Chicago
Track Your Order
0
4 reasons you should still use the Legacy Disk Cleanup utility in Windows 11
Windows still has many legacy utilities you can use on your PC to complete tasks. Some are being removed or deprecated, like Paint3D, the People app, DirectAccess, and more. There is also talk of removing the classic Control Panel, but don’t expect that anytime soon. Items in the Control Panel must be migrated to the Settings app first. But I digress.
Another popular legacy utility still worth using on Windows 11 is Disk Cleanup. Storage Sense is the “set-it-and-forget-it” feature for disk storage management, and it's "OK." But the nice thing about Disk Cleanup is that you can manually run it anytime, schedule it to run automatically, and it works exactly as advertised. You can also configure it to reclaim tons of storage by deleting old Windows Update files.
How to use Files On-Demand in OneDrive to save storage space on your PC
You can access files on Windows 11 by saving drive space using this OneDrive feature.
You can reclaim gigabyte’s worth of drive space
Remove unnecessary Windows Update files
You likely know how to run Disk Cleanup traditionally. You launch it, select items to remove, and wait for it to finish. However, a trick will allow you to reclaim gigabytes — yes, gigs worth of space. When you upgrade your system, Windows creates copies of the previous version on your drive. These are files that the Storage Sense utility may keep on your system longer than you want. However, use caution before deleting them. Their purpose is to be used if you want to roll back your system to the previous version. But if you need space and are confident you won’t need the leftover files, get rid of them.
On Windows 11, you can no longer open Disk Cleanup from the disk properties dialog. However, you can still open it from the Run dialog or search for it in the Start menu.
To remove these files, press Win + R to launch the Run dialog, type cleanmgr, and press Enter. When Disk Cleanup launches, it will show the amount of disk space you can clean up by selecting items like cache, reports, and the Recycle Bin. The more items you select, the more space will be cleaned up.
However, you can still click the Clean up system files button to find unneeded update files. Scanning your system and coming back with results will take a moment. This time, you will see options like Windows Update cleanup and Windows upgrade log files. So, in my example, I can reclaim nearly 8GB of drive space after selecting the options.
6 of the best apps for your storage drives
The perfect software companions for your HDDs and SSDs
You know how it works
It’s a familiar utility
If you have been a long-time Windows user, you are likely familiar with Disk Cleanup. It was imperative to run during the early days on Windows PCs with limited storage space. That is still true today if you have limited storage or want to reclaim space for AI, gaming, video production, etc. The Cleanup recommendations in the Storage Sense utility on Windows 11 aren’t user-friendly, slow, and typically list a few files which don't free up much drive space. Disk Cleanup offers an immediate view of all items that you can get rid of.
It's faster, more straightforward, and allows you to reclaim a lot of space. The Cleanup recommendations feature doesn’t list items contained in Disk Cleanup. Still, it’s a best practice to keep Storage Sense running for routine maintenance. It removes unused temp files and empties the Recycle Bin automatically after 30 days by default. However, you can change the time by going into the Settings app and configuring it.
3 reasons WizTree is the best way to find what's hogging all your drive space
Want to root out unnecessary files that take up precious space on your PC? WizTree can help you out by analyzing all your storage drives!
You can make it run automatically
Create an automated task
While the Storage management feature in Windows 11 runs automatically, you can also set an automated task for Disk Cleanup using Task Scheduler.
- Open the Command Prompt as Administrator.
- Type cleanmgr.exe /sageset:1 and press Enter.
- When Disk Cleanup opens, check the items you want the tool to clean up each time it runs.
- Open Task Scheduler, create a basic task,and set it when to run, i.e., weekly, monthly, when the PC starts, time, and date.
- Select Start a program in the “Action” section.
- In the “Program/script” field, enter: C:\Windows\system32\cleanmgr.exe
- In the “Add arguments” field, type: /sagerun:1 and finish the wizard.
How to create automated tasks with Task Scheduler in Windows 11
If there are certain tasks you'd like your PC to perform automatically, the Windows 11 Task Scheduler lets you do just that
Disk Cleanup is a better utility
A more precise and user-friendly tool
The Disk Cleanup tool is a more straightforward utility for eliminating junk you don’t need on your drive. Opening it directly from the Run dialog or the Start menu is more manageable than clicking through the Settings app to find Storage Sense and Cleanup recommendations. Also, as noted, it finds more items you don’t need, immediately lists them, and allows you to choose what to remove. It runs fast and gives you more control over what to delete from your drive to free up space.
So, overall, it’s a better option for reclaiming drive space without third-party optimization apps. If used right, you can reclaim gigs of space on your drive, which Storage Sense doesn't do. Disk Cleanup is also more responsive than Cleanup recommendations in the Storage Sense app. Overall, Disk Cleanup is still the best built-in utility for getting back the storage space you need on your Windows 11 system.
5 best free software for optimizing your Windows PC performance
While some prefer to optimize their PC manually, there are plenty of free programs that can help you do it much more easily
The legacy Disk Cleanup utility is still a great option to free drive space on Windows 11
When you need to delete unnecessary junk on your PC’s drive, you can’t go wrong with the Disk Cleanup utility on Windows 11. You’ve been using it for years, and it’s still a great utility — better than Storage Sense. Unfortunately, Microsoft may be in the process of deprecating or removing Disk Cleanup from Windows.
If that happens, Storage Sense and Cleanup recommendations must first have better features and be more user-friendly. Also, you can always use Microsoft’s PC Manager if it comes down to it. It gives you the option to clean up space on your drive. Still, it takes longer to scan your drive and doesn’t give you the quality results of Disk Cleanup. For example, it lists apps that you may use that a novice Windows user may select to remove. It also pushes other Microsoft products on you, like Edge.
