How to Use the Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows Vista and 7
Many of the basic factors involved in using the utility Disk Cleanup discussed on another page for Windows XP apply to Windows Vista and Windows 7 as well. However, some of the details of using the tool are different and they will be discussed here.
The tool can be accessed in several ways. It is listed in the Start-All Programs- Accessories-System Tools group. It can also be opened by right-clicking on a drive icon in Computer, choosing "Properties" from the context menu, and clicking the button "Disk Cleanup" on the properties sheet, as shown below.
Another way to open the accessory is to enter "clean" into the Start-Search bar. If you have more than one disk volume or hard drive, you will be asked to select the volume that should be cleaned. Vista users will also be asked if they want to clean up just their own files or all of the files on the computer.
Whichever way you choose to access Disk Cleanup, Windows will first spend a minute calculating how much space you might save. You will see the box shown on the left.
The figure below shows the main interface for Disk Cleanup in Windows 7. Various different folders which store temporary files are listed. Certain listings are standard for all systems while others may vary according to an individual setup. The standard list includes Downloaded Program Files,Temporary Internet Files, the Recycle Bin, and Temporary files. The item "Downloaded Program Files" has a name that confuses many PC users. It does not refer to downloaded software programs but is a folder that contains ActiveX and Java applets that are sometimes downloaded for temporary use by Internet sites.
If the button "Clean up system files" is chosen, an additional tab "More Options" is added to the interface in Windows 7 as the figure below shows. This provides for some advanced options such as removing shadow copies. This tab is present in the Vista interface without the need to click a button if you make the choice to clean up all files on the system.
