Over time, the performance of your computer decreases. And this is primarily due to the "littering" operating system temporary files, logs, etc. The best solution in this situation is to reinstall the OS. But what if it's scary to do this on your own, or there is simply not enough time to configure the primary parameters and unpack the software? Read our article. It will tell you how to completely clean your computer without uninstalling Windows.

Types of computer cleaning

To solve this problem, you need to apply all known ways to increase PC performance. Completion of only one of the points does not guarantee successful elimination of the problem.

Removing garbage with CCleaner

This software cleans up all the tails after uninstalling programs, surfing the Internet and deleting files. Therefore, for the initial stage of cleaning best application can not found. So, do the following:

1. Download CCleaner from this link if you don't have it.
2. Install on your computer following the prompts of the "Installation Wizard".
3. Open the application and go to the tab "Cleaning" - "Windows".
   
   
4. In the list that appears, check the box next to the fields you want to run.
   

   Attention! Removing temporary files, emptying the trash, etc. can not be canceled. Data will be lost forever!

5. Next, go to the "Applications" tab and also activate the required fields. This module does an excellent job of clearing cache, cookies and browser history.
   
   
   

   Attention! Pay attention to the item "Saved passwords". When activated, all data for entering the sites will be deleted. Create a backup or uncheck the box.

6. Now it remains to press the "Clear" button, confirm the action and wait for the end of the operation.
   
   
7. After completing this module, go to the "Registry" tab. Here, by default, all parameters are selected that are not recommended to be edited.
8. Now click on "Search for problems", and after scanning - "Fix".
   
   
9. In the new window, refuse to create a backup.
   
   
   

Freeing up RAM

Full RAM is one of the most important factors. There are no short instructions for cleaning it; the issue must be approached with all seriousness. Therefore, we recommend that you read the article: ""

Defragment your hard drive

This event not only increases the performance of the system, but also extends the life of the equipment. Users are constantly copying, moving and deleting files. This leaves a serious imprint on the functioning of the hard drive.

The fact is that during the above manipulations with the object, data is written to free memory cells. If the file is too large and does not fit in a certain area, it is divided (fragmented) and recorded on different parts of the HDD. This, in turn, increases the response time of the hard drive to the provision of information and causes "slowdowns".

To perform data redistribution, you need to do the following:

Formatting the hard drive

If you decide to go to the extreme, why not reinstall Windows at the same time? But in case of a fundamental decision to keep the OS, follow these steps:

Attention! This operation will completely delete all data. Back up important files. Do not format the system partition!

On this I will end. Now you know how to completely clean your computer without uninstalling Windows. Be careful with formatting and keep your computer software clean. Good luck!

In this article, we will look at different ways cleaning the disk and freeing up space on it in any operating system Windows XP, 7, 8.1, 10.

1. Where does the disk space go?

In the process of computer operation, system updates, software installation, site visits and other activities, a lot of unnecessary files accumulate on the disk, which are often called garbage or junk. In addition, we often download some files ourselves, and then, when they are no longer needed, we forget about them.

Extra files not only take up disk space, but also slow down system performance. Disk takes longer required files, and some of them can take up memory space and use processor resources. In addition, viruses often like to sit in temporary files.

For stable, fast and reliable operation of your computer, you must keep the disk clean and tidy. The problem of lack of space for SSD drives, the volume of which is very limited.

In this article, we will try to comprehensively solve the problem of insufficient disk space. To achieve high results, we recommend that you read the entire article and follow all the tips in the order in which they are presented.

2. Removing unnecessary programs and games

First of all, remove all programs and games you no longer need. This will not only free up disk space, but also speed up the system.

Press the key combination "Win + R", type "appwiz.cpl" and press "Enter" or use the "Uninstall Programs" shortcut from the "" section.

In the window that opens, carefully review the list of programs, games installed on you and remove all that you are unlikely to use in the near future.

To uninstall a particular program, right-click on it and select "Uninstall".

Do not delete what you do not understand the purpose of or if you are not sure.

After that, manually find and delete the folders with the saved games of the deleted games, as they can take up a lot of space. It is easy to find out where the save of this or that game is by searching on the Internet.

Many online games also save their distributions (installation packages) during updates that are no longer needed, but take up a lot of space. For example, the Mail.Ru game center saves distributions in the Distrib folder, and the World of Tanks game in the Updates subfolder. Files in such folders can take tens of gigabytes and can be removed painlessly.

3. Find and delete unnecessary files

It often happens that some old unnecessary files take up a lot of disk space, but we forgot about them and do not know where they are. In order to find them, I recommend using the "TreeSize Free" utility, which you can download in the "" section.

Once launched, the program will scan your disk, determine the sizes of files, folders and sort them by size.

This way, you can easily determine which folder contains the files that take up the most space. Delete any files you no longer need. If you think you may still need any of them, write them to disk. The choice of the drive for scanning (C, D, etc.) is done in the "Scan" menu.

4. Transferring user files and folders

If you have a second drive or partition (for example, drive "D"), then first of all transfer to it all files from the desktop and user folders such as "My Documents", "My Music", "My Videos", etc. ., since they are all physically located on the "C" drive.

You can move files manually by creating folders for them on another disk or partition in advance. But it is more correct to change the location of the user's folders by means of the operating system. Then all new files that you or any programs will save on the desktop and in the user's folders will automatically go to another disk partition without causing the system partition to overflow.

4.1. Transferring user folders in Windows 7, 8.1, 10

Go to the "C: \ Users \ Name" folder.

Right click on the "My Documents" folder and go to the "Location" tab.

Replace the drive letter with the one where you want to move the folder (for example, "D") and click "OK".

Agree to move the files, and then repeat the steps for the Desktop folder and the rest of the user's folders.

4.2. Transferring user folders in Windows XP

In Windows XP there is no function of automatic movement of user folders and we will use a special utility "XP Tweaker", which you can download in the "" section.

Install the utility and run it. Then, in the left pane, select the "Windows XP" section and go to the "System folders" tab.

Select the "My Documents" folder with the mouse, change the drive letter to the one where you want to move the folder (for example, "D") and click the "Change" button.

Follow the same steps for the folders "My Pictures", "My Music", "Desktop".

After that go to the folder "C: \ Documents and Settings \ Name".

And manually move the My Documents and Desktop folders to the new location D: \ Documents and Settings \ Name.

5. Disk cleaning using Windows

All versions of Windows have a Disk Cleanup feature. It can be used to clean up any disk partition (C, D, etc.), but it is most effective for cleaning the system partition (drive "C"), since it is on it that most temporary files are stored.

Right-click on the C drive and select Properties.

Click the Disk Cleanup button.

Click the "Clean up system files" button (in Windows 7, 8.1, 10).

Check all the boxes and you will see how much space will be freed by deleting temporary files.

The size of temporary files can be up to 5-10 GB. Click the "OK" button and all temporary files will be deleted.

6. Deleting the hibernation file

The hibernation file (hiberfil.sys), which can be close to RAM size, is located on the C drive and is used for sleep mode. If you do not use this mode, and each time you turn on and off the computer in the usual way, then this file can be removed painlessly, since it takes up a lot of space.

The system will not allow you to manually delete this file, and even if you do it using a special utility for deleting files, the system will create it anew. Therefore, for the correct deletion of the hibernation file, you need to disable sleep mode.

Run Command Prompt as Administrator and run the following command:

Powercfg -h off

After that, the system itself will delete this file and will no longer create it.

If you do not know how to work with the command line or do not want to bother, you can download the command file "Delete hibernation file" in the "" section.

You just have to right-click on it and run as Administrator (except for Windows XP).

7. Disable or resize the paging file

The paging file (pagefile.sys), which can be one and a half times the size of the RAM, is located on the C drive and is used by many programs to compensate for the lack of RAM.

With a sufficiently large amount of RAM and a small "C" drive (for example, SSD), many enthusiasts advise disabling the paging file.

In the window that opens, go to the "Advanced" tab and in the "Performance" section, click the "Options" button.

In Performance Options, go to the Advanced tab and click the Change button.

Uncheck the "Automatically select paging file size" checkbox, set the "No paging file" checkbox and click "OK".

After restarting the computer, the paging file will be deleted and a lot of space will be freed up on the "C" drive.

But keep in mind that the work of the system is tightly tied to the paging file, and some programs may not even have enough 8 GB of RAM. Therefore, out of memory errors may start to appear.

You can try to completely disable the paging file if you have 16 GB or more of RAM, but still I would not recommend doing this.

A-Data Ultimate SU650 120GB Hard Drive

8. Disable System Restore

The recovery service does backups system files and stores them in a special hidden folder that can take up a lot of disk space. At the same time, the built-in recovery tool does not always work correctly, and viruses like to hide in the folder with backups.

Press the key combination "Win + R", type "sysdm.cpl" and press "Enter" or use the shortcut "System Properties" from the "" section.

In the window that opens, go to the "System Protection" tab, select the "C" drive and click the "Configure" button.

Set the "Disable system protection" checkbox and click "OK".

After that, all backup copies of system files will be deleted and additional disk space will be freed up. Thus, you can free up 5-10 GB of valuable space on the "C" drive.

9. Disable the recycle bin

You can disable the Recycle Bin on drive "C" so that it does not take up space on it. To do this, right-click on the trash can icon and select "Properties".

Set the "Shred files immediately after deletion" option for the "C" drive and click "OK".

After that, if you delete large files from the folders with distributions of games or any others, they will not go to the trash and will not take up space on the "C" drive.

10. Clearing the backup storage

To clear the storage of backup copies of system files in Windows 8, 8.1, 10, I recommend command line on behalf of the Administrator, execute the following command.

Dism.exe / Online / Cleanup-Image / StartComponentCleanup

For this purpose, you can also download the "Clean up backup storage" batch file in the "" section and run it on behalf of the Administrator.

11. Removing temporary folders

You can painlessly delete temporary folders left after installing some drivers and programs:

C: \ AMD C: \ ATI C: \ CONFIG.MSI C: \ Intel C: \ MSOCache C: \ NVIDIA C: \ SWSetup

12. Automatic cleaning and disk acceleration

There are special utilities for automatic disk cleaning of temporary files. One of the best I recommend is.

It can be configured to clean up temporary files every time the computer boots, which will maintain free space on the "C" drive, as well as provide a little extra protection, since temporary folders are a favorite place for viruses.

But it is necessary to correctly configure it, otherwise this utility will clean you not what you need, but will leave what needs to be removed. Since the utility's settings are quite extensive and it has many additional useful functions, I decided to talk about it separately in the next article.

13. Links

HDD A-Data Ultimate SU650 240GB
Transcend StoreJet 25M3 1 TB Hard Drive
HDD Western digital Caviar Blue WD10EZEX 1 TB

Do you like cleanliness and order? I think yes. So, on the computer from time to time it is worth arranging "cleaning". Imagine that you are working somewhere in the office and after a while you notice that your desk is gradually starting to get littered with all sorts of unnecessary documents and papers. And what are you doing? That's right, you will clean and tidy up to free up more space on your desk and work in a comfortable environment. The same thing happens on the computer. The computer should also be kept clean and tidy.

In the process of working at the computer, a lot of unnecessary "garbage" accumulates on the hard disk of the computer. Garbage should be understood here as all unnecessary information - temporary Internet files, unused application files, and so on. The more actively you work at the computer, the more this "garbage" becomes. And as you know, you always need to get rid of garbage in order to save precious disk space.

To maintain order on the computer, it is necessary to arrange a "cleaning" at a certain period of time (once a week, for example). Fortunately, the developers of Windows XP took care of this and now you can give an exact answer to the question - how to clean the disk of unnecessary files? To delete unnecessary files in the Windows XP operating system, a special utility is provided. This utility is called Disk Cleanup.

The Disk Cleanup utility is located in standard set utility programs. It runs like other standard programs via Start> Accessories> System Tools> Disk Cleanup. You can also run it through the command line: Start> Run and enter the command cleanmgr .

After starting the program, a window will appear in which we should select logical drive to view. By default, the C drive is always selected.

You can also choose a disc for cleaning in another way. Go to "My Computer", then select the desired disk, right-click and in context menu select the item "Properties". In the window that appears in the "General" tab, click the "Disk Cleanup" button.

After deciding on the disk, click OK. The procedure will begin to check the status of files on the selected drive. It is worth a little wait here, because this procedure takes a certain amount of time.

Upon completion of the analysis of the disk, the utility will issue a report on the work done in the form of a window in which the categories of files that can be deleted without damage to the operating system will be marked with checkmarks. Opposite each item, the amount of released space is indicated in kilobytes. In addition, the wizard will give information about how it will free up and how much disk space will be released.

In order to understand what should and should not be deleted, the user should understand what the listed filegroups are. The report provides us with the following groups of files:

• Downloaded Program Files;
• Temporary Internet files;
• Offline files;
• Files in the recycle bin;
• Temporary application files;
• Temporary WebClient / Publisher files;
• Compression of old files;
• Content indexer catalog files used by the OS during the last indexing.

Consider each group separately in more detail.

Folder " Downloaded Program Files»Is intended to temporarily store ActiveX controls and Java applications that are automatically downloaded from the Internet when loading and browsing various web pages. The folder can be safely cleaned at any time.

In the catalog « Temporary Internet Files»(Temporary Internet Files) contains web pages that are automatically saved to your hard drive while browsing the Internet. This is necessary for quick viewing when re-accessing them. If you have high speed connection to the Internet, it makes no sense to keep this folder. Since a large number of files accumulate in it, you should try to clean it up regularly enough.

Offline files are essentially the same as temporary offline files, with the only difference that they are local copies of network files to which offline access was explicitly requested. Both those and others can be safely removed without negative consequences for the operation of the system.

Files in the recycle bin- after deleting files from the disk, they are automatically moved to the trash. This is the final frontier before the files are completely deleted and can be restored before the Trash is emptied. An absent-minded user who has inadvertently deleted necessary files can easily find them here. The name of the Recycle Bin speaks for itself - it is intended for garbage and should be monitored for overflow. Emptying the Recycle Bin will rid the drive of previously deleted files.

Temporary application files- some programs very often store temporary information in files, in a specially designated TEMP folder. As a rule, these files are usually deleted before closing such programs. However, this does not always happen, and therefore a lot of unnecessary information can accumulate in the folder. Temporary files that are stored for more than a week can be safely deleted.

Service " WebClient / WebPublisher»Saves on disk files that have been accessed appropriately. They are necessary to increase performance, and therefore can be painlessly removed.

One way to save space is file compression procedure, which have not been accessed for a long time. At the same time, Windows retains the ability to access these files at any time, and no information is deleted. However, the information about the freed space in this case will be approximate, since the files are compressed with varying degrees.

Indexing Service is designed to speed up the search for files on disks. By creating indexes of files on the disk, this service greatly expands the ability to find the information you need. However, old indexes may be retained from the last indexing operation and should be dropped.

Now that it is more or less clear to you what each category of files is, you can determine what to keep and what to delete. If necessary, you can view the contents of each category. To do this, it is enough to select the right group and click on the "View files" button.

I would like to add that the composition of the components to be removed depends on the type of disk being cleaned. For example, for non-bootable logical drives, the report only lists the contents of the Recycle Bin and Content Indexer catalog files.

In addition to all the components presented, you can also free up additional disk space by going to the "Advanced" tab. Here we can remove unused components as well as unnecessary programs.

After all the above operations, click OK in the report wizard window and confirm our actions. The program will remove everything unnecessary and automatically shutdown.

In conclusion, I would like to add that in addition to the built-in disk cleanup utility, there are also third-party utilities. You can download a computer cleaning program on the Internet. In some programs, the disk cleaning utility comes as an additional tool for organizing system optimization.

All these programs are certainly good, but experience shows that the built-in utility does a good job of its duties. Run the Disk Cleanup Wizard often and your system will always be kept clean and tidy.

Many people are familiar with the situation when a recently purchased HDD, as it seemed, just an unrealistic size, quickly turned out to be crammed to the eyeballs, as the OS persistently reminded of. It's a shame when you don't even have a clue where the disk space is going, as if it is being eaten.

All kinds of caches, temporary files, settings files have a good purpose: to make the user's work as convenient and fast as possible. Unfortunately, in many cases, the program does not delete these files after shutting down. It is believed that they will be needed in the future, due to which some process will be accelerated, but someday it is necessary to put things in order.

Temporary OS files

To begin with, logging into the system with administrator rights, check the disk for errors ("My Computer" → "Service" → "Check"), since it is quite possible that there is simply an error in the record of the amount of free space.

Now you can use the built-in disk cleanup utility (Start → Programs → Accessories → System Tools → Disk Cleanup). Here you should pay attention to two sections: "Temporary files" and "Temporary Internet files" (Did you forget to clean the Recycle Bin?). It is better not to touch the rest of the menu items - for example, clearing Downloaded Program Files may lead to the need to re-download large ActiveX and Java applets, for example, Shockwave. However, click the View button and make sure that nothing extra is left on your PC. Do the same with the remaining sections.

Next, you need to manually clear the Temp and Temporary Internet Files folders (you can also clear History, but its volume is small). The problem is that even if only one person is working at the computer, "garbage" may appear in such profiles as Administrator, Default User, All Users. Besides, the utility for cleaning disks does not delete all temporary files, but only those that are older than a week. This is done for greater reliability, so as not to inadvertently delete something you need. Therefore, we turn on the display of hidden and system files and go to the C: \ Documents and Settings folder, where we see a list of all users. In the folder of each user, go to the Local Settings directory and find the Temp and Temporary Internet Files we need. They can be safely cleared by first completing the execution of all programs. The exception is cookies in Temporary Internet Files - some of them are needed to visit some sites and their deletion will entail minor problems, for example, you will have to remember your login and password to the forum in which you are registered. Do not forget about the "system" Temp folder, it is usually located in the C: \ Windows directory.

One of the features of Windows XP is the ability to view graphic files directly from Explorer without opening them. You just see thumbnails of the images. Such copies are called thumbnails and they are stored in a hidden temporary file thumbs.db, which is created in each folder with pictures. The size of this file depends on the number of photos in the folder. "Overgrown" thumbs.db files can be periodically deleted manually, which is rather tedious, because the next time you open the directory with pictures, the OS will create a similar file again, or you can completely disable thumbnail caching ("Folder options" → "View").

The built-in screw burner can also leave its cache in the C: \ Documents and Settings \ Username \ Local Settings \ Application Data \ Microsoft \ CD Burning folder - which is a whopping 700 meters for a CD!

It is only necessary to note that the folders with temporary files will be filled up again soon after your inspection, so they will have to be cleared again after some interval. Therefore, it is much more convenient to clean them using a special bat file. You just need to type a few lines in Notepad, taking into account the peculiarities of your system and save the file with the .bat extension:

Erase / S / Q "C: \ Documents and Settings \ USERNAME \ Local Settings \ History"

Erase / S / Q "C: \ Documents and Settings \ USERNAME \ Local Settings \ Temp"
Erase / S / Q "C: \ Documents and Settings \ Default User \ Local Settings \ History"

Accordingly, instead of USERNAME, you need to substitute the username on your computer. Nobody forbids registering other paths for cleaning any directories on the computer.

Temporary application files

Pay attention to the Application Data folder in the Local Settings directory and to the folder of the same name in the root section of each user. This is where many programs like to store their temporary files, which often remain even after the program itself is uninstalled. By the way, Opera browsers and Mozilla, they store their cache in them - if you use them, you should clean not only Temporary Internet Files, but also look for a similar directory in Application Data.

In particular, the folder C: \ Documents and Settings \ Username \ Application Data \ Microsoft \ Office \ Recent Files stores shortcuts to recently opened files Microsoft Office- the volume of each is small, but the number is sometimes simply enormous.

If you are using Messenger2, then look in C: \ Documents and Settings \ Username \ Messenger2 \ Profiles - there are folders with names that match the numbers of ICQ accounts, in each of which you can find the files directory - it contains files transferred to you via a pager (unless you specified a different path when receiving the file). There is also a logs folder with the history of all dialogs. So look here more often, this will not only help save disk space, but also save the meaning of your negotiations from prying eyes. A similar ICQ directory is C: \ Documents and Settings \ Username \ Application Data \ ICQLite.

IN latest versions the popular ACDSee program has a database with a cache of icons. It can grow up to several hundred megabytes, and it contains just temporary files that can be safely deleted, so do not go past the folders C: \ Documents and Settings \ Username \ Application Data \ ACD Systems \ Catalogs \ 80 \ Default and C : \ Documents and Settings \ Username \ Local Settings \ Application Data \ ACD Systems \ Catalogs \ 80Pro \ Default - you can safely delete all their contents. Picasa 2 stores its files in C: \ Documents and Settings \ Username \ Local Settings \ Application Data \ Google \ Picasa2 - there you will find a db folder containing the program's database files and a tmp folder with temporary files.

Pay attention to the folders "My Documents". Many programs save their temporary files in them. For example, the popular AquaMark test package puts the results of each test in the C: \ Documents and Settings \ Username \ My Documents \ AquaMark3 folder. After prolonged use, the size of this folder can be hundreds of megabytes.

The well-known Need For Speed ​​Underground game saves its files in the C: \ Documents and Settings \ All Users \ Application Data folder, where the files for profiles, settings and saves are located. Subsequent versions of the game save their files to the folders C: \ Documents and Settings \ Username \ My Documents \ NFS Underground 2 and C: \ Documents and Settings \ Username \ My Documents \ NFS Most Wanted, respectively.

Thus, clearing Application Data of all unnecessary will free up a significant amount, but you need to act very carefully.

Do not forget, however, to look directly into Program Files - after uninstalling programs, a lot of garbage also remains here. If you find a folder with the name of a program that has been deleted, or its developer company, then you can delete it, just before that, look inside, maybe there is really something you need there. Study also C: \ Program Files \ Common Files - the remnants of the remote software can be found here as well. However, there are examples of another kind, for example, the WhereIsIt cataloguer program creates a backup copy every time a directory is changed, which, like the directory itself, can reach hundreds of megabytes. Such files are stored in the C: \ Program Files \ WhereIsIt \ Catalogs folder.

System Restore

Built-in Recovery Service Checkpoints Windows systems XP takes up a lot of space - by default, 12% of the hard disk space is reserved. In fact, such a service is only needed during the initial system configuration and driver installation. When the OS is set up, it is sufficient to have only one - the last point of rollback. Run the "Disk Cleanup" utility again - on the "Advanced" tab in the "System Restore" section, you can easily delete all checkpoints except the last one. Disabling the recovery service on all drives except the one where Windows is installed is also a good option.

If you use more reliable software, for example, Acronis TrueImage, then it is better to disable the recovery system altogether. To do this, go to the "Properties" of "My Computer" and on the "System Restore" tab check the box "Disable system restore on all disks". Now you can delete already existing checkpoints. The easiest way is directly in Explorer, in the context menu of the System Volume Information folder, select "Properties" → "Security", enter your account to the list, give it full access rights and then delete the contents of this directory in the usual way.

Deleting a memory dump

The developers of Windows XP provided for the ability to find out the cause of the system failure, for which, with each fatal error, a dump (content) of RAM is saved to the hard disk. Usually, each failure entails saving 64 KB of RAM (small memory dump), but depending on the settings, another option is possible: saving a full dump, which can take hundreds of megabytes.

For any normal user, this function is best turned off altogether. Open "Control Panel" → "System" → "Advanced" → "Startup and Recovery" → "Options" and in the "Recording debug information" section, specify "(Missing)" in the drop-down list. Now delete the existing memory dumps - they are saved to the C: \ Windows \ Minidump folder (if the save small memory dump mode was selected) or to the C: \ Windows \ Memory.dmp file (when saving a full RAM dump).

Removing the driver cache

When installing Windows XP, a set of standard drivers supplied with the OS is copied to the hard disk. In most cases, the need for them disappears after a complete installation and configuration of the system. You can safely remove such drivers and free up another 80-100 MB. If you need a standard driver to install a device in the future, nothing bad will happen, since the OS will ask you to insert the installation CD - if it is at hand, then you can safely empty the C: \ Windows \ Driver Cache \ i386 \ folder.

Deleting the cache of protected system files

Another function for preventing OS crashes is backup protected system files. If the original files are damaged, the system replaces them with files from the backup copy (which is about 200-400 MB on disk). The thing is very useful, but after full customization OS, with the proper level of its operation (if you install few programs, use only proven software and certified drivers), this function is unlikely to be needed, so if you really want to, you can disable it. In the command line, type sfc / cachesize = N, where N is the maximum allowable cache size, if this size is set to 0, then the cache will be disabled. Now you can delete (or better - copy to CD) the already existing backup copy of system files - the C: \ Windows \ system32 \ dllcache folder. But once again we draw your attention - do this only in case of urgent need, this function is very, very useful. If you decide to do this, then the logical continuation of deleting the cache will be to disable the entire protection service Windows files XP SP2. Copy the file% SystemRoot% \ System32 \ SFC_OS.DLL to a temporary folder, open it in a hex editor, and at offset 0xECE9 change 33C040 to 909090. From under the recovery console or another OS, replace this file with the version you patched wherever you find it on the disk. To registry key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ Winlogon

add the parameter (if not present) "SFCDisable" of type REG_DWORD with value "FFFFFF9D". Reboot your PC.

OS update files

In the Windows folder, you can find directories with a name like $ NtUninstallQnnnnnn $, $ NtUninstallKBnnnnnn $. They store the information necessary to return the OS to the state before the update was installed. Usually a couple of weeks after installing an update is enough to detect possible problems after installation. If there are none, then these folders can be deleted. To do this, it is convenient to use the Remove Hotfix Backup utility, although in some cases it removes far from all such folders, in which case the case can be completed manually. But delete not only the folder on the disk, but also in the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Uninstall, delete all parameters except Default in the section corresponding to this update, otherwise the Add or Remove Programs dialog will remain inoperative. team.

In addition, after installing hotfixes, another Windows folder\ $ hf_mig $. In addition to copying new files to the system folders, they are copied to the $ hf_mig $ folder. This is to ensure the correctness of future updates. For example, if in the future you install an update containing some files that are earlier versions than those that have already been installed, then the installation will take the files of the new versions from the $ hf_mig $ folder. That is, this folder can be deleted (or better, copied to a CD) if you do not make regular OS updates from the Windows Update website.

Optimizing the paging file

Limiting the size of the paging file is usually undesirable. An exception may be cases when the RAM is more than 1 GB - Windows XP can reserve more than a gigabyte of disk space for the swap file. In such a situation, it is permissible to set hard limits on the size of the paging file - by specifying, for example, 600-800 MB. Please note only that it all depends on what programs you are working with, therefore the best solution nevertheless, the transfer of the paging file (without setting restrictions on its size) to a dedicated hard disk or a partition of a hard disk with a volume of two to three GB is still possible. As a last resort, even just a different partition with data is suitable - the main thing is that the swap is not on the same partition as the Windows folder. This placement is recommended by Microsoft Support as it improves system performance. To configure virtual memory, look in "Control Panel" → "System" → "Advanced" → "Performance" → "Options" → "Advanced" → "Virtual Memory".

Hibernate file

Think about how often you use hibernate - Hibernate? And do you really need it? The fact is that when Hibernate support is turned on, the contents of the RAM are copied into a special file on the hard disk - hyberfil.sys. This file is almost equal to the amount of RAM installed in the computer and is located on the system disk, even if you have never transferred your PC to Hybernate. This file cannot be moved to another section. Therefore, if disk space is more important to you, then you can disable hibernation through the menu "Control Panel" → "Power supply" → "Hibernation".

User files

Not only the OS and programs are capable of hammering the system partition to failure in a couple of months of active operation. The users themselves have done quite well in this. Look for a start in the list of "Add or Remove Programs". You will find a lot of interesting things: programs whose names have not even been heard, utilities that were installed "in order to watch" and "in order to have", a dozen games that no one plays anymore. Delete the unnecessary, and then, as mentioned at the beginning, look into the folders in which these programs were installed, as well as in the Application Data directory. By the way, if you use the Ashampoo Uninstaller instead of a standard tool to uninstall programs, then there will be practically no garbage on the disk.

Next, scan your hard drive for duplicate files - for this you can use free utility Duplicate File Finder. Just do not delete duplicates in system folders - most of them are needed, scan only folders with user files in order to identify mistakenly left and forgotten copies of documents. If in your search you find a "non-removable" file occupied by some mysterious application, try the Unlocker utility.

Understand your media files. This applies to both your own collection and the multimedia files that appear as a result of the work of various programs. For example, many converters, grabbers, peer-to-peer exchange programs, by default, save to disk not only ready-made files, but also temporary ones, and in that folder or its subdirectory where the program is installed.

Of course, you will have to look through a lot of folders and files. different types, so to speed up and simplify this process, use the Scanner utility, it will graphically display the sizes of each folder and file, allowing you to identify the largest disk space leaks. After completing this set of activities, you will free up a few more hundred megabytes.

Completion of cleaning

At the end of cleaning the hard disk, it is advisable to perform a few more operations. First of all, you need to repeat the procedure for checking the hard drive, and then defragment it. You can defragment a disk using a standard utility, but it is better to use more powerful programs, or at least defragment the paging file with the free FileDeframenter utility.

Order has been achieved, now it is necessary to maintain it. To do this, you need to occasionally clear all "temporary" directories. Manually repeating such operations is rather tedious, so it makes sense to use the special utility WinTools. It will help to correctly uninstall programs, find and delete temporary files on the entire hard disk, or completely clear certain directories. In this case, you yourself can make a list of temporary file extensions (all kinds of .tmp, .bak, .gid, and so on), or use a ready-made list, which should be noted, compiled quite sensibly.

For advanced

Of course, these are far from all the possibilities for cleaning a disk. For example, you can remove Windows components that are not initially listed in Add / Remove Programs - Windows Setup. To do this, in the file C: \ Windows \ INF \ SYSOC.INF, after saving a backup copy of it, remove the words HIDE, wherever they occur. After that, all OS components will appear in the Windows Components menu and unnecessary ones can be removed, including MSN Explorer and Windows Messenger. Delete only what you understand the purpose of and are sure that you will not need it! Windows Messenger can also be removed with the following direct command:

RunDll32 advpack.dll, LaunchINFSection% windir% \ INF \ msmsgs.inf, BLC.Remove

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Policies \ Microsoft \ Messenger \ Client
"PreventRun" = dword: 00000001
"PreventAutoRun" = dword: 00000001
"PreventAutoUpdate" = dword: 00000001
"PreventBackgroundDownload" = dword: 00000001
"Disabled" = dword: 00000001

After removing the excess, replace the original sysoc.inf file.

You can also (not forgetting about the backup) to clear the folders C: \ Windows \ SERVICEPACKFILES \ and C: \ Windows \ $ NTSERVICEPACKUNINSTALL $ - the first stores the service pack files, and if you have its distribution kit, then there is no need for it, and the second one allows you to uninstall an already installed service pack.

You will find quite a lot of temporary files in C: \ WINDOWS \ Installer, where distributions of some programs are saved. However, if you clear it, then when you try to reinstall, update or remove one of these programs, you will receive an error. Therefore, it is also necessary to delete the subsection corresponding to this program in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ Installer \ Products. If you uninstall programs using Ashampoo Uninstaller, then there will be no problems. A similar dump of distributions ever installed programs you will find it in the C: \ Program Files \ InstallShield Installation Information folder - it is created by a different type of installer. But here the special utility InstallShield Installation Information Manager will help - it will take all the trouble of correctly removing unnecessary distributions on itself.

For the most advanced users, we also suggest thinking about such issues as the indexes of the system search service and other search programs - they may remain on the disk even after disabling and uninstalling these utilities. Kaspersky Anti-Virus creates an alternative stream for each scanned file, in which it writes it checksum- after uninstalling the program, this data may also remain on the disk. In this case, it is advisable to reinstall the antivirus and uninstall it using the option to remove these streams. All kinds of hidden files, alternative streams and rootkits can be detected using the Streams and RootkitRevealer utilities. For example, some programs (for example, from Symantec) create a Recycle Bin hidden from the user, where all deleted files are placed.

Finally, you can more actively use the system function to compress rarely used folders on NTFS volumes.

Cleaning the registry

It is equally important to put in order the main OS database - the system registry. After deleting so many files, many registry keys simply link to nowhere. You can clean the registry using utilities such as Norton WinDoctor or WinTools - there are quite a few programs to identify invalid registry keys. There are even programs for experimenters - RegDelNull. Defragmentation and small reduction in the size of the registry can be done with the RegCompact utility.

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In the course of its operation, the operating system creates a lot of temporary data that is stored on disk (usually the C drive) in the form of files and registry entries. These can be files of service packs, archivers, shadow copies, content downloaded from the Internet, etc. Behave in a similar way third party programs such as browsers that cache website data. Some temporary files are deleted automatically after a certain time, others remain on the disk until they are forcefully deleted.

If the user does not perform regular maintenance and cleaning of the C drive, the free space on it becomes less and less, to the point that the disk eventually turns out to be full of temporary files to the eyeballs, which excludes further writing to it of any data and reduces its performance. There are two ways out of this situation - either increase the size of the system partition at the expense of the user volume, or perform a comprehensive cleanup, which is more preferable. Let's see how to free up space on Windows 7/10. local disk C.

What can be removed if the disk is full

The system volume contains many important files to ensure normal Windows work therefore, deep cleaning should be approached with the utmost care. What can you remove from drive C to free up space and keep your system running smoothly? We will conditionally divide all its contents into three groups. The first includes files that can be deleted without fear. The second is made up of files, the deletion of which, although it will not damage the system, but under some circumstances can still cause certain problems. The third group includes files that cannot be deleted, as this can make programs and the system unusable. You can clean up the C drive without negative consequences by deleting:

• Cart Contents.
• Library catalogs.
• Folders and Downloaded Program Files in the Windows directory.
• Cache of browsers and some third-party programs.
• Sketches of icons.
• Logs and memory dumps for system errors.
• Old files of the Chkdsk utility.
• Bug reports.
• Files created by the Windows debugger.

With some caution, you can delete shadow copies () created during the installation of updates and stored in backups, files of previous system installations (Windows.old folder), unnecessary components and applications, folders of uninstalled programs in the ProgramData, Program Files and Roaming directories, Microsoft Office MSOCache folder. If not used and quick start, you can delete the file hiberfil.sys at the root of the C drive, having previously disabled these functions in the settings. Deleting the paging file is acceptable but not desirable pagefile.sys... You cannot delete other files and folders on the C drive so as not to disrupt the operation of the system.

Cleaning up garbage and temporary files using Windows

First, let's see how to clean the C drive of unnecessary files in Windows 7/10 using the operating system itself. For these purposes, Windows has a built-in utility cleanmgr.exe, which can be launched both through the properties of the section to be cleared, and through the "Run" dialog box. After the utility scans the disk for obsolete files, check the boxes on the "Disk Cleanup" tab and click "OK".

If you click the "Clean up system files" button, reports, device driver packages, error dumps and additionally restore points, with the exception of the most recent, will become available for deletion.

For a deeper and more thorough cleaning of the C drive from garbage, you can use the built-in console utilities Dism and vssadmin... The first allows you to delete temporary data from the WinSxS folder, including backups created before installing Windows updates. To do this, use the following commands executed in the CMD console launched as an administrator:

1. DISM.exe / online / Cleanup-Image / StartComponentCleanup
2. DISM.exe / online / Cleanup-Image / SPSuperseded
3. vssadmin delete shadows / all / quiet

The first command does the same as the cleanmgr.exe utility, only more thoroughly.

The second removes all backup service packs from the WinSxS folder.

The third command can delete all restore points, including the last one.

However, you should use these tools with caution, since after executing the indicated commands, you will no longer be able to roll back the system to a working state or a previous version.

Note: before cleaning the WinSxS folder, it is recommended to set its true size, thereby making sure that it really needs cleaning. To do this, run the command on the command line Dism.exe / Online / Cleanup-Image / AnalyzeComponentStore and compare the actual size of the component store with the size metric in the properties of the Explorer.

After Windows updates to more new version a folder appears at the root of the C drive Windows.old which can take up significant disk space.

The contents of this directory are represented by copies of the system installation files previous version Windows. If you are determined not to return to old version systems, the Windows.old folder can be deleted. This is done again either with cleanmgr.exe or using the command line. In the first case, you need to find and mark on the "Additional" tab the item "Previous Windows installations", In the second, execute the command in the CMD console running on behalf of the administrator rd / s / q c: /windows.old.

You can get a little extra space on the C drive by removing unused components, the same ones that can be accessed by the classic Add / Remove Programs applet.

The standard Dism utility is also used here. To select and uninstall an unused Windows component, run the following two commands in the CMD console running with elevated rights:

1. DISM.exe / Online / English / Get-Features / Format: Table
2. DISM.exe / Online / Disable-Feature / featurename: NAME / Remove

The first command lists all the components in the system, the second removes the selected item. In this example, its name must be substituted for the string element NAME.

Manual removal of programs and files

Except for universal Windows applications 8.1 and 10, almost all desktop programs are installed in a folder Program Files... If the program is no longer needed, it should be removed so that it does not take up space on the disk, only you need to do this either using a standard uninstaller or using special third-party programs. Nevertheless, after uninstalling applications, their folders with configuration files, the weight of which can reach several hundred megabytes, may remain on the disk. Such data must be deleted manually.

Let's say you deleted with Microsoft computer Office or Skype and want to also get rid of all their remaining "tails" on the C drive. To do this, carefully check the Program Files and ProgramData directories in the root of the C drive, as well as the folders C: / Users / UserName / AppData... If the folder name matches the name of the remote application, you can delete it.

The AppData folder is a little more complicated. This hidden directory contains three subfolders: Local, LocalLow, and Roaming. The first stores files created in the course of the work of various programs. You cannot clean it entirely, as this will most likely lead to the loss of saved application settings, however, half-empty folders of uninstalled programs can be safely deleted. It is also safe to clear the contents of the folder located in it. Temp.

The same applies to the LocalLow and Roaming folders, only those directories that belonged to previously uninstalled applications can be deleted from them.

Note: clearing the contents of the Local, LocalLow and Roaming folders, you lose user settings and data saved in their cache. For example, after deleting its folders in the user profile, you will lose the current messenger settings and part of the message history.

As for uninstalling universal apps, they are uninstalled regular means the system itself or the CCleaner program, which will be discussed below. Also you can transfer some universal applications from drive C to drive D, if they support this feature.

Transferring desktop programs to another volume is also possible, for these purposes there is a special utility SteamMover which you can download from the developer's site www.traynier.com/software/steammover.

Using CCleaner

Many novice users are interested in how to delete unnecessary files from the C drive using third-party programs, as well as which of these programs are more effective and safe in this regard. These can be recommended CCleaner- a simple, fast, convenient, and most importantly safe disk cleaner and windows registry... This program allows you to delete temporary Internet data and Windows itself, the contents of the thumbnail cache and DNS, Index.dat files, memory dumps, chkdsk file fragments, various system logs, obsolete prefetch files and many more non-essential data.

With CCleaner, you can clear the system registry from incorrect entries, optimize, enable, disable or remove browser extensions, analyze the contents of hard drives, search for duplicates and, of course, uninstall unnecessary applications, including universal ones.

The CCleaner interface is very simple, so even a novice user will not be difficult to deal with its simple functionality.

Considering, however, that the main purpose of CCleaner is still cleaning, all its additional tools have limited functionality. If your C drive is clogged with something incomprehensible, and you want to find out what exactly, then for these purposes it is better to use specific utilities, for example, Scanner, JdiskReport or their analogs, showing more accurate information about the file structure of the media with the ability to navigate through the subdirectories.

Other ways to free up space on the C drive

Clearing the driver store

The above steps are usually enough to free up enough space on the system volume, but what if the C drive is still full? What else can you do to get more space? One option is to clear the contents of the folder FileRepository located at C: / Windows / System32 / DriverStore.

This directory contains copies of device drivers that have ever been connected to the computer, and may also contain outdated drivers. Before removing driver packages from the FileRepository folder, it is highly advisable to create a complete list of them and find only outdated versions in it, and leave the rest untouched. It would also not hurt to create a complete copy of all drivers installed on the system. To list the DriverStore drivers in a file, run the following command from an elevated command prompt:

pnputil.exe / e> C: /drivers.log

Compare the driver versions in the list and remove only the outdated ones.

To remove the selected driver, immediately in the console, run the command pnputil.exe / d oem№.inf, where # is the name of the driver in the list.

If an error is displayed in the console when uninstalling a driver, then the driver is being used by the system. You do not need to touch such a component.

As an alternative to the command line, you can use the free utility Driver Store Explorer, just designed to remove old unused device drivers.

Disable hibernation

Thanks to hibernation mode, the user can quickly return to work in running applications, on the other hand, its use requires the allocation of a significant amount of space on the system disk, slightly less than or equal to the amount of RAM. If the availability of free space on the hard drive is a priority for you, hibernation mode can be disabled by deleting the hiberfil.sys container file.

Run the CMD console as administrator and run the command in it powercfg -h off... Hibernation will be disabled and the bulky hiberfil.sys file will be removed.

Note: the hibernation file can be compressed at most twice with the command powercfg hibernate size 50.

Disable paging file

In addition to other hidden system objects in the root of the C drive, there is also a file that, when certain conditions can be removed. This is the swap file pagefile.sys... This file plays the role of a buffer of RAM, and if some application does not have enough RAM for its work, its data is temporarily written to. Accordingly, if there is no swap file, the heavy application will slow down a lot or simply freeze while waiting for the faster RAM to be freed. Therefore, it is not recommended to disable and delete the paging file, unless the computer has a very large amount of RAM.

If your PC has more than 10GB of memory, or you are not going to run resource-intensive applications, you can try carefully disabling swap. To do this, open the Advanced system settings and on the "Advanced" tab in the "Performance" section, click the "Settings" button.

This will open another window. Switch to the "Advanced" tab in it, and then click the Change button in the "Virtual memory" block.

Uncheck the "Automatically select paging file size" checkbox, enable the "No paging file" radio button, save the settings and reboot. The pagefile.sys file will be removed.

Deleting the MSOcache folder

For users who have installed Microsoft package Office, there is a hidden folder at the root of the system volume MSOcache, the weight of which can reach several gigabytes.

This folder is a cache of the office suite and contains files that you may need to recover Microsoft work Office if damaged. Neither in Microsoft launch Office, the MSOcache folder is not involved in working with documents, so it can be deleted in the standard way. Consider only if Microsoft Office is damaged for some reason, you will have to restore the work of the package with installation disk with its distribution.

Compressing the contents of the system volume

You can free up some free space on the C drive without deleting anything at all. Instead, all system files can be compressed. To do this, just open the properties of drive C, on the "General" tab, check the box "Compress this drive to save space" and click "OK".

To compress system files in Windows 10, you can use the function Compact OS by executing one of two commands in the CMD console launched as an administrator:

• compact / CompactOs: query
• compact / CompactOs: always

The second command performs the same actions as the first, but in forced mode. It is used if you really want to shrink the system volume, and the first command rejects the operation, considering it inappropriate. Compression is completely reversible and to return file system to the normal state, it is enough to execute the reverse command compact / CompactOs: never.

In addition to NTFS compression, LZX compression is available in Windows 10, but it has a number of drawbacks due to which it has not become widespread. LZX compression is applicable to files and directories that are read-only, but an entire system volume cannot be compressed with it due to the risk of an unbootable system.