Those of you who own a laptop is likely to have encountered several instances in which your laptop slowed down, your desktop was cluttered with useless icons and files, etc.
As you use your laptop, unnecessary, temporary and duplicate files accumulate on your hard drives, slowing it down.
When you delete these files you not only make space for new files, but you also improve the performance of your computer.
How are junk files created and what is their purpose?
When you use any type of software, browse the Internet, or download stuff, temporary files are being generated which contain useful information for a while, but lose their relevance and become garbage.
The biggest problem is that you cannot delete junk files from your laptop after they have been used.
Why do you need to remove junk files?
Although these junk files do not harm your machine, they do consume valuable space and may cause it to become slower.
If you have many junk files on your computer, you will have less space to store other important files or software.
It is essential to regularly delete junk files to improve your computer’s performance.
In this case, how can you determine which files are trash and which are essential to the operation of the system? The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how to locate and eliminate junk files.
What are the most commonly found junk files?
To operate properly, your laptop creates temporary files. When you close the lid of your laptop, for example, Windows automatically puts itself into sleep or hibernation mode (depending upon your settings).
Temporary files are important because they contain every bit of information regarding what you did before closing your laptop.
When you start up your laptop again, and the Operating System starts up, it reads these files and restores the system to its original configuration while deleting these temporary files.
Your internet browser software saves several types of information while browsing, including Cache, Cookies, and Temporary Files which facilitate the speeding up of websites that you visit frequently.
Eventually, this can consume a great deal of disk space.
During the installation and operation of certain software, temporary files are also created.
Where are these junk files on your computer and how can you delete them?
You will see that there are numerous ways to clean junk files, and there are numerous places where you can find them.
I will assist you in finding all the locations and show you many options on how you can eradicate them all.
Feel free to choose the method that is most suitable for your needs.
1. Run a disk cleaning program
Installing a disk cleaner is probably the simplest (and most effective) way to eliminate junk files. This software is fairly easy to use and warns you if you are about to delete a file, so you do not accidentally delete anything.
These disk cleaning programs are capable of removing system junk files, browser histories, caches, cookies, and duplicate/unnecessary registry entries.
Furthermore, you can set these up to automatically clean your computer regularly, such as every week or every month.
Here are a few of the best disk cleanup programs:
- Analyzer Pro for Disks
- with Cleaner
2. Using the right-click menu, select the junk file
It is easy to remove junk files if you locate them with the right mouse button (or select them with the right mouse button) and then click on the “Delete” button.
In this case, the file is not permanently deleted; it is simply placed in the recycle bin.
If you wish to get rid of them for good, you will still need to empty the recycling bin.
3. Remove junk files from your computer using Disk Cleanup
It is a built-in tool in Windows that is designed to delete hidden junk files.
Detailed instructions are provided below.
Please open your computer.
Right-click the drive that you wish to clean
and choose “Properties”.
Choosing “Disk cleanup” will complete the process.
From the drop-down list, select the files that you wish to delete.
Once you have selected the unwanted files, click on the “OK” button.
In addition, you can run it by searching for “Disk cleanup” and opening it.
4. Cleaning up browsing history
Browser histories and cache are the most common junk files. They can easily be deleted and will free up a large amount of space on your computer.
Edge from Microsoft:
- Please open your browser
- by clicking the three dots in the upper right corner
- corner
- corner, then select “Settings.”
- Choose what to clear by rolling down and clicking on “Clear browsing data”
- Check the items you wish to remove and click “Clear”
The “Always clear this when I close the browser” option is provided if you wish to regularly delete browsing data to clean up your Windows.
Chromatically:
- Click on the three dots in the upper right corner of Google Chrome
- Using the menu, select “More tools” and then “Clear browsing data”.
- This will open a window with the “Basic” options and the “Advanced” options. Select “Advanced” and indicate the time range in which you wish to delete the items.
- Press the “Clear Data” button.
5. Dispose of duplicate files
Duplicate finding applications are widely available on the Internet that finds and remove duplicate files from your hard drive.
The following options are popular:
- Cleaner without duplicates
- using Duplicate Guru
- for VisitPics
- duplicate file detection
Using Ccleaner, which we mentioned in our article on how to buy more storage (Chapter: “Use a disk cleanup program to remove unnecessary files”), you will find that it has a duplicate finder tool.
6. Delete Windows update data from Windows 10
- Navigate to Drive C: then to Windows
- Explorer, and select Software Distribution
- then click “Download”
- Make sure all of the files are selected and deleted.
In any case, Windows 10 will download these files again if they are required.
7. Deleting temporary files
- Select the Windows icon with the right-click menu
- menu
- menu, then click “Run”
- Click “OK” and enter °%temp%
- By saving any work you are currently completing with one of the programs, you will be able to remove all junk files.
- Right-click on the Windows icon and select “Run”. Type “temp” into the box. You will find junk files in this location as well.
- These should be deleted to clean up the temp directory.
Alternatively, you can do this by opening C drive, then Windows, scrolling down to find “Temp” and deleting it.
8. Deleting the pre-fetched files
- Open the C drive, followed by Windows.
- Search for “Prefetch” at the bottom of the screen.
- Please delete all the files and folders
What should you do if you have accidentally deleted files?
Your laptop can stop working properly if important system files are accidentally deleted.
You should avoid removing junk files from places other than your downloads, documents, music, pictures, videos, and your desktop if you are unsure of which files to remove.
As a result, you must keep a copy of your files and downloads on a reliable storage medium (e.g., an external hard drive).
Should You delete several files, but some of them were necessary, you may be able to recover them.
Recover it Data Recovery has the capability of restoring deleted files and can be used on iOS, Android, and Windows devices.
There is also the option of using System Restore, a tool included in Windows that can be helpful in such circumstances.
Please ensure that System Restore is enabled before you begin to clean junk files.
What is the appropriate frequency for deleting junk files?
If you spend many hours in front of the monitor each day and download numerous files, periodic disk cleaning is recommended, but if you only log on a couple of times per week, cleaning out the junk files once or twice a month is sufficient to keep the junk files from piling up and slowing down your computer.
