If you are servicing your PC or you are desperately trying to free up some space, we have put together a guide which should help you clear up all of the unnecessary file build-up which inevitably builds up on all Windows 2000, XP, Vista and 7 PCs.
Before following this guide please ensure that you check your recycle bin for any files that you do not want to lose permanently (restore any files you want to keep), also be aware that this guide will clear web cookies and history.
All Windows versions have their own built-in tools to clear temporary files etc, these are good, however I much prefer a free tool called CCleaner, there are a lot of different versions to download, however I suggest you download CCleaner Slim here.
The download shouldn’t take too long as it is pretty small, once downloaded follow the simple installation instructions, once successfully installed the CCleaner should start (if not double click the CCleaner icon which is on your desktop), once the program is running you should see something similar to the image embedded below.
Firstly click the cleaner button with the paint brush icon on it (top left hand corner), then click “Run Cleaner” (bottom right hand corner), this may take some time but should clear up lots of unnecessary files, such as temporary internet files, cookies, log files and much more, once complete it should tell you how much free space you have cleared.
If this method still doesn’t clear up enough space for you there are two options, you can either move some large files (music, photos and videos) to another location, such as an external hard drive, CD, DVD, or flash drive. The other option is not what I would recommend, but it could free up a few GBs of space, this is to either shrink the amount of space system restore uses, or disable it completely.
On Windows 7 and Vista click start, right-click my computer, click properties and then in the top right hand corner click “system protection”, a new window should appear, here you can either disable system restore entirely, or configure it to use less drive space.
On Windows XP and 2000 click start, right click on my computer and click properties, a window will appear, here you must click on the tab titled “system restore”, here you can disable system restore, or reconfigure how much space it uses.
I hope this guide helps you clear up some free space on your computer, if you find the guide hard to follow I will amend it help you out, let me know in the comments section below.
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