Disk Cleanup – which files/folders?

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I’m trying to find a comprehensive list of exactly which files/folders are cleaned up when one runs Disk Cleanup or other temp file removers.

Can anyone point me in the right direction? Obviously I’m not choosing my google search words well enough to find what I need.

In the last 2 months, coworkers had issues with our agency software on HP Win7 computers. When I poked around I found over 60K files in their WindowsTemp folders. This started me on my search for exactly which TEMP files are cleaned when various programs are run.

Any help at all will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

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Have a look at this article: Where Does Windows Store Temporary Files and How to Change TEMP Folder Location?

Alternatively, do a Google search for where does Windows store temporary files and add the Windows version to the end of the search query text.

Hope this helps…

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It really doesn’t matter! Junk is Junk and should be removed on a regular basis. All temp files are JUNK!

I run a temp file remover every day, from my Startup folder and once a week I run Disk Cleanup in Extended Mode, to get even more ‘Junk’ files. “Minus crud is cool!”

When you take out a trash can, do you go through it and itemize everything in the can?

Surely you have something better to do with your time than itemize garbage. Eh?

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If you are only worried about temp files, use CCleaner from Piriform.com . Temporary files are just that, temporary files that were needed to install something or to run an instance of a program. Windows doesn’t delete them unless you tell it to and if not deleted it can take up a major portion of your HDD.

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does
All W10 Pro at 22H2,(2 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

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Don’t forget to clean out, from time to time, Window Prefetch, Windows Recent, ProgramData Temp.

Addendum: Based on following comments, I will add this: I only clean Prefetch and Recent maybe once, twice monthly just before making my two OS partition images. Otherwise, as they said, leave those two alone.

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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Don’t forget to clean out, from time to time, Window Prefetch, Windows Recent, ProgramData Temp.

Based on following comments, I will add this: I only clean Prefetch and Recent maybe once, twice monthly just before making my two OS partition images. Otherwise, as they said, leave those two alone.

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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Personally, I would leave Windows Prefetch and Recent Items alone, to enable them to continue to do what Microsoft designed them for!

Temporary files, wherever located, are fair game for removal.

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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Sorry, Roland, but I have to disagree with cleaning out the Windows Prefetch folder.

It was a myth back in XP days and is even less beneficial from Win 7 onwards.

Just let it do its job, IMO.

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If you want to clean Windows Prefetch, use the option in CCleaner, which only removes the old and unused files, and/or DIY and remove any temp/installer entries that are only ever used one time.

Windows Recent files – only a privacy issue, like on a multi-User/Public system with only one login and/or no password.

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Cleaning Windows Prefetch to improve performance is a myth. From the How To Geek.
http://www.howtogeek.com/173648/10-windows-tweaking-myths-debunked/

Clean Your Prefetch To Increase Startup Speed
Windows watches the programs you run and creates .pf files in its Prefetch folder for them. The Prefetch feature works as a sort of cache — when you open an application, Windows checks the Prefetch folder, looks at the application’s .pf file (if it exists), and uses that as a guide to start preloading data that the application will use. This helps your applications start faster.

Some Windows geeks have misunderstood this feature. They believe that Windows loads these files at boot, so your boot time will slow down due to Windows preloading the data specified in the .pf files. They also argue you’ll build up useless files as you uninstall programs and .pf files will be left over. In reality, Windows only loads the data in these .pf files when you launch the associated application and only stores .pf files for the 128 most recently launched programs.

If you were to regularly clean out the Prefetch folder, not only would programs take longer to open because they won’t be preloaded, Windows will have to waste time recreating all the .pf files.

You could also modify the PrefetchParameters setting to disable Prefetch, but there’s no reason to do that. Let Windows manage Prefetch on its own.

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“…Cleaning Windows Prefetch to improve performance is a myth. From the How To Geek…”
I never said it improved performance.

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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My PreFetch folder is 49 MB in size – half of which is ReadyBoot.

Doesn’t really seem to be worth deleting, does it!

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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My PreFetch folder is 49 MB in size – half of which is ReadyBoot.

Wow, that’s bloated. (Mine’s just over 3 MB, including ReadyBoot.) I suggest you wipe your hard disk and re-install everything from scratch.

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Wow, that’s bloated. (Mine’s just over 3 MB, including ReadyBoot.) I suggest you wipe your hard disk and re-install everything from scratch…

Serious overkill Rick.

C:WindowsPrefetch folder size of 30-40MB is normal in my experience.

My C:WindowsPrefetch folder size is as shown in this screenshot:
44898-Prefetch

There is no way I would consider re-installing Win7 unless the size of the Prefetch folder was extraordinary (200MB or more).

And no, not since clean-installing Win7SP1 on this PC July 2015 have I done anything to clean the Prefetch folder; in my experience Prefetch is best left alone for Windows to manage.

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Hmmm. Looks as though Rick should have put in a smiley or two! :rolleyes:

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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Sorry… I thought one smiley would be sufficient. I couldn’t find a decent tongue-in-cheek one. See what I mean? 44900-tongue-in-cheek

(Although I was being serious about the size of the Prefetch folder on my main desktop.)
44901-my_prefetch

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Have since checked three other Win7 systems under my control.

Each have C:WindowsPrefetch folder size less than 30MB.

Two of these systems are workbench PCs used for working on customer’s HDDs etc; the other is a laptop used for general troubleshooting at customers’ locations.

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I cleaned mine about a week ago and so far there is no accumulation.
44904-Prefetch

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does
All W10 Pro at 22H2,(2 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

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I cleaned mine about a week ago and so far there is no accumulation.

You have the Superfetch Service disabled?

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You have the Superfetch Service disabled?

I don’t even know what that is satrow.
Just looked it up and it is on Automatic/started in services.

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does
All W10 Pro at 22H2,(2 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

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You have different Permissions on the folder, too.

What do you have here: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerMemory ManagementPrefetchParameters ?

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I’ll have to check that tomorrow since that computer is shut down for the night, I’m on my tablet right now.

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does
All W10 Pro at 22H2,(2 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

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What do you have here: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetContro lSession ManagerMemory ManagementPrefetchParameters ?

44908-regedit

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does
All W10 Pro at 22H2,(2 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

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Lumpy, my last three numbers are (0), (3) and (3) — should I adjust those in any way? I don’t need Superfetch, can’t tell if it is on or if it is off.

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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Lumpy, my last three numbers are (0), (3) and (3) — should I adjust those in any way? I don’t need Superfetch, can’t tell if it is on or if it is off.

satrow never posted after I posted that reg screenshot so I don’t know whether to adjust anything or not, but I would say probably not as it shows prefetch and super fetch.
Superfetch is in services but I doubt that leaving it running will hurt anything.

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does
All W10 Pro at 22H2,(2 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

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Lumpy, whether you adjust your settings is entirely up to you, I don’t know your hardware or computer usage, nor can I tell whether any possible changes would be ‘better’ for you or not. All I know is that your Permissions, settings and file/folder data don’t appear to match up to what I’d expected to see.

0’s for the last 3 Registry items will turn them off, Disabling the Superfetch Service should, I think, have the same effect.

I’ve not had time to dig out the MS descriptions for those Reg. settings yet – also, some ‘tweak’ software might have been used, if so (could be a general tweak/boost software or something like an SSD-specific software, maybe from a hardware maker, like Samsung’s Magician.

Some W7 tweaks/suggestions/references here, other Windows versions accessible from here (note that some of these aren’t 100% correct, others might only be relevant for older, slower hardware. Recent high RAM +multicore CPU’s +SSD equipped PCs might nullify any perceived differences).

If you believe Intel:

Superfetch

This is a built-in tweaking program and Windows will even adjust the settings according to your hardware. Leave it the alone. No, seriously.
With Windows 7 on an SSD disabling this was recommended. This is not the case anymore. A quote from the Intel SSD Toolbox help file:

“In Microsoft Windows 8, Superfetch functions differently than in previous versions of Windows, and should not be disabled for an Intel SSD.”

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Thanks satrow,
This W7 Pro computer see’s daily use and it’s SATA III ( not SSD ) and there have been no “Tweaking” programs ever installed.
I have always used CCleaner and always had the prefetch box checked until I saw this discussion, so I decided to uncheck the box for prefetch. I just looked at the prefetch properties again and it is still at 0 bytes.

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does
All W10 Pro at 22H2,(2 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

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Thanks satrow,
This W7 Pro computer see’s daily use and it’s SATA III ( not SSD ) and there have been no “Tweaking” programs ever installed.
I have always used CCleaner and always had the prefetch box checked until I saw this discussion, so I decided to uncheck the box for prefetch. I just looked at the prefetch properties again and it is still at 0 bytes.

Mine also is at 0 bytes. The reason is probably a permission problem depending on how your system is configured, but if you double-click open the prefetch folder and select all the files inside that folder, you should then right click on all of the selected files and finally click on “properties” to open the properties dialog box. A pop-up will appear saying that you don’t have enough permission. Just click on “Continue” and voilà, you should be able to see the real size of your prefetch folder. I hope that helps!:rolleyes:

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You’re right @Tedpacheco.
As soon as I left clicked to open the prefetch folder, I got the permissions popup and had to click continue to see what is in there.
To clean it, I assume that I would have to give it back to CCleaner since it seems to have rights to the folder.
44947-Prefetch-Properties 44948-Prefetch-7_2016

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does
All W10 Pro at 22H2,(2 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

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CCleaner actually shows you a list with checkboxes of everything it will clean/remove. By default some of them are unchecked and you can decide if you want to check them for more aggressive cleaning. I’ve rarely done that, but maybe once a year i check the box for “Wipe free space”. Since the drive itself is an SSD, overwriting all the free space is vastly quicker than it would be on my HDDs used for data storage. And, no, i’m not concerned about excessive wear on the SSD.

Another option is to invoke a sort of super Disk Cleanup in Windows by using the “sageset” and “sagerun” commands to increase the number of areas that get cleaned. Some one here on the forum put me onto the sageset/sagerun option a few years ago. Maybe they could reprise the instructions for doing it here?

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I would advise using any kind of wipe free space utility from within Safe Mode, the less that is going on in Windows background and foreground during such operations – the better.

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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I would advise using any kind of wipe free space utility from within Safe Mode, the less that is going on in Windows background and foreground during such operations – the better.

Why?

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Why?

A couple of reasons spring to mind. Windows is frequently writing very small amounts of data in various directories/files as it keeps track of what’s happening, checking for updates, checking/comparing Shadow copies of files, etc. (there’s actually a number of other small but regular background tasks, too). When you boot the computer up in Safe Mode it runs only the bare essentials, thus placing fewer obstacles in the path of CCleaner as to exactly which space is free space that can be safely wiped. The other reason is that in Safe Mode you’re more likely to sit back and wait for the task at hand to finish as opposed to launching other tasks/apps/games which may inhibit/confuse/deter the wiping of free space. In other words, don’t expect Windows and CCleaner to walk and chew gum at the same time. {Insert smiley face here}

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“I would advise using any kind of wipe free space utility from within Safe Mode, the less that is going on in Windows background and foreground during such operations – the better.” — RolandJS
“Why?” — Bruce

I saw a thread once where ccleaner or another utility was busy wiping free space while other things was going on…thread starter posted in and indicated much of his/her stuff was gone. While not blaming the utility per se, s/he wondered what happened?

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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I saw a thread once where ccleaner or another utility was busy wiping free space while other things was going on…thread starter posted in and indicated much of his/her stuff was gone. While not blaming the utility per se, s/he wondered what happened?

Don’t discount active malware (or *anything*) where other, ‘similar’ topics are concerned.

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Don’t discount active malware (or *anything*) where other, ‘similar’ topics are concerned.

Correct! Again, everyone each should do what is best; trust and verify from time to time that everything’s aok.

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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I beg to differ. Windows can do an excellent job of walking and chewing gum. I do my weekly image backups while I continue to do other work on my PC and have never had a problem. I’ve seen several other posts that suggest doing it off line for the same reasons you gave. I believe CCleaner can erase free space just as well without resorting to Safe mode. It just won’t erase the files in use at the time.

Jerry

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“…I do my weekly image backups while I continue to do other work on my PC and have never had a problem…” — jwitalka
I do the same constantly. However, making backups is not the same thing as wiping free space. Let’s agree to disagree, and continue to do what works best for each of us!

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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I beg to differ. Windows can do an excellent job of walking and chewing gum. I do my weekly image backups while I continue to do other work on my PC and have never had a problem. I’ve seen several other posts that suggest doing it off line for the same reasons you gave. I believe CCleaner can erase free space just as well without resorting to Safe mode. It just won’t erase the files in use at the time.

Jerry

Sometimes when Windows is busy chewing on something it may walk into a pothole causing it to trip and scrape its shin ….

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Then comes The Blimp, seemingly out of nowhere. I have had it before, and recently had it again. You too may encounter it sooner or later.

After a certain amount of fooling around with the system, you are agog to see that it has grown by many many gigs – in fact a significant percentage of the total. Where, agog at the gigs, did that come from?

Check your System Protection settings and you will discover that the allocated space for restore points is probably set at 100%. I don’t know why it happens, it just does, and it can fill your entire drive. The cure is to delete all restore points and set the percentage at a modest figure. Then make a restore point to lock it in.

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