 Using
Vista’s Hidden Disk Cleanup Options
by
Vinny La Bash, Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group,
Inc., Florida
www.spcug.org
vlabash(at)comcast.net
Obtained
from APCUG with the author's permission for publication by APCUG
member groups.
There
are many things to like about the disk cleanup utility in Windows
Vista. It’s built into the operating system, it works, and
it’s
free. It’s also a tool that removes many potential problems
such
as corrupt files that may be causing difficulties or could cause
computer ills in the future. One of its minor shortcomings is that
it doesn’t detect and eliminate wasteful duplicate files.
This is
a very insignificant quibble as Microsoft never claimed it could do
that in the first place. That ability is an item on my wish list for
the next version. Overall it’s a very useful tool that
everyone
should be familiar with.
There
is more to Disk Cleanup than removing junk files and recovering
gigabytes of disk space. It’s amazing how
‘temporary’ files
can hang around for months in the little used crannies of a disk
drive. Poorly written install and uninstall routines are largely
responsible, but software glitches and power hiccups leave their own
share of digital detritus laying about.
Systems
with more than a terabyte of storage are becoming common, and
it’s
easy to lose track of even the largest files. Try locating a
suitcase sized patch of land in an area with the dimensions of a
football field and you’ll have an idea of what I’m
talking about. Aside from taking up space, these useless files can slow
down
searches, bloat your backups, and make Vista’s slow defrag
process
even slower.
If
you’re not familiar with how Disk Cleanup works, you can
access a
good tutorial by clicking the Start icon, and then Help and Support. In
the search box type Disk Cleanup, and you will get a list of items
directly and indirectly related to the subject. You want the first
three or four items in the list.
Let’s
access the normal version of Disk Cleanup by opening up the Computer
icon on the Desktop, right-clicking the C: drive, and choosing
Properties.
On
the General tab locate the Disk Cleanup button just below and to the
right of the disk graphic. You might want to make a note of how much
used and unused disk space you have for a before and after
comparison. Left-click on the Disk Cleanup button and you will get a
message that Windows is doing some calculations. Eventually, you get
a dialog box which displays various categories of files you can
remove. Windows will let you peek at many of these files, but
it’s
largely a waste of time. I’ve never found anything worth
examining. Make a note of how many types of files Windows can
remove, and then close all the dialog boxes.
You’ve
just seen the standard way to access Disk Cleanup. Let’s now
ecamine Disk Cleanup with its deep cleaning options exposed.
Vista’s
official file name for the Disk Cleanup utility is cleanmgr.
Open the Start globe again and type cleanmgr
on the
Start Search box at the bottom of the menu. Press Enter and The
Drive Selection dialog box appears. This is a great way to eliminate
mouse clicks if we want a fast way of getting to a specific drive.
However, this method doesn’t display the extra functions
we’re
looking for so close the dialog box down.
To
access the enhanced options we need to use something called the
System Agent or sage in
conjunction with cleanmgr. Click
the Start globe again and in the Start Search box type
Cleanmgr
/sageset:1
Notice
the space between cleanmgr and
the forward slash. Sageset is a variation of the
System Agent utility, and the
number 1 allows you to select different cleaning options. You can
use any number you want, even zero or negative numbers.
Disk
Cleanup will now be running in a special setup mode that offers more
cleaning options than the standard default. In addition, the System
Agent will remember whatever cleanup options you select. When you
run Cleanup again you don’t have to make the same selections
as
long as you use the same number. That’s what the System Agent
set
part does.
Press
Enter to run the utility and wait for the Disk Cleanup
Settings
dialog box to appear. Highlight the individual cleanup options and
in some cases there is additional information that is missing from
the default dialog box. You also have more cleanup options.
You
can select any number of options from just one to all of them. For
maximum cleaning, select everything. When you’re satisfied
with
the options you’ve selected, click the OK button and run the
utility. When the job is done, go back and see how much disk space
you’ve recovered. You could be in for a pleasant surprise.
We
used the sageset command to set the cleanup options. The system
keeps track of what you’ve done, and it will run the utility
according to your specification in the future, but you can’t
use
the sageset command for that. You need to ignore sageset and run the
sagerun command instead. From the desktop click the Start globe, and
in the Search box type:
Cleanmge
/sagerun:1
Press
Enter and the system will automatically run in enhanced mode with the
preference previously recorded. Run this command anytime you wish
from now on. You can always change preferences by rerunning the
sageset command with the cleanmgr utility.
Chances
are good that a lot of clutter will be removed from your system, and
you will see an increase in free space on your system. If you wish
to automate the process, you can use the Task Schedular to run the
tool automatically at your convenience.
This
article has been provided to APCUG by the author solely for
publication by APCUG member groups. All other uses require the
permission of the author (see e-mail address above). |
A word from your leader, Corinne
Higbee