Removing Unnecessary Files

Every time you open a file, access a Web page, install a program, or download a file, Windows Vista creates a temporary file on your computer. In the case of program files such as documents, the temporary files contain autorecover information. Most of these temporary files are deleted automatically when they are no longer needed. However, poorly behaved programs sometimes don't clean up after themselves, resulting in megabytes of unnecessary files on your hard disk.

Other types of unused files can also clutter up your hard disk. A common culprit is the Recycle Binby default, deleted files are stored in the Recycle Bin until you empty it.

You can use Disk Cleanup to free up space on your hard disk by removing downloaded program files, temporary files, and offline files; compressing old files; and emptying the Recycle Bin. It is a good idea to use the Task Scheduler to schedule Disk Cleanup to run regularly. Then you don't have to remember the last time you ran it or when it's time to run it again.

In this exercise, you will run the Disk Cleanup utility on your computer and then schedule the utility to run once a month. There are no practice files for this exercise.

1.	In Control Panel, click System and Maintenance, scroll the window if necessary, and then under Administrative Tools, click the Free up disk space task. The Disk Cleanup Options dialog box opens, prompting you to choose whether you want to clean up only your files or the files used by all users of your computer.
2.	Click the option you want. After calculating the amount of disk space you can recover, the Disk Cleanup dialog box opens.
3.	Click the name of each category of files in turn (not the category check box) to display its description. These descriptions will help you identify the categories that you can safely tell Disk Cleanup to delete. If a list of the files to be deleted is available, a View Files button is also displayed.
4.	Click Recycle Bin, and then click View Files. The Recycle Bin window opens, giving you the opportunity to restore files before Disk Cleanup deletes them.
5.	Close the Recycle Bin window.
6.	Select the check boxes of all the categories you want to delete. The total amount of disk space you will gain is recalculated to reflect your selections.
7.	Click OK. Then click Delete Files to confirm that you want to delete the selected categories of files. As Disk Cleanup completes the selected operations, a progress bar indicates how the cleanup is proceeding. You can cancel the cleanup at any point during the operation. The Disk Cleanup dialog box closes when the operation is complete.
8.	Scroll the System and Maintenance window, and then under Administrative Tools, click Schedule tasks. In the User Account Control dialog box, if you're logged on as an administrator, click Continue. Otherwise, enter an administrator password, and then click OK. Task Scheduler starts. [View full size image]
9.	In the Actions pane on the right side of the window, click Create Basic Task. The Create Basic Task wizard starts. [View full size image]
10.	In the Name box, type Regular disk cleaning, and in the Description box, type Run Disk Cleanup once a month. Then click Next.
11.	On the Task Trigger page, select the Monthly option, and then click Next.
12.	On the Monthly page, click the Months arrow, and select the <Select all months> check box. Then click the Days arrow, select the Last check box to run the task on the last day of each month, and click Next.
13.	On the Action page, with the Start a program option selected, click Next.
14.	On the Start a Program page, click Browse. In the Open dialog box, type clean in the File name box, click cleanmgr.exe in the File name list that appears, and click Open. Then click Next. The wizard displays a summary of the task instructions. [View full size image]
15.	On the Summary page, click Finish to create the new task and add it to your Windows schedule.
16.	Scroll the middle pane to display the Active Tasks area. Then scroll the list of tasks, which includes the Regular Disk Cleaning task you just created. [View full size image]