Disk Clean Up Utility

To keep a PC running smoothly, regular maintenance is critical. Many users shy away from maintenance tasks, thinking it is a long, drawn out manual affair, but the Disk Cleanup Utility can easily determine which files on a hard drive may no longer be needed and delete those files. In addition to freeing up potentially significant amounts of hard drive space, using Disk Cleanup on a regular basis can significantly improve system performance.

Starting Disk Cleanup

Disk Cleanup is available on both Home and Professional versions of XP. The utility can be accessed in any of the methods listed below.

• Click Start | Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Disk Cleanup
• Click Start | Run and in the Open box type cleanmgr and click OK
• In Windows Explorer or My Computer, right-click the disk in which you want to free up space, click Properties, click the General tab, and then click Disk Cleanup.

Use the drop down menu arrow to select the drive you want to clean.

Click [OK] and Disk Cleanup will analyze the selected drive to determine the amount of space that can be freed.

Once the drive analysis is complete a list of file categories will be presented for your selection.

Instead of automatically proceeding with cleanup once the drive analysis is complete, Disk Cleanup allows you to review the categories of files that can be deleted. Click on any of the categories to display more information relative to that category in the Description section of the window. If you're unsure if you want to delete the files in a category from the description, use the [View Files] button. A complete list of files scheduled for deletion will be displayed in Windows Explorer. Use drag and drop to move any files you want to save to a safe location and leave the category selected. If all the files are to be saved, close the window and then remove the checkmark from the file category so it will not be included in the disk cleanup. After all the categories have been reviewed, click [OK] to begin the disk cleanup process.