What Is Safe to Delete in Disk Cleanup? Here Is the Answer [MiniTool Tips]

What is Windows Disk Cleanup?

Windows Disk Cleanup (cleanmgr.exe) is a built-in Windows maintenance utility used to free up disk space on your computer. This tool can first search and analyze the hard drive for files that are no longer in use.After scanning, it will show you a list containing files such as distribution optimization files, Windows ESD installation files, previous Windows installation files and more that you can remove with this tool. Cleanup, you might ask: should I delete the Windows setup files? Should I remove previous Windows installations? Should I delete the Windows ESD installation files? All these questions can be summed up into one question: what is safe to delete in Disk Cleanup? Before answering the above questions, you can take a look at the files it can detect in your computer’s hard drive. of different file categories after scanning the selected computer’s hard drive. However, not all file categories will be displayed in Disk Cleanup. It just shows some of them that Disk Cleanup can get after scanning:

• Windows Update Cleanup
• Temporary Internet files
• Windows ESD Setup File
• Delivery Optimization File
• Delete all system restore points
• Previous Windows installation(s)
• Temporary profile
• And more…

The following options may also appear on some earlier versions of Windows such as Windows 7, and some options appear only if your computer has certain file types on the hard drive:

• Temporary setup file
• Debug files
• Report archived errors per user
• Log file setup
• And more…

Some of you are confused when you see too many file categories in Disk Cleanup. You probably don’t know what these files are used for and which files are safe to delete in Disk Cleanup. We hope you can find what you want after reading this article.

You’d better not delete Windows ESD installation files in Disk Cleanup

There is a category of files you should not delete in Disk Cleanup. That is Windows ESD Setup File.Typically, Windows ESD installation files take up several gigabytes of disk space on your computer. You might think that deleting these files will free up a lot of free space for new data. But, we completely disagree with this opinion. Due to their special nature, deleting these files will cause computer problems. The Windows ESD installation files are related to the “Reset This PC” feature. They allow you to restore your computer to factory settings. If you delete them, “Reset This PC” will not work properly. If you want to factory reset your computer, you’ll need to use Windows installation media instead, so just keep the Windows ESD installation files on your computer.

You can delete these files according to the actual situation

Indeed, for the most part, files and folders in Disk Cleanup can be safely deleted. Furthermore, if your computer is not working properly, deleting some items in Disk Cleanup may make it impossible for you to uninstall Windows updates, restore Windows operating system, or fix some problems. computer. , you need to make a decision according to your actual situation.

Windows Update Cleanup

The files in this category are old versions of Windows that you have installed on your computer. It allows you to uninstall any version of Windows. However, if there is no need to uninstall Windows updates, you can delete it to free up disk space.

Windows Upgrade Log File

The Windows Upgrade log file is created by the Windows upgrade process. They can help you with upgrade related issues. If you don’t have such problems, you can delete them.

System error memory dump file

Read more: what is the square root of 369 | The Q&AA’s top famous stop error is the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). When your computer boots into the BSOD, the system creates a memory dump file that can help you determine what happened. While, if you have fixed the BSOD problem, you can delete these System Error memory dump files.

System Stored Windows Error Reporting

Files in the Windows Archive System that report errors are error reports generated by Windows when a program crashes. These error reports can help you analyze and fix program problems. These bug reports have been submitted to Microsoft. Deleting them won’t affect your computer. However, of course, you won’t see these reports after deletion. Delete them or not, you should decide for yourself.

System Queued Windows Error Reporting

This is similar to “System Stored Windows Error Reporting”. The only difference is that the bug reports are not sent to Microsoft. You can choose to delete it or not based on your own requirements.

DirectX Shader Cache

The DirectX Shader Cache contains files generated by the graphics system. These files can be used to speed up application load times and improve responsiveness. If you delete them, they will be recreated if needed. However, if you think the DirectX Shader Cache is corrupted or too large, you can delete it.

Delivery Optimization File

The Windows Update Delivery Optimization feature allows you to receive Windows updates from or send updates to nearby computers or machines on your network. This feature helps you get updates faster. However, it will take up a lot of space on your computer’s hard drive.If these files are really taking up a lot of disk space or you think the Delivery Optimization Files are corrupted, you can delete them. However, if you don’t care about disk space, you can keep them as well.

Device driver package

Older versions of device drivers are kept in the Device Driver Package. When needed, you can restore device drivers in Device Manager to resolve some issues. However, if your computer and all devices are working fine, you can remove the Device Driver Package in Disk Cleanup.

Delete all system restore points

These are the system restore points that you created to restore the system. You can keep them for further use, or you can delete them directly if you don’t plan to use them.

Garbage can

Here is another way to empty the Recycle Bin on your computer. You can delete it if you don’t need these files in the Recycle Bin.

Previous Windows installation(s)

After upgrading Windows, your computer will keep previous Windows system files for 10 days. You can downgrade your Windows within 10 days. 10 days later, previous Windows installations are automatically deleted to free up space. When you see this option in Disk Cleanup, you can delete them manually if it doesn’t degrade your Windows operating system.

Temporary Windows installation file

Windows installations and major upgrades will create temporary Windows installation files. If you are not in the process of installing Windows or a major update, you are free to delete these files.

You can directly delete these files in Disk Cleanup

The following options are not important to you. You can delete them immediately to free up disk space for new data.

Windows Defender

Microsoft does not provide much information about this option. However, it seems that the files in it are not important for Windows Defender. They are some temporary files and you can delete them without re-editing.

Program files downloaded

This folder includes ActiveX controls and Java applications that are downloaded from the Internet when you use Internet Explorer to view certain web pages. You can delete them without affecting your computer. In fact, they will be re-downloaded when visiting a website that needs the file.

Temporary Internet files

These files are browser caches created when using Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge. With these files, the web browser will load the previously opened web page faster in the future. But other than that, there will be no other effects. You can directly delete them in Disk Cleanup.Read more: what is usermode font driver server | Top Q&A Here you need to know that deleting temporary internet files can only affect Microsoft browsers. Some other Windows web browsers such as Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox will remain as they are.

Temporary profile

These are files that have not been modified in more than a week. You are free to delete them.

Small picture

These are thumbnail images for videos, images, documents. If you delete them, Windows will recreate them when you access the folder where those files are located again. The following are some files that appear in older versions of Windows or are related to certain file types. If you don’t need to use them to solve some system or software problem or some other special situation, you are free to delete them:

• Temporary installation file: file created when you install a program.
• Offline web pages: web pages to browse offline in Internet Explorer.
• Debug Dump Files: Debug files created after the crash.
• Per-User Archived Error Reporting: it is similar to System-hosted Windows Error Reporting
• Queued per-user Windows Error Reporting: it is similar to System Queued Windows Error Reporting.
• Old Chkdsk file: corrupted file fragments.
• Game stats file: your game score and other stats.
• Setup log files: files created when a program is installed.
• System Error Shrink Files: they are similar to memory dump files. However, they take up less disk space.
• Files Removed by Windows Upgrade: system files will not be migrated to the new computer when a Windows update is performed.

What is Safe to Erase in Disk Cleanup?

Here we will summarize: Except for Windows ESD Setup files, if you don’t restore device drivers, uninstall Windows updates, downgrade Windows version or fix system problems, can delete almost anything. in Disk Cleanup.

What if the file was deleted by mistake during disk cleanup

If you mistakenly deleted some files, such as the ones you want to recover from the Recycle Bin, you can use free data recovery software to recover them. MiniTool Power Data Recovery is a good choice, this software is a special file recovery tool that can be used to rescue files from hard drive, SD card, memory card, etc under different circumstances. As long as the deleted files are not overwritten by new data, you can use this software to save them. It has a trial version. You can use it first to see if it can find files that need to be restored. You can press the following button to get this free software. Free Download Here are instructions on how to use this software to scan your computer’s hard drive and find your needed files: 1. Open the software. You can see all the drives on your computer. Select the drive where you want to save the file and click To scan to continue.3. After scanning, you will see the scan results. By default, these files are sorted by path. You can open each path to find your required files. Alternatively, you can also use Type and Find features to quickly find the files you need to recover.4. This trial version does not allow you to restore files. You need to upgrade to the advanced version and then use it to do the final data recovery.

Conclusion

Should I delete Windows setup files in Disk Cleanup? Should I remove previous Windows installations? We believe you will know what is safe to delete in Disk Cleanup after reading this article. [email protected]or let us know in the comments.Read more: Backflow systems | Top Q&A

Last, Wallx.net sent you details about the topic “What Is Safe to Delete in Disk Cleanup? Here Is the Answer [MiniTool Tips]❤️️”.Hope with useful information that the article “What Is Safe to Delete in Disk Cleanup? Here Is the Answer [MiniTool Tips]” It will help readers to be more interested in “What Is Safe to Delete in Disk Cleanup? Here Is the Answer [MiniTool Tips] [ ❤️️❤️️ ]”.

Posts “What Is Safe to Delete in Disk Cleanup? Here Is the Answer [MiniTool Tips]” posted by on 2021-08-15 11:34:13. Thank you for reading the article at wallx.net