Chapter 33: Keeping Your Disk Safe

Deleting Temporary Files with Disk Cleanup

Disk Cleanup is a program that can delete unneeded temporary files from your hard disk. Some programs create temporary files and then don't delete the files when they are through with them. If a program, or Windows itself, exits unexpectedly (or "crashes"), temporary files can be left on your hard disk. Deleting these files from time to time is a good idea, not only because they take up space, but also because their presence can confuse the programs that created them.

Disk Cleanup may recommend deleting files that haven't been used in months, without regard to type. Take a look at the names of the files it recommends deleting to make sure that they don't include important documents that you haven't used in months but want to keep.

Deleting Files Once

Here's how to run Disk Cleanup:

1. Choose Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Disk Cleanup.
2. The Disk Cleanup program runs and asks which disk you want to clean up. Choose a disk drive and click OK. The Disk Cleanup window, shown in Figure 33-2, tells you how much disk space you can reclaim by deleting temporary files right now. Of course, this may include temporary files that your programs are currently using!

Figure 33-2: The Disk Cleanup's list of temporary files to delete

3. Click the box for each type of temporary file you want Disk Cleanup to delete. For more information on a type of temporary file, click the description; the program displays an explanation of what the files are and what folders Disk Cleanup will delete them from.
4. For additional options, click the More Options tab. Three buttons provide other ways to free up disk space, including deleting Windows components you don't use, uninstalling programs, and reducing the amount of space used by the System Restore program. Click the corresponding button to try any of these methods.
5. If you want to see the names of the files that will be deleted (in a separate Explorer window), select the type of files to be deleted and click the View Files button.
6. To begin deleting files, click OK. The program asks whether you are sure you want to delete files. Click Yes.

The programs shown on the More Options tab that can free up disk space are one-time operations. If you schedule the Disk Cleanup program to run on a regular basis (using Scheduled Tasks), these other programs do not run.

Deleting Files Regularly

Run the Scheduled Tasks program to tell Windows to run the Disk Cleanup program regularly. If you use Scheduled Tasks to schedule running the program, be sure to run Disk Cleanup once following the steps in the preceding section so that you can choose the types of files to delete.

When you run Disk Cleanup, be sure to include the Temporary Files in the Files To Delete list. Windows stores most temporary files in the C:\Documents And Settings\username\Local Settings\Temp folder, although a few may end up in the C:\Windows\Temp folder (if you installed Windows in a different folder, they are in the Temp folder wherever Windows is installed). Windows can become confused if this folder contains lots of temporary files that should have been deleted automatically but weren't.