The Disc Cleanup Utility in Windows XP
The disc cleanup utility will display a list of file types on screen along with the amount of space you will save by deleting them. These include temporary internet files, downloaded program files, items in your recycle bin, other temporary files your computer has made and more. Removing these types of files will not affect your user settings. For example, removing the temporary internet files frees up space but you will still be able to log in to the webpages, your stored passwords will still be there. It simply removes any saved pages for quicker viewing. Considering you will probably never revisit most of those pages, why store images and other large files associated with them?
Place a check mark in the box of the file types you’d like to delete and click “OK.” The disc cleanup utility will perform the tasks.
If you want to take it a step further, you can free up more space by clicking on the “More Options” tab. Here you can remove optional Windows components that you do not use, installed programs you no longer require and remove older “system restore points” that are no longer needed.
When using the disc cleanup utility to remove optional Windows components, you pick and choose from the list, placing a check mark in the box next to any item you’d like to delete. The installed programs opens the “add or remove programs” dialogue box typically found in the Control Panel. Here it populates a list of programs and updates and lists the status of how often the program has been used, how much space it takes etc. Be careful about removing updates though. By removing the updates, you will roll back the system to the previous point and Windows will no longer be updated!
If you are confident that your system and its peripherals are all working together well, then removing all but the latest system restore point will free up a good deal of space. There’s no reason to save old and obsolete settings.
It only takes a few minutes to run the disc cleanup utility and by doing so you will have recovered valuable hard drive space.
