Defragment into the Search box. In the search results list, click Defragment and optimise your drives.
A dialog box containing a list of hard drives on your computer or laptop, the last time defragmentation was performed, and how defragmentation is done will appear on the screen.
Only defragment if your hard drive is more than 10% fragmented. If you don't see the Current status column, just find a specific hard drive that needs to be optimized and click Analyze. Then confirm once again. This action will update the Current status column.
4. Disable Startup Programs
To speed up your Windows computer, sometimes you don't necessarily need to uninstall a program but just disable startup programs. Having too many programs automatically starting with the system leads to slow boot times, which is understandable. Especially with older computers, used over a long period, disabling startup programs significantly speeds up the boot process.
On Windows 7, type msconfig into the Search box on the Start Menu, from the search results list, click to open the System Configuration window. Here, click on the Startup tab and uncheck the programs you don't want to start with the system anymore, then click Apply => OK.
The free Soluto application, which analyzes the startup time of your computer, will provide advice on which startup programs to disable. This utility is developed and improved based on the built-in System Configuration in Windows, allowing users to delay some startup items in case the computer becomes unresponsive or hangs.
You can also prevent some system startup services to speed up your computer. However, keep in mind that Windows requires some services to function properly.
Type services.msc into the Start Menu Search box to open the Services window. Here, you'll see a list of system startup services. Visit Black Viper to see which services can be delayed or disabled.
For a simpler approach, you can disable startup programs on Windows 8 or Windows 10 through Task Manager.
Open Task Manager: Press Windows + Q to open Charms on Windows 8, then type Task Manager into the Search box and press Enter to open Task Manager.
Alternatively, on the desktop, right-click on the Taskbar, or press Windows + X to open the Start Menu, and select Task Manager.
Finally, use the shortcut Ctrl + Alt + Delete and select Task Manager.
In the Task Manager window, select the Startup tab. Here, you'll see a list of programs that start with Windows, along with the developer of each application and the impact level on startup performance, listed as low, high, or medium.
Click on the program you don't want to start with the system, right-click on it, and select Disable. Alternatively, click on the program, then click Disable at the bottom right corner of the window.
If you want to re-enable these programs, follow similar steps, right-click on the program, and select Enable. Or click on the program, then click Enable at the bottom right corner of the window.
5. Clean up and configure the desktop screen
This final trick helps you search for files and folders on your computer or laptop more efficiently. Suppose you urgently need to find a specific file on Windows 10. Just type the file name in the Search box on the Start Menu, and you're done.
For Windows 7, the Windows Search Assistant comes in handy. Additionally, the Copernic Desktop Search Home program indexes the entire hard drive to help you search for files faster.
It's advisable to store documents in relevant folders rather than cluttering the desktop screen. Open Windows Explorer (known as File Explorer on Windows 10 and Windows 8).
Navigate to the Documents folder and create a new folder by right-clicking anywhere, selecting New => Folder. By default, the newly created folder is named New Folder, but you can rename it as you like by right-clicking on the folder icon, selecting Rename, and giving it any name you want. Finally, simply drag and drop the relevant files into the folder.
Delete unused shortcuts on the desktop. This step doesn't involve uninstalling programs, just removing the shortcuts related to those programs. Your desktop will look much cleaner.
Next, right-click on any blank space on the desktop, select View => Auto arrange icons to neatly arrange the remaining shortcuts on the desktop into a more organized grid.
You can also determine the content of a file from its name without having to open it. It's even more useful if you include dates in the file names. If you need to rename multiple similar files, simply copy and paste common information into each renamed file.
To view general information about your folders: click on the Change your view icon at the top right corner of the folder, select Details. File size, creation date, and other details will be displayed alongside your list of documents. Rearrange the list by date, file size by clicking on different tabs at the top of the window.
Keywords are displayed whenever you right-click on a file and select Properties. In Word, go to File => Properties, enter keywords into the Keywords field, and then click OK. For images, tag the image equivalent to keywords, click on the Tags box at the bottom corner of the Windows Explorer window to add them.
6. Cleaning up the Temp folder on the system
How to delete undeletable files
Computer junk cleaning software
How to clean up computer junk on Windows 8
Step 4: Additionally, to complement the methods above, you can use Notepad + with the code snippet below to clean up junk for your computer.
* Open Notepad on your computer.
Open the Run dialog (Windows key + R) -> Type Notepad -> Enter
How to make your computer clean up faster
Tips to tidy up your computer for faster performance
* Batch Code:
@echo off
color 0C echo Clearing junk files for Windows
del /f /s /q %systemdrive%.tmp
del /f /s /q %systemdrive%._mp
del /f /s /q %systemdrive%.log del /f /s /q %systemdrive%.gid
del /f /s /q %systemdrive%.chk
del /f /s /q %systemdrive%.old del /f /s /q %systemdrive%
ecycled.
del /f /s /q %windir%.bak
del /f /s /q %windir%prefetch.* rd /s /q %windir% emp & md %windir% emp
del /f /q %userprofile%cookies.
del /f /q %userprofile%
ecent.
del /f /s /q '%userprofile%Local SettingsTemporary Internet Files.' del /f /s /q '%userprofile%Local SettingsTemp.'
del /f /s /q '%userprofile%
ecent.'
echo Junk cleaning process completed. Thank you for following Mytour!
pause
- Double-click the created .bat file and press any key from 0 - 9 or letters A, B, C, D, E, F and wait for the program to run automatically in a moment.
How to clean up computer junk on Windows 10
For proficient computer users, deleting junk files and cleaning up a computer without using any software is highly commendable. Alternatively, you can also utilize CCleaner as well as uninstall unwanted software on your computer.
If you're a Windows 10 user, you're probably too familiar with the sluggish performance of your computer after prolonged use. There are many reasons leading to this situation on Windows 10, such as fragmented hard drives, faulty applications, malfunctioning drivers... But the most common reason is perhaps computer junk.
