Most users do not know that Microsoft has integrated an advanced version of the cleanup tool in the Windows operating system. The core reason for that is that it can only be started from the command prompt, and not from menus or by clicking on a program icon on the desktop.

Lets first take a look at the standard version of Disk Cleanup. One of the easiest ways to start the Disk Cleanup is to use the shortcut Windows-r to bring up the run box, enter cleanmgr in there and tap on the enter key afterwards. This opens the program right away. There are other ways to launch it, for instance by entering disk cleanup in the start menu search form.

The standard Disk Cleanup tool can delete the following temporary files on the system. Included in the deletion are temporary files, thumbnails, or downloaded programs.

Check out How To Clean Hard Drives In Windows 7 for general information about the cleanup software.

Compare that to the options the advanced cleanup tool offers.

Included now are debug dump files, system and user queued error reporting files, files discarded by Windows upgrade or setup and windows upgrade log files.

Here is how you can load the advanced Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows. Open the run prompt again with Windows-r. Now run the following command to bring up the advanced version.

Cleanmgr /sageset:65535 & /sagerun:65535

Just click ok afterwards to load the advanced Disk Cleanup Tool interface.

Note that not all items are selected by default, which means that you need to look through the options to enable and disable items until you are satisfied with the selection.

You can automate the built-in Disk Cleanup utility in Windows if desired. However, in my experience, a more thorough disk cleanup can be achieved with a free utility called CCleaner. This free software is a well known “geek” standard. It allows you to customize the disk cleanup with a little more finesse than the standard Windows Disk Cleanup utility. The download link follows. Use the Slim-Build version to avoid toolbar add-ons.

You should still perform a security scan on the download before opening it, as you should with anything downloaded from the internet. Run the installation after the security scan shows that the download is clean. The program will open automatically and a shortcut icon will appear on the desktop.

This is the control panel for CCleaner. Determine the setting that you want to run automatically. In this example, everything is selected. You would only do that for a complete clean. If you use some cookies and want to save recent documents and recently typed URLs, you will want to leave those boxes unchecked.

All checked boxes will indicate items to be cleaned out, so customize to your needs. For example, here cookies, recently typed URLs and recent documents have been unchecked. You can always run a manual cleanup if you wish to clear these at a later time.

Now click on Options \ Advanced and ensure that all settings will be saved to an INI file in the same directory. “Save all settings to INI file” should already be checked by default. If it is not checked, do so.

Type “Task Scheduler” or “Schedule” in the Start menu search box and select Task Scheduler from the menu and press Enter. Click “Create Basic Task” in the right-hand column.

You will need to give the task a name. In this example, the name “CClean” was used, as it is easy to recall. Provide a description of the task as shown. Click Next and this will open a window that allows you to select the schedule. Select how often you want the task to run. Daily is best, but other options are available. Click next after selection.

Next you will need to choose the time of day to run the cleanup. Choose a time of day that your computer is on but you are not using it. Click Next and choose “Start a program”. Click Next. Browse to the CC Cleaner .exe file. Add the /AUTO switch to the “Add arguments” box.

Click next once you have added the correct pathway. Check the box next to “Open the Properties dialog for this task when I click Finish” before clicking finish:

Choose the option to “Run with highest privileges”. This will ensure that the task will run with administrator privileges. Click the conditions tab to select different options for when the task will run. You can customize to start the task only when the computer is idle for a selected period of time and also choose to wake the computer from sleep mode to run the task. Other options are available. Click OK when you have made all the selections and everything is set.

In the Start menu search box, enter “task scheduler” or “schedule tasks”, whichever works, and press enter. This opens the task scheduler dialog box.

Click on Action and in the dropdown menu, choose Create Basic Task. This opens the Create Basic Task Wizard. Give the task a memorable name and a description, keep it direct and simple and easy to recall.

At this point, if you have not done so already, decide how often you want the Disk Cleanup utility to run. You can choose Daily, Monthly, or one time. For the following example, daily is selected because the PC being used in this example runs a heavy load of internet traffic and overall use. If the PC is being used for home business purposes, it might be wise to schedule daily Disk Cleanup in order to ensure that data is not stolen by rogue malware. Also, set a system restore point before applying these changes.

Press Next. Choose the start date. This is usually going to be “today” but you can set it to begin at a later date. Choose the start time. Keep in mind that you do not want this utility running while you are going to be using the computer for something that cannot be interrupted. Schedule it when you know there will be a break when the PC will not be in use.

Select Action and click “Start a program” then click Next.

Type cleanmgr.exe in the Program/script box, and /d driveletter in the add arguments box and click Next. Replace driveletter with the letter of the drive that you want to run the disk cleanup on.

This is the confirmation for the scheduled program, including name, description, and time interval settings for the trigger:

Any time interval can be selected, customized to the needs of the user. Windows 7 offers some versatile tools for customization and this is definitely one to take advantage of. Set the time for the scheduled Disk Cleanup for a time that you know the computer will be on an awake. The utility will not run when the PC is off.

Overall, since it is necessary to use the Disk Cleanup utility regularly, this gives the user the option to set it and forget about it. This is one for the geek in all of us.

This guide details how to clean the hard drives in Windows 7 to remove old data from the operating system. The process does not take longer than a minute and can be performed once a week or whenever it seems necessary.

It should be noted that programs like CCleaner handle additional temporary files and data that the standard disk cleanup tool in Windows 7 ignores. It might make sense in lots of situations to use such a program but there might be situations where this is not possible. And it is of course always good to know how this is done without third party software.

The easiest way to access Disk Cleanup is to enter cleanup in the Windows 7 start menu search and run box. This should display Disk Cleanup as one of the programs found on the computer system.

A dialog window is displayed to select the drive to be cleaned. The Disk Cleanup window is then displayed. Available for selection are for instance files in the Recycle Bin, Temporary Internet Files, Thumbnails or Offline Webpages. Each entry with a checkmark will be cleaned by clicking on the OK button. The operation can also be canceled by clicking the Cancel button.

A click on Clean up system files seems to restart the selection process. The hard drive selection screen will be displayed again and afterwards the Disk Cleanup window. The difference this time is that a More Options tab is available in that window which can be used to remove programs that are no longer used and more importantly to free up disk space by removing system restore and shadow copies.

The last option will remove all but the last system restore point which is still enough to restore the operating system. This option alone can free up Gigabytes of memory on the selected hard drive.

This is all there is to know about manual cleaning up the hard drives in Windows 7. Not as effective as with CCleaner but always possible.

The registry cleaner tool will scan the Windows registry for various invalid entries. Each entry is shown after the scan with the possibility to clean it up. By default a backup of the Registry will be created before any cleaning takes place. It is furthermore possible to schedule regular Registry cleanups or restore a previously created Registry backup.

The disk cleaner is a basic tool that will scan the hard drives of the computer for temporary or duplicate entries giving the user the options to delete those files from the disk. It is nowhere as extensive as tools like CCleaner offer but it covers the most widely used temporary locations.

The disk cleanup utility can be scheduled like the Registry cleaner can. Filters can be added to include or exclude certain file types from the scans. The privacy cleaner option can be used to remove several privacy related entries from the operating system. Other tools that are provided by Comodo System Cleaner are a disk wiper, a tool to calculate file crc and extensive system settings that match most Windows tweakers out there.

Comodo System Cleaner combines several important system utilities in one application. Users who are looking for tools to cleanup temporary data are currently better of with tools like CCleaner who have the advantage that they can be further customized by the user which Comodo System Cleaner cannot.