Is your computer's hard disk almost full to the limit and is your operating system getting slower and slower? It is clear that you have to start transferring a bit of data to an external drive or floppy drives but, most importantly, it is clear that you have to start doing some maintenance on your PC. How? Simple, eliminating unnecessary files on your hard disk. That is, all those files belonging to software no longer installed on the PC, temporary files generated by applications still in use as well as documents, videos, photos and so on, discussing that they no longer use and that take up unnecessary space on the hard disk.
Are you not very good in terms of computer science and issues that the operations to be carried out to do some healthy cleaning can be too complicated for you? Well, you know you're wrong and even, in fact, I can assure you that, contrary to appearances, cleaning the PC of unnecessary files is a very simple operation to follow, provided that the right tools are used (some included directly in Windows, others to download for free) and, above all, that they are used correctly and regularly.
Clearly, don't expect miracles. If your PC is very old and/or has hardware problems, you'll certainly not be able to cope with this with a simple maintenance operation, let's be clear. Now, however, let us not miss out on more talk. Take a few minutes of free time for yourself, sit comfortably in front of your trustworthy computer and follow step by step the directions below. Good reading and.... good cleanliness!
Index
- Cleaning the disc
- Using JetClean
- Using CCleaner
- Uninstalling unnecessary programs
- Using WinDirStat
Cleaning the disc
As mentioned at the beginning, to clean your PC of unnecessary files you can use a whole series of special tools designed specifically for this purpose. This is the case of the Cleaning Disk utility available "as standard" on all editions of the Microsoft operating system. Deletes all temporary and no longer useful files and data stored on your PC from your computer's hard disk drive, affecting the performance of your PC.
How do you use it? Nothing simpler. First go to the Start menu (the flag icon in the lower left corner of the screen), look for the disk cleaning utility and click on the corresponding item. In the window that opens, select the unit for which you want to act from the drop-down menu and click OK.
At this point, tick next to the items that you wish to remove (e. g. Temporary Internet Files, Recycle Bin etc.) and click the OK button to start deleting them. Done!
Finally, please note that by clicking on the Clean up System File button you can also delete some system files (e. g. residual Windows update files). The functionality is undoubtedly very useful but if you don't know where to get your hands on, I recommend that you miss it.
Using JetClean
As an alternative to the resources already included in the system, you can clean your PC of unnecessary files using third-party files. This is the case with JetClean, a free program for Windows (all versions) that deletes temporary files, temporary program data, obsolete registry keys and many other superfluous elements from the PC with just one click to free up space on the hard disk and improve your computer's overall performance. Do you go if you explain how to use it?
All you need to do to use it is to connect to the JetClean website and click on Free Download and then on Download@MajorGeeks to download the program to your PC.
Once the download is complete, double-click on it and open the newly downloaded file (jetclean-setup. exe) and, in the window that opens, click Yes first and then Next. Then accept the conditions of use of the program by clicking on the Accept button and click on Next three consecutive times and then on Finish to finish the installation process and start JetClean.
Then wait a few seconds for the program window to be visible on your desktop, then click the OK button to access the JetClean main screen and start a system scan to search for unnecessary files by clicking Scan. This may take up to a few minutes.
At the end of the check, you can start the procedure to clean the PC of unnecessary files by simply clicking on the Repair button and waiting for the program to complete its work.
By default, JetClean checks and cleans various parts of the system: temporary system files (Windows Cleanup), obsolete keys in the registry (Register Cleansing), temporary application files (Application Cleansing), corrupt connections (Cleaning Invalid Hotkeys) and temporary files that are no longer useful uploaded to RAM (RAM Cleansing). If you want, you can choose to check and remove only some of them by putting or removing the check marks from their entries before clicking Scan.
I would also like to point out that the software includes an automatic backup system that allows you to restore the system status before deleting useless files, to be used in case something goes wrong.
Find this useful feature in the Program Settings tab, where you just need to select the Saving tab and date of the backup to be restored and click the Cancel Changes button. Alternatively, you can manually create and restore system recovery points manually using the items Create a restore point and go to System Recovery at the bottom of the window.
Using CCleaner
As an alternative to the above mentioned software, you can use the well known and appreciated CCleaner. Have you never heard of it? Strange, it is very famous. In any case, do not worry, let's stay right away. This is useful software for erasing unnecessary files from your computer's hard disk.
To use it, first download the program by connecting to its website and clicking on Piriform. com in the Free column. Once the download is complete, open the newly obtained file (ccsetupxx. exe) by double-clicking it and, in the window that is shown to you at this point, click on the Yes button. Now set the English in the language selection menu at the top right of the screen, then press Install first and then Start CCleaner.
When setup is complete, the CCleaner window will automatically appear on your desktop. At this point, you can start the process of locating and removing unnecessary files from your hard disk by clicking on the Cleaning tab, pressing the Start Cleaning button and confirming the operation by clicking OK. Eventually, you can only analyze the disk and know how much space you could free with CCleaner without actually deleting files. To do this, click on Analyze.
Before starting the cleaning operation, you can also choose which files to delete and which ones to leave intact by selecting or deselecting the items in the left sidebar. But if you don't know what to do, leave the default settings active and don't make any changes, otherwise there is a risk of damage! Then don't come and tell me that I hadn't warned you.
If you prefer to prevent the program from acting on a specific browser by removing the history and/or cache, click the Applications tab on the left sidebar and remove the check mark from the items related to navigation programs that you want to exclude from the cleaning process.
If you want to do some cleaning in the Windows registry, select the Log tab and click the Find Problems button. Wait a few seconds for CCleaner to identify all problems to repair, then press the Repair button selected/Fix selected Issues twice in a row to complete the procedure.
To conclude, answer Yes to the warning that appears on the screen so that you can save a backup copy of the Windows registry before repairing it (it may come back useful in case of problems and you can restore it all by simply double-clicking on its icon).
As you can see, using CCleaner to clean your PC of unnecessary files is not complicated at all. This software can also be used to carry out other computer maintenance operations. For more details, please read my article on how to download and use CCleaner.
Uninstalling unnecessary programs
Unnecessary files are not only cookies, obsolete registry entries and so on, but also all program files on your computer that are no longer used for one reason or another. So why not uninstall them?
To do this, just log in to the Start menu and look for the control panel in the menu that appears. In the window that appears to you after clicking on the right result, click on the Uninstall a program option (if you can't see it, make sure that in the menu at the top right of the window the option by category is selected), click on the software icon that you want to delete from the computer and click on the Uninstall/Edit button that appears at the top left.
To complete the procedure, follow the instructions shown on the screen. Usually it is sufficient to always click on Next or Next or on Uninstall and then on OK but keep in mind that the procedure can vary from software to software.
If you use Windows 10, you can also uninstall the programs on your computer by going to Start > Settings > System and then clicking on the App and functionality item from the bar on the left.
Using WinDirStat
Using the tools I've shown you in the previous lines you should finally be able to clean your PC of unnecessary files. However, if for useless files we also mean all that endless series of photos, videos and so on, saying that they are particularly heavy and that they are "parked" on your computer but that in reality they don't need you anymore at all, then there's still one last thing you can do: delete them! Yes, but.... how can they be detected on the fly? Simple: Using WinDirStat. This is a small free application that analyzes your computer's disk and shows a graphical representation of it so that the user can easily locate which files take up more space.
To download the program to your computer, log in to its official website and click on FossHub and then on WinDirStat Windows Installer Downloads.
Once the download is complete, double-click on it and open the newly downloaded file (windirstatxx_setup. exe) and, in the window that appears, click the Yes button. Then tick next to I accept the terms in the License Agreement and complete the setup by first clicking Next twice in succession, then Install and then Next and Close.
Now, put a check mark next to the Single Drive item, select the hard disk icon on your computer and press OK button to start a drive scan. Within a few seconds you will get a graphical representation of the drive plus a list of the heaviest folders and files.
To find the most "full-bodied" files on the fly, click on the larger squares in the chart. You can also choose to sort folders by size by clicking the size tab. Instead, to delete them just select them by right-clicking on each of them and then choosing the Delete item from the menu that is shown to you.