{"id":1377,"date":"2018-05-03T15:39:48","date_gmt":"2018-05-03T22:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/3.209.169.194\/blogs\/glenn\/?p=1377"},"modified":"2018-05-08T12:08:02","modified_gmt":"2018-05-08T19:08:02","slug":"windows-disk-cleanup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/windows-disk-cleanup\/","title":{"rendered":"Windows Disk Cleanup"},"content":{"rendered":"

One very useful tool for freeing up disk space is the built-in Disk Cleanup application<\/a> in Windows. You can start this application by simply typing Disk Cleanup at your Windows Start menu. Once it starts, you will need to pick which drive you want to scan and clean up. In most cases, you will want to choose your boot drive, which will be C: for most people.<\/font><\/p>\n


<\/font><\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Figure 1: Disk Cleanup: Drive Selection Screen<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n


<\/font><\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Figure 2: Initial Disk Cleanup Screen<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n


<\/font><\/p>\n

You should always click on the \u201cClean up system files\u201d button to get a complete picture (and find the larger files that you may be able to delete). After clicking on the button, you\u2019ll have to wait for the scan to complete. If you have a magnetic drive, this might take a while, while if you have an Intel Optane 900P drive<\/a>, it will be extremely quick!<\/font><\/p>\n


<\/font><\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Figure 3: Disk Cleanup after clicking on Cleanup system files<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In many cases, you will find an entry for \u201cPrevious Windows installation(s)\u201d that may be 25-50GB in size, which is pretty significant when you have a smaller boot drive and are running low on disk space. In Windows 10, you will get those when you install the semi-annual updates such as the recent \u201cWindows 10 April 2018\u201d update.<\/font><\/p>\n

You just need to be aware that if you let Disk Cleanup delete the previous Windows installations, you won\u2019t be able to go back to a previous version by uninstalling the latest version. The tool will display a special confirmation dialog to make sure you know this.<\/font><\/p>\n

If you choose to delete everything that the tool offers up, it is not uncommon to get 50-75GB of space back. Again, the disk cleanup process will take quite a while with a magnetic drive.<\/font><\/p>\n

You can start Disk Cleanup from a command line, as Microsoft explains here<\/a>.<\/font><\/p>\n


<\/font><\/p>\n

You can also use the Windows Storage Sense<\/a> feature to automatically do some of the disk cleanup for on all of your drives.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n


<\/font><\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Figure 4: Storage Sense Display<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n


<\/font><\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Figure 5: Storage Sense Configuration<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One very useful tool for freeing up disk space is the built-in Disk Cleanup application in Windows. You can start this application by simply typing Disk Cleanup at your Windows Start menu. Once it starts, you will need to pick which drive you want to scan and clean up. In most cases, you will want […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,383],"tags":[385,384],"class_list":["post-1377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sql-server-storage","category-windows-10","tag-storage-sense","tag-windows-disk-cleanup"],"yoast_head":"\nWindows Disk Cleanup - Glenn Berry<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/windows-disk-cleanup\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Windows Disk Cleanup - Glenn Berry\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One very useful tool for freeing up disk space is the built-in Disk Cleanup application in Windows. You can start this application by simply typing Disk Cleanup at your Windows Start menu. Once it starts, you will need to pick which drive you want to scan and clean up. In most cases, you will want […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/windows-disk-cleanup\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Glenn Berry\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-05-03T22:39:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-05-08T19:08:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/image_thumb.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Glenn Berry\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Glenn Berry\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/windows-disk-cleanup\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/windows-disk-cleanup\/\",\"name\":\"Windows Disk Cleanup - Glenn Berry\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/windows-disk-cleanup\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/windows-disk-cleanup\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/image_thumb.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-05-03T22:39:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-05-08T19:08:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/#\/schema\/person\/57a8972435106bac7970692fcf5edfa7\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/windows-disk-cleanup\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/windows-disk-cleanup\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/windows-disk-cleanup\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/image_thumb.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/image_thumb.png\",\"width\":644,\"height\":352},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/windows-disk-cleanup\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Windows Disk Cleanup\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/\",\"name\":\"Glenn Berry\",\"description\":\"Semi-random musings about SQL Server performance\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/#\/schema\/person\/57a8972435106bac7970692fcf5edfa7\",\"name\":\"Glenn Berry\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/64bdac8830f25f2f8cc780f8a1286c66ff1182218009271e7a953639596f7e25?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/64bdac8830f25f2f8cc780f8a1286c66ff1182218009271e7a953639596f7e25?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Glenn Berry\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/author\/glenn\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Windows Disk Cleanup - Glenn Berry","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/windows-disk-cleanup\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Windows Disk Cleanup - Glenn Berry","og_description":"One very useful tool for freeing up disk space is the built-in Disk Cleanup application in Windows. You can start this application by simply typing Disk Cleanup at your Windows Start menu. Once it starts, you will need to pick which drive you want to scan and clean up. In most cases, you will want […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/windows-disk-cleanup\/","og_site_name":"Glenn Berry","article_published_time":"2018-05-03T22:39:48+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-05-08T19:08:02+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/image_thumb.png","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Glenn Berry","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Glenn Berry","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/windows-disk-cleanup\/","url":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/windows-disk-cleanup\/","name":"Windows Disk Cleanup - Glenn Berry","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/windows-disk-cleanup\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/windows-disk-cleanup\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/image_thumb.png","datePublished":"2018-05-03T22:39:48+00:00","dateModified":"2018-05-08T19:08:02+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/#\/schema\/person\/57a8972435106bac7970692fcf5edfa7"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/windows-disk-cleanup\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/windows-disk-cleanup\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/windows-disk-cleanup\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/image_thumb.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/image_thumb.png","width":644,"height":352},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/windows-disk-cleanup\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Windows Disk Cleanup"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/","name":"Glenn Berry","description":"Semi-random musings about SQL Server performance","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/#\/schema\/person\/57a8972435106bac7970692fcf5edfa7","name":"Glenn Berry","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/64bdac8830f25f2f8cc780f8a1286c66ff1182218009271e7a953639596f7e25?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/64bdac8830f25f2f8cc780f8a1286c66ff1182218009271e7a953639596f7e25?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Glenn Berry"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/author\/glenn\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1377\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sqlskills.com\/blogs\/glenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}