Deleting temporary files in the browser.

Any browser saves a lot of unnecessary information in a folder for temporary files. In order to remove excess, you need to perform a few simple steps, so to remove excess:

IN Chrome
- Press the wrench button - "Options" - "Advanced" - "Clear history" button at the top.
- Press the key combination + + .
A window will appear in which you can mark what to delete, you can leave everything by default, except for the specified time, I recommend selecting - Delete the items listed below - For all time. Click " Clear the history".

IN Mozilla Firefox:

Open the Firefox menu - Settings - Advanced - open the Network tab - In the "Cached Web Content" section, click the " Clear now".

IN Internet Explorer(select one of the options):

Click the button in the form of a nut - "Internet Options" - the "General" tab - in the Browsing History field, the "Delete" button.

Press key combination + + .

- "Start" - "Control Panel" - "Internet Options".

A window will open in which we indicate what data can be deleted, I recommend leaving everything as default and clicking the " Delete".

IN Opera(select one of the options):

Opera menu - "Settings" - "Privacy and security" - "Clear browsing history".

Press key combination + + .

As a result, a window will open with a selection of elements to delete, in the line - Destroy the following elements, select “from the very beginning”, I recommend leaving the checkboxes by default, press the button " Clear browsing history".

IN Yandex browser(choose the most appropriate option):

Press the button in the form of a nut - select the "History" tab - "Clear history".

Press key combination + + .

A window will open in which you need to delete the following elements in the line, select “for all time” and click the button “ Delete history".

Deleting personal files and folders.

There are thousands of directories and files on drive C, figuring out where a large large file or folder is located, taking up a lot of disk space, is a very difficult task, but it is easy to deal with if you use a free program Scanner. It allows you to scan a disk and show a graph of space usage by folders.

After downloading, unzip the archive and run the Scanner.exe file. A program window will open; on the left you can select the disk to be scanned; on the right, information on the folders and the space they occupy will be displayed. When you hover over any area, the path to the folder and its size will be shown at the top.

I do not recommend deleting folders and files that you are not sure about. I would advise using this program to find personal information (movies, music, pictures) and delete them or move them to another drive.

If the freed up space is still not enough, I recommend increasing the space using another drive, for example D, if available, described in more detail in the article

Ordinary situation. You work at the computer for a long time, not paying attention to the amount of occupied space on local disks, and then the moment comes when there is no space left on the computer at all.

Some people have one local drive “C”, while others have 2 of them, even 3, and they can all be filled to capacity. But that’s not the point, it’s about which folders usually get clogged the most, i.e. which ones should be checked and cleaned immediately.

Because usually it is the main local drive “C” where the system is installed that is subject to file assault. Unless, of course, the location of some standard Windows folders, for example, “Downloads”, “Videos” and other user folders, has not changed.

And a C drive that is full to capacity is not good. Because the system constantly accesses it and the space is needed for the correct operation of its various functions. At a minimum, a paging file is written to drive C, the state of the system is saved there when it is sent into deep sleep (hibernation mode), update files are downloaded and installed.

If space becomes critically low, this can cause problems in Windows, from slowdowns to serious crashes!

A step-by-step plan for finding the most crowded folders

There is a way to see through a special program WinDirStat, which folders and files take up the most space on the computer and where they are located.

Although the program is convenient, not all beginners, despite my instructions for it, will immediately understand how to work with it correctly in order to quickly analyze the structure of files and folders on the computer. Therefore, I propose another option: manually check those main folders that, as a rule, are the most clogged for users. Here's the plan...

1. We look at the size of the system drive “C” and how much space is occupied on it

To begin with, if you don’t know exactly what the volume of your system disk is and how much space is already occupied on it, let’s check it. After all, it may be that your “C” drive is simply initially very small in volume, and then the solution should no longer be sought in deleting seemingly unnecessary files, but in increasing the total capacity of the “C” drive, and this is a separate topic.

In this case, use the steps below to check how much space the main Windows folders take up (and you can also check it using the WinDirStat program) and if they take up little space and your disk is almost occupied, it means that your disk is simply of low capacity and is taking up all its space the system itself and installed programs.

You cannot change the disk size using standard Windows tools. This can be done, for example, using the program.

Go to the “This PC” section and there, under each disk, its total size and how much space is free will be displayed:

Or right-click on the “C” drive (hereinafter referred to as “RMB”) and select “Properties”:

The “General” tab will display the disk volume (capacity), as well as the amount of used and free space.

Now you can estimate how busy your “C” drive is as a whole and how big it is. Otherwise, maybe it makes sense to expand the disk space, and not clean it of unnecessary things :)

2. Find the folders that most often take up the most space

We check the system user folders one by one: “Desktop”, “Downloads”, “Images”, “Videos”, “Documents”, “Music”.

It is in these folders that users most often store the bulk of their files and sometimes forget about it. For example, files from the Internet are automatically downloaded to the “Downloads” folder (if you have not specified another folder through your browser) and many of these files become unnecessary after a while (for example, all sorts of installation files of various programs). And users sometimes forget about this folder, thinking that nothing significant or “heavy” is stored there.

All these folders are located in the system user partition under which you are working.

To find these folders, go to your local drive “C:” (where your system is installed), open the “Users” folder. There you will see a folder with the name of your user under which you work in the system, for example, for me it is “Vladimir”.

This folder will display all the user folders I mentioned above, unless you or someone else has changed their default location.

Alternative ways:

3. Check the size of the user’s folders

Having found the user’s folders, we check one by one how much disk space each of them takes up.

To do this, right-click on the folder and select “Properties”:

On the “General” tab, in the “On disk” line, the actual size of the space occupied on your local disk by this folder will be displayed. For example, in my example, the “Video” folder takes up 485 GB.

Check all the above user folders in this way and then you will have a picture before your eyes: which of these folders are seriously eating up a lot of space on your disk.

4. Check how much space the AppData folder takes up

In Windows, there is a folder where data from installed programs on the computer is stored, as well as some system files intended for the user you are working under. This folder is called AppData and is also located on the “C” drive in your user’s folder.

To go to this folder and check how much space it takes up, you must first turn on the display of hidden files and folders (because the AppData folder is initially hidden and you will not see it).

If you don’t know how to enable the display of hidden files and folders, then use the information from this article.

After turning on the display of hidden files and folders, go to the “C” drive, open the “Users” folder and then the folder with your user. You will see the “AppData” folder in it:

Check its size through properties just as you did with user folders. If this folder takes up more than 10 GB, then it would be better to double-check everything in this case, how much each of the folders inside it takes up. Perhaps a folder with some program that you have not used for a long time, or which has already been deleted from your computer, is eating up a lot of space. Or these are simply accumulated temporary files from one of the programs that should be deleted.

Conclusion

By following these steps, you will probably find a folder or several that takes up a significant amount of disk space. Then you need to move these folders/files to another local drive or external hard drive, or delete the unnecessary ones.

Or you will understand that, in principle, the system disk itself is very small, which is not enough for normal operation of the system and storage of your files. In this case, you need to expand this local disk, as I mentioned above.

For a more accurate analysis of occupied space, use the WinDirStat program!

If you liked my article, repost it on social networks and leave comments. I will be glad to communicate! :)

Computers are so ingrained in our lives that it is simply impossible to imagine a world without them. Despite this, many users do not know how to care for their “iron horse”. For example, not everyone knows how to clean up drive C. This article will help fill the gap in knowledge.

Filling the system disk can lead to a number of inconveniences. If there is little space on drive C, the following problems may occur:

• You cannot install new programs;
• There is no room for operating system updates;
• PC speed decreases.

The first problem is easily solved. If there is not enough space on drive C, then you can install new programs in other partitions (D, E, etc.). But what to do with the second and third points? There is only one way out - you need to clean the system disk. How can this be done? How to free up space on drive C? The answer can be found in this article.

How to free up space on your system disk?

Many people have no idea how to clean up local drive C. People mistakenly believe that it is very difficult. Cleaning your computer is a quick and simple process that does not require any specialized IT knowledge. However, this procedure should not be neglected. The system disk should be cleaned at least once a month.

There are many ways that allow . We will look at the most effective ones in this article. Before we begin, it should be noted that the methods given below can be used to clean up the C drive from junk on Windows 10, Windows 7 and other versions of this OS.

Manually removing unnecessary programs

Of course, software takes up the most space. Therefore, when you need to clean drive C from garbage, first of all you need to pay attention to the software.

How to clean drive C from unnecessary files? To uninstall the program, you need to use the built-in Windows utility. To launch it, you need to go to the “Start” menu and select “Control Panel” in the drop-down tab. Then you need to go to the “Uninstall programs” section.

A new window will open containing information about all the programs that are on the computer. They can be sorted by size, date or name. What can I delete? First of all, software that is not used at all must be uninstalled. As a rule, these are completed games. To remove a program, right-click on it, after which the corresponding tab will appear.

Built-in Windows utility

You can free your computer from garbage using a standard Windows utility. This is done very simply. You need to go to “Computer” and right-click on the disk that we will clean. In the drop-down list, click on the “Properties” item, after which a new window opens with information about the memory partition. We are interested in the “General” tab. Go there and click on the “Disk Cleanup” button.

The built-in utility will begin to analyze the data and look for unnecessary files. This will take a certain amount of time. After the program analyzes the computer's memory, it will display a list of unnecessary files. They need to be ticked and then click “OK”.

You won’t free up a lot of memory this way, but you can win a couple of tens of megabytes.

Temporary files

To carry out the correct installation or update of programs, antiviruses, etc. Temporary files are created on the computer. The operating system stores them in the Temp folder, which is located on drive C. Temporary files are not needed for the daily operation of programs. Therefore, software that uses intermediate resources deletes them automatically upon completion of installation or update.

However, sometimes a glitch occurs due to which temporary files are not deleted. This leads to the Temp folder gradually becoming clogged and taking up more and more space on the system disk. To fix this, you need to remove the intermediate files manually. This is done very simply. You need to go to the Temp folder, which is located at “Computer” > Drive C > Windows folder. To free up memory on drive C, you need to uninstall the contents of this folder.

In Windows 10, Windows 7 and other versions of the OS, there are two folders for storing temporary files. You can get to the second one through the Start menu. You just need to enter the search query %Temp%. The folder needs to be opened and cleaned. It is worth noting that sometimes the operating system may issue a warning that some files cannot be deleted. This indicates that they are currently being used by some program. If such a message appears, then simply click the “Skip” button.

"Basket"

“Trash” is a special folder that is a temporary storage for deleted files. Everything stored there takes up computer memory. Therefore, the “Trash” needs to be cleaned from time to time. To do this, you need to right-click on the folder and click on the “Empty Trash” item in the drop-down list. After this, the folder will be freed from garbage, and there will be more memory on drive C.

"Downloads"

Users quite often download movies, music, and games through the standard browser downloader. Files from the Internet are automatically saved to the “Downloads” folder. And, as you know, it is located on drive C. If a user often downloads some files from the Internet, then the free disk space runs out very quickly. To prevent disk C from becoming clogged, you need to check the boot folder from time to time for the presence of large files.

You need to open “Computer” and go to “Downloads”.

You need to check the folder for large files and if there are any, they need to be deleted or moved to another drive.

Swap file

In Windows OS there is a page file. How does it affect memory and why is it needed? Sometimes the system does not have enough RAM to perform certain operations. In such cases, the file takes a certain amount of permanent memory from the disk and uses it as RAM.

To free up drive C, you need to make sure that the paging file takes resources elsewhere. You need to go to the “Computer” folder, and then press RMB. In the tab that appears, click on “Properties”. A window will appear. In it, open “Advanced system settings”.

Then click on “Options”.

In the new window, go to the “Advanced” section and click on “Change”.

We install the disk from which the paging file will take memory. This is done as follows. Select drive C and check the box next to the “No paging file” property. To confirm, click on the “Set” button. With another disk, do the opposite and check the “Size by system choice” property.

If the window does not allow you to change properties (the field with disks is dimly highlighted), then uncheck the box next to the “Automatically select paging file size” option.

Hibernation

To save memory on drive C, you can turn off hibernation on your computer. You need to activate the command line (Win + R combination) and write in it: powercfg.exe –h off. Press Enter and voila – hibernation is disabled. After restarting the computer, you may notice that there is a little more memory on the system disk.

However, it is better not to turn it off unless absolutely necessary. This is an extremely useful feature that allows you to restore previously running programs, even if the computer was turned off. To reactivate hibernation, you need to write the command powercfg.exe –h on in the console and restart the PC.

Checkpoints

Checkpoints are created after various changes in the system (updating drivers, installing new software, etc.). They allow you to roll back the system if any problems arise. But for such an opportunity you need to pay with system memory. To free up drive C, you can delete checkpoints. This will give a couple of megabytes of memory. In this video you can learn how to delete restore points and thus clean up your local drive C:

Conclusion

The memory on drive C gets clogged up pretty quickly. This can cause a whole range of troubles. To avoid problems, you need to monitor the amount of free space and clean the system disk from time to time. Cleaning the C drive has a positive effect on the performance of the computer and does not take much time. There are many free ways to free up disk space when memory is full. Moreover, these methods are the same on all Microsoft operating systems. That is, disk cleanup on Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows Vista is identical.

Nowadays, one of the most valuable resources is memory. It stores files and programs necessary for work, leisure and entertainment. In computers, storage media are hard drives and their more modern analogues, solid-state drives. The classic option for allocating space on any computer is to allocate space for the operating system, where all programs are also installed, and to create partitions for storing photos, music, films and countless documents valuable to the user.

In the process of using a computer, a large number of different files are created on the system partition, which are necessary for the normal operating state of the operating system and its components. Many of them have an expiration date, which, upon expiration, makes previously created files completely useless. They take up valuable space, gradually filling up free space on the system partition, causing chaos in the file system.

The issue of saving space in partitions by destroying unnecessary data is quite relevant at the moment, so there are special utilities that can be finely tuned for maximum efficiency. Disk cleanup can also be performed using internal operating system tools, but first things first.

Method 1: CCleaner

There is probably no user who has not heard about this program. CCleaner is rightfully considered one of the simplest, but at the same time functional utilities for searching and removing temporary and irrelevant files from the system. There are a number of detailed settings that will help you customize this product completely to the user’s requirements, performing all the necessary operations.

1. The program has a paid and free version. The latter is suitable for us; it has all the necessary functionality and is not limited in time of use. You need to download the installation file from the developer’s official website, double-click it and install it on the system, following the installer’s instructions.
2. Open the program using the desktop shortcut. For convenience, install the Russian language by following the instructions in the screenshot below.



3. Now go to the first tab of the program. On the left side of CCleaner, in both tabs, you need to configure the items that need to be removed during cleaning. The program has a competent Russian translation, even an inexperienced user will immediately understand what needs to be cleared. By default, certain data is selected for deletion, which means you can start cleaning right away. But it is recommended to carefully study each proposed option to free up space as efficiently as possible.

   After the settings have been completed, you can click on the button "Analysis", the program will scan the data specified to it and show the exact size of the files that it will delete. Don't be surprised if their size exceeds several gigabytes.



4. CCleaner has a built-in tool to fix errors in the system registry. At best, this will remove several kilobytes of unnecessary information, but will correct incorrect file associations, errors in startup and libraries, and check the functionality of services in the operating system. To search for errors in the registry, go to the second tab in the left panel of the program and at the bottom of the window, run the scan by clicking the button "Search for problems".

   

   The program will check, it may take some time. After completion, the user will be presented with a list of problems found in the system. You can fix them using the button "Fix selected Issues".

   

   You will be prompted to create a backup copy of the registry in case problems arise after the update. We confirm saving the copy.

   

   Select a location to save the file. Its name will contain the date and exact time the backup was created.

   

   After creating a backup, you can fix the problems found with one button.

   

   The correction will also take some time, depending on the number of records found. We recommend that you restart your computer after the fix is ​​complete.

5. A large number of rarely used programs may be installed on the system. Removing them will significantly increase the amount of free space on the system disk, speed up the computer boot time and reduce the load on the OS.

   In the left menu, go to the tab "Service". A little to the right of this menu will appear a list of tools that will be useful to us in the future. The first tool on the list will be "Remove programs"- a fairly accurate copy of a standard utility in the Windows environment, which will display a list of programs and components installed on the system. Find the software that you do not need on your computer, right-click on its name and select "Uninstallation", then follow the instructions of the standard uninstall program. Repeat this step for each unnecessary program.

   

   After removing all unnecessary programs, it is advisable to carry out the cleaning described in point 3.

6. Surely your browser has a large number of add-ons and plugins installed that you very rarely use. Not only do they take up space on the system disk, but they also significantly slow down the browser itself. Immediately carry out general cleaning using a tool "Browser Add-ons", which is located just below the previous one. If several browsers are installed on the system, you can navigate between the list of their add-ons in horizontal tabs.



7. To more clearly study the list of files that take up space on the system partition, you can use the utility "Disk Analysis". It allows you to use checkboxes to indicate the types of files that we need to find on the disk.

   

   The scanning will take some time, after which the results will be displayed in the form of a simple diagram. In the list of categories you can view the percentage of available files, their total volume and number. When you select a specific category, just below you will see a list of these files in decreasing order of size - an ideal way to identify the scoundrels who are stealing free space from the user. Before analyzing the disks, it is strongly recommended that you clean up temporary files, which was described in point 3 - the program finds a huge number of files that are currently located in temporary folders and will soon be deleted. The information is correct, but useless.

   

8. Once the cleaning is complete, all temporary files of the operating system and programs installed on the computer will be deleted. They take up most of the space, but with CCleaner you can free up even more space by removing duplicate files. Identical files may appear if, instead of moving from one directory to another, the files were copied. It is useless to keep two copies of the same data, but they can take up a lot of space.

   Here you will have to be careful. If identical files are found in the directory of a program, then it is better to refrain from deleting it so as not to disrupt the functionality of the latter. Files that can definitely be deleted, select one by one with the left mouse button, clicking on the empty checkmarks to the left of the names, then in the lower right part of the program window, click the button "Remove selected". Be careful - this action is irreversible.



9. Forgotten and irrelevant recovery points can take up a lot of space - the size can be literally tens of gigabytes (if you don’t know what recovery points are and why they are needed, we recommend reading). Using a tool "System Restore" review the list of restore points. Delete the unnecessary ones, leave 1-2, just in case. To delete, select unnecessary ones, then click on the button below "Delete".

Method 2: Manually removing unnecessary files

You can free the system partition without third-party utilities. This method has both advantages and disadvantages; the details will be discussed below.

1. A huge number of users store collections of music, movies and photos directly on the system partition. It is strictly not recommended to do this, because... If the operating system malfunctions, precious collections are at risk. Move them to an adjacent partition; if there is none, split the hard drive into partitions of the required partition (check out this material).

   Right-click on the folder in which the large files are located, in the context menu that opens, select "Cut out".

   

   Then open another section, right-click on an empty space, select from the context menu "Insert".

   

   Moving multimedia files will significantly relieve the load on the system partition.

2. How long has it been since you cleaned "Basket"? These files do not hang in the air, but lie on the same system partition, just in a different folder. Final cleaning of deleted files can suddenly add a gigabyte or two of free space.

   Right-click on the Recycle Bin icon on your desktop and click on "Empty trash".

As you use Windows, temporary files of system programs, the contents of the Recycle Bin, old OS recovery images, and other data accumulate on the disk. You can delete them.

In Explorer, right-click on the system drive (usually drive C) and select Properties → Disk Cleanup. In the next window, mark the items that take up the most space, click OK and confirm deletion.

To erase even more temporary files, including update data and outdated restore points, click Disk Cleanup again and click Clean up system files. Mark the largest objects in the list that appears and delete them. Then go to the Advanced tab, click Clean up under System Restore and Shadow Copies and confirm deletion.

It is especially useful to perform such cleaning after updates, since a large backup copy of the previous version of Windows may remain on the computer.

Browsers and other installed programs fill the system with temporary files over time. Sometimes this data can take up a significant amount of storage space. But you can quickly get rid of such garbage using free utilities like .

There may be large files on your computer that you do not need and are just wasting disk space. Searching for them manually is a thankless task. Moreover, there are programs that analyze the disk and display a list of all folders and files on the computer, ordered by size. Use one of them to find and remove unnecessary objects.

Over the years of using a computer, duplicates usually accumulate on it: accidentally copied pictures, songs downloaded several times, and other objects. You don't need these copies, and together they can take up significant storage space. To avoid searching for them yourself, use one of these to find and remove duplicate files.

Windows 10 comes with a built-in Compact OS utility that can make your system smaller. This happens by removing unnecessary OS elements and compressing the remaining data. This way you can free up to 6 GB on the local drive where Windows is installed (usually drive C). If you're interested, back up your important data just in case and use .