Cleaning Local Files

Applies To

N/A

Operating Systems Affected

All

Symptoms

When using your computer, a lot of files are used. Some you can see, such as documents you create. Some, you can't see - such as the draft files and recovery files created by Windows and Word when you make a Word document for example.

These files by themselves are normal, and in the course of a day hundreds and thousands of these files are created and deleted on your computer. But sometimes, these files are not removed and require manual assistance.

This article will help you remove these excess files and free up some disk space on your PC, and many times improve it's performance. You will generally be redirected here from another article, but there will be some information which can be used for general housecleaning as well.

Resolution

To run Disk Clean-up, press the Windows Key on your keyboard (usually lower right side between Ctrl and Alt) and type Disk Clean - you should see the option Disk Clean-up.

This will open the Disk Clean-up tool.

Once this has opened, click on the 'Clean up system files' button.  This will show you more options on the screen, but will also give you the best idea how many files are taking up your hard drive that don't need to.

In order to run the cleaner, just select the options you wish to delete and then click on the 'OK' button and let your system clean out the files.  Depending on the amount of files involved, this can take a minute or two to half an hour.  It is safe to use your computer while this is running, but it is quicker if left alone.

If you are unsure of what is being deleted, untick the selection - it's better to be safe than sorry.  Below is a summary of the more common temporary files and what is removed.

What To Select

Temporary Local Files / Temporary Files

Depending on the version of Windows you are using depends on which text you will see - both are the same files.

Probably the most common selection we ask people to delete.  These are files that are used by Windows and all Windows Programs, and in an ideal world should never be more than about 200-300 Mb in size.

Temporary files are used as a local temporary location, but not every program cleans up once the program isn't used anymore.  And because all programs use this common location, every now and then you can get the system into a bit of a confused state.

Temporary Local Files is always safe to delete, and in many situations (especially when the temporary file amount is large, as in 1Gb +) you will often see system performance increase once completed.

Temporary Internet Files

Every time you go to a webpage, you are accessing dozens and sometimes hundreds of small files.  These files get saved to your local hard drive, and is the reason why web pages seem take a long time to load the first time you go there, then load really quickly afterwards - it's because most of what you see on the site is saved you your computer and it loads from there instead of the internet.

Every now and then webpages can get stuck, or seem to look different on your computer compared to other people.  While getting rarer, it can still happen.  When this happens, you will need to clear the local internet files to clear any congestion and what is potentially causing the issue.

While it is generally safe to delete these files, you will need to be aware of a couple of quirks.  

Firstly, then first time you go back to a website it will take longer to load as the files are saved locally again.  Secondly is any site you go to with saved passwords and the like that automatically log you in will not do this again until you verify your information again.

Recycle Bin

This is your Recycle Bin - same as the Recycle Bin on your desktop.

Here you can see exactly how much disk space is being used.  Like the temporary local files, we recommend between 200-300 Mb in this folder at most, and the larger this gets the slower deleting and file sorting can get.

Depending on what is in the recycle bin depends on whether or not it's safe to delete, but as a general rule if you clear it out regularly you will not have any problems.

Windows Update Cleanup / Old Windows Version

You will most likely see only the Windows Update Cleanup option, but occasionally you will see the Old Windows Version as well.

Generally speaking Windows Update Cleanup is safe to do, and the cleaner this remains the less likely future issues happen with future Windows updates in the future.

Old Windows Versions will be large automatically - at least 20 Gb - but should only be removed if you computer is running well and hasn't had a Windows Update applied in some time (for example 14 days).  That's because if anything goes wrong with the update, Windows uses these files to go back to the last 'good' version.

Further Action

If any other option seems to be taking up a lot of space, contact your IT service provider.