**Disk Cleanup and Optimization**

The process of disk cleanup is an essential step in maintaining the health and performance of your computer's storage drive. In this article, we will walk through the steps involved in running the Disk Cleanup tool in Windows 10.

The first step is to open the File Explorer and navigate to the C: drive. From there, you should see a large folder labeled "Windows". If you click on this folder, it will open up a list of files and folders that are taking up space on your computer. To access the Disk Cleanup tool, you need to run the command prompt as administrator.

Clicking Yes in the confirmation window will start the cleanup process. The process can take quite some time depending on the speed and capacity of your computer's storage drive. As it runs, you may see a progress bar at the bottom of the window indicating how much of the cleanup is complete.

During the cleanup process, you are given several options to choose from. You can select which files and folders to delete, but be careful not to accidentally remove important files or data. One option is to remove previous Windows installations. This can help free up a significant amount of space on your computer's hard drive. Another option is to remove temporary installation files.

**Customizing Your Cleanup**

Once you have made your selections, you will see a list of files and folders that will be deleted during the cleanup process. You can review this list carefully before confirming that you want to proceed with the cleanup. Be sure to check the box next to each file or folder that you wish to delete.

As you customize your cleanup, it's worth noting that some files may not be removable due to their importance or usage. For example, device driver packages are not typically removed as they can be used by other programs on your computer. However, previous Windows installations and temporary installation files can usually be safely deleted.

**Using CCleaner for Additional Cleanup**

After running the Disk Cleanup tool, you may find that there is still some extra space available on your hard drive. This is where a tool like CCleaner comes in handy. Running CCleaner will help to remove any remaining unnecessary files and free up even more space on your computer.

Using CCleaner can be an effective way to clean up your hard drive, but be sure to use it carefully and only delete files that you are aware of being safe to remove. Some files may still be in use or required by other programs on your computer.

**Disk Cleanup Results**

After running the Disk Cleanup tool and using CCleaner, you should see a significant amount of space freed up on your hard drive. The exact amount of space removed will depend on the size of your hard drive and the amount of data that was deleted during the cleanup process.

It's worth noting that some files may not be completely removable due to their importance or usage. However, the Disk Cleanup tool and CCleaner can help to remove a significant amount of unnecessary data and free up space on your computer.

**Tips and Precautions**

When running the Disk Cleanup tool and using CCleaner, it's essential to be careful and only delete files that you are aware of being safe to remove. Some files may still be in use or required by other programs on your computer.

It's also worth noting that some features of the Disk Cleanup tool, such as restoring previous Windows installations, can be used to recover data even after the cleanup process is complete. However, this should only be done if you have a valid reason for doing so and are aware of the potential risks involved.

Overall, running the Disk Cleanup tool and using CCleaner can help to maintain the health and performance of your computer's storage drive. By being careful and only deleting files that you know are safe to remove, you can enjoy faster loading times, improved performance, and increased space on your hard drive.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello everyone my name is anna-marie buzz VAX and in this video I'm going to briefly show you how to delete your Windows dot old folder in Windows 10 if you're unable to do so I discovered that it's taking up as much as like 10 to 15 gigabytes on my solid-state drive which is very clearly in desperate need of some free space and my graphics driver is not actually installing due to this problem but if I try to delete it if I click it and hit the Delete key till it yes it's gonna pop up the user access control prompt after asking if that's what I want to do it's gonna go through and try to delete it but it's going to be unsuccessful it's gonna say oh you need permission from system okay usually try again does the trick however with this folder it goes back through tries to do it again and it's like wait a minute I still can't do it for whatever odd reason or it can just stop like this that happens to is it freaks out realizing that for whatever reason I don't have the permission to delete a folder that was created for me to actually have control up sunset click cancel go back out to this PC right-click your drive that it's on go to properties go to disk cleanup right here you can see we don't have much free space so it wants us to go to disk cleanup it's gonna load figure out what's on the drive and what's ok to delete that's very important for it to do is you don't want to delete pretty much anything but this and at the moment and this will take a moment let it do its thing and then over here you see you have some options you have downloaded Program Files and temporary Internet files already selected but that doesn't take up any space at all neither do any of these other options but that's ok we don't need to rely on that we're gonna click the clean up system files and this will pop up the user access control prompt again which is that black screen you're seeing click yes and then it's gonna reload disk cleanup and show you a couple more options which we're gonna take advantage of again this will take quite a few minutes potentially depending on your system to load even running off of an SSD take this opportunity to make sure you're subscribed to my youtube channel hit that like button as hard as you can and leave me a comment down below with what other things you'd like to see how to do in Windows 10 or Windows in general and most of these don't apply specifically to Windows 10 all right up here in our newly refined disk cleanup menu we're gonna have a couple more options and again we're looking for the things that take up the most amount of space that we can get rid of we don't really want to delete device driver packages but it's there there are none so that's okay but previous windows installations it takes up more space than I taught it takes up 20 point to 2 gigabytes yeah we're we're getting rid of that I need those 20 point 2 gigabytes and then we can scroll down and see there's like recycling bin temporary files I'm gonna uncheck thumbnails because having a thumbnail cache is actually very important for me temporary Windows installation files want to delete those as well that's another almost 2 gigabytes now for me that's a total of 21 point 8 gigabytes being saved by running this process for you it may vary some people's windows that old photos only take up like 2 gigs for me it takes up 20 apparently we're gonna click OK are you sure you want to permanently delete these file yep I'm absolutely sure and it's gonna start the cleanup process which can take quite some time depending on the speed and stuff of your computer pops up for me if you clean up previous windows installations or temporary installation files you will no longer be able to restore the machine back to the previous version of Windows are you sure you want to do this aka if you if you took advantage of the free upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7 or 8 you won't be able to go back to that without a completely fresh install I'm already multiple months into my Windows 10 installation that's not even really possible for me anyway so absolutely click yes and again I could still go back to Windows seven or eight if I did a fresh insulation of it but that would of course remove all my files but I have no desire to go back yet at this moment anyway and then this will take some time and it'll just delete a bunch of stuff this takes a really really long time but this is a full permanent deletion not a just toss it in the recycling bin deletion so that's something worth keeping in mind I suppose just be patient do not can't click cancel midway through or you're just kind of screwing yourself over just let it sit there and do its thing and just wait for it to either tell you it's done or give you an error be patient and alas it is done as far as I can tell now I don't actually have 20 gigabytes free on my solid-state drive I only have about 12.7 free so I'm gonna run ccleaner real quick here and see if I can clear up some stuff and see if that alleviates it but that did get rid of here I go to my C Drive there's no longer that that Windows dot old folder so that should have alleviated most of the issue let me make sure this isn't getting rid of stuff I don't want to it does not go ahead and run it real quick and see how much space we can clear off maybe no more maybe that's all you get cuz thankfully some of the windows old stuff would be files it could be files that you're already using I will actually go ahead and click that disk check up here and recheck it to see if it has any more Windows installation files or Windows dobe files in the checklist but the answer is most likely no all right CCleaner cleared out about two hundred twelve gigs but most of those are not at all going to be on that SSD it's a refresh I've got me a single gig free on my solid-state drive but a couple hundred gigs free on my hard drive right there if we check under the ccleaner there's not even a windows that old listing nor a temporary installation listing after tricking that so there's not really more forward again so you may not get that full file size back but you're certainly going to have a better off hard drive than when you started so now I can update my graphics driver hopefully thanks for watching guys hope this was helpful for you be sure to smash that like button don't forget to subscribe for more awesome videos again feel free to request some tutorials and otherwise I'll see you in the next onehello everyone my name is anna-marie buzz VAX and in this video I'm going to briefly show you how to delete your Windows dot old folder in Windows 10 if you're unable to do so I discovered that it's taking up as much as like 10 to 15 gigabytes on my solid-state drive which is very clearly in desperate need of some free space and my graphics driver is not actually installing due to this problem but if I try to delete it if I click it and hit the Delete key till it yes it's gonna pop up the user access control prompt after asking if that's what I want to do it's gonna go through and try to delete it but it's going to be unsuccessful it's gonna say oh you need permission from system okay usually try again does the trick however with this folder it goes back through tries to do it again and it's like wait a minute I still can't do it for whatever odd reason or it can just stop like this that happens to is it freaks out realizing that for whatever reason I don't have the permission to delete a folder that was created for me to actually have control up sunset click cancel go back out to this PC right-click your drive that it's on go to properties go to disk cleanup right here you can see we don't have much free space so it wants us to go to disk cleanup it's gonna load figure out what's on the drive and what's ok to delete that's very important for it to do is you don't want to delete pretty much anything but this and at the moment and this will take a moment let it do its thing and then over here you see you have some options you have downloaded Program Files and temporary Internet files already selected but that doesn't take up any space at all neither do any of these other options but that's ok we don't need to rely on that we're gonna click the clean up system files and this will pop up the user access control prompt again which is that black screen you're seeing click yes and then it's gonna reload disk cleanup and show you a couple more options which we're gonna take advantage of again this will take quite a few minutes potentially depending on your system to load even running off of an SSD take this opportunity to make sure you're subscribed to my youtube channel hit that like button as hard as you can and leave me a comment down below with what other things you'd like to see how to do in Windows 10 or Windows in general and most of these don't apply specifically to Windows 10 all right up here in our newly refined disk cleanup menu we're gonna have a couple more options and again we're looking for the things that take up the most amount of space that we can get rid of we don't really want to delete device driver packages but it's there there are none so that's okay but previous windows installations it takes up more space than I taught it takes up 20 point to 2 gigabytes yeah we're we're getting rid of that I need those 20 point 2 gigabytes and then we can scroll down and see there's like recycling bin temporary files I'm gonna uncheck thumbnails because having a thumbnail cache is actually very important for me temporary Windows installation files want to delete those as well that's another almost 2 gigabytes now for me that's a total of 21 point 8 gigabytes being saved by running this process for you it may vary some people's windows that old photos only take up like 2 gigs for me it takes up 20 apparently we're gonna click OK are you sure you want to permanently delete these file yep I'm absolutely sure and it's gonna start the cleanup process which can take quite some time depending on the speed and stuff of your computer pops up for me if you clean up previous windows installations or temporary installation files you will no longer be able to restore the machine back to the previous version of Windows are you sure you want to do this aka if you if you took advantage of the free upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7 or 8 you won't be able to go back to that without a completely fresh install I'm already multiple months into my Windows 10 installation that's not even really possible for me anyway so absolutely click yes and again I could still go back to Windows seven or eight if I did a fresh insulation of it but that would of course remove all my files but I have no desire to go back yet at this moment anyway and then this will take some time and it'll just delete a bunch of stuff this takes a really really long time but this is a full permanent deletion not a just toss it in the recycling bin deletion so that's something worth keeping in mind I suppose just be patient do not can't click cancel midway through or you're just kind of screwing yourself over just let it sit there and do its thing and just wait for it to either tell you it's done or give you an error be patient and alas it is done as far as I can tell now I don't actually have 20 gigabytes free on my solid-state drive I only have about 12.7 free so I'm gonna run ccleaner real quick here and see if I can clear up some stuff and see if that alleviates it but that did get rid of here I go to my C Drive there's no longer that that Windows dot old folder so that should have alleviated most of the issue let me make sure this isn't getting rid of stuff I don't want to it does not go ahead and run it real quick and see how much space we can clear off maybe no more maybe that's all you get cuz thankfully some of the windows old stuff would be files it could be files that you're already using I will actually go ahead and click that disk check up here and recheck it to see if it has any more Windows installation files or Windows dobe files in the checklist but the answer is most likely no all right CCleaner cleared out about two hundred twelve gigs but most of those are not at all going to be on that SSD it's a refresh I've got me a single gig free on my solid-state drive but a couple hundred gigs free on my hard drive right there if we check under the ccleaner there's not even a windows that old listing nor a temporary installation listing after tricking that so there's not really more forward again so you may not get that full file size back but you're certainly going to have a better off hard drive than when you started so now I can update my graphics driver hopefully thanks for watching guys hope this was helpful for you be sure to smash that like button don't forget to subscribe for more awesome videos again feel free to request some tutorials and otherwise I'll see you in the next one\n"