How to Clean Up Windows 10

No matter how hard you try to keep your Windows 10 machine clean, eventually it will collect many types of junk files and other unwanted stuff. It then becomes a real headache to get rid of all of these unwanted files from your machine. Fortunately, though, there are some ways you can use to remove these unwanted files and data from your computer.

In the following guide, you are going to learn what are the items taking up your memory space and how you can clean up your Windows 10 PC. It shows multiple cleaning methods so you can be sure there is no junk left on your computer.

Items Occupying Memory in Windows 10

First of all, let’s check out what are the items taking up the memory space on your computer. Once you have found these items, you can then learn how you can get rid of them from your PC.

Item 1. Files Downloaded from Internet

Internet is where everyone downloads their files from and you have likely downloaded a lot of files from there on your computer. If you have done so, it is likely there are a lot of single usage files residing in the downloads folder on your computer. These files may be occupying a large amount of your memory space.

Item 2. Full Recycle Bin

When a file is deleted from your computer, it goes straight to the Recycle Bin. Over the time, the Recycle Bin gets full and all of your deleted files continue to exist. These files do use some of the memory space on your computer.

Item 3. Temporary Files

Temporary files provide quick data to the applications installed on your computer. If the apps do not delete these files after their usage, you will have a number of these useless files sitting on your computer and utilizing your precious memory space.

Item 4. Unwanted Applications

It happens to many of you that you install an application, use it once, and then forget it forever. The app continues to exist on your machine and constantly uses your memory space. This adds to the clutter of your machine.

Item 5. Log Files

Many of the apps on your computer use log files to keep track of their activities. For most of the users out there, these log files are of no use but they do take up a good amount of your memory space.

How to Clean up Window 10

Now that you have learned what items are occupying your memory space and cluttering your PC, this section will tell you how you can clean up your computer running Windows 10.

There are a number of methods you can use to clean up your machine and the following are eight of those methods for you.

Method 1. Clean up Windows 10 – Delete Internet Files

In this method, what you need to do is open the folder where your Internet files are saved in, find the files you no longer need, and delete them from your computer. It sounds easy to do and it is and it does wonders for you.

Once you have removed the useless Internet files from your computer, have a look at the available memory space and you will be surprised.

Method 2. Clean up Windows 10 – Clean Up Recycle Bin

If you have been adding files to Recycle Bin but never fully cleaned it up, you may want to do it now. Cleaning up the Recycle Bin will remove all the files sitting in it permanently from your computer.

You can do it by right-clicking on the Recycle Bin icon on your desktop and choosing the Empty Recycle Bin option.

Method 3. Clean up Windows 10 – Remove Temporary Files

Disk Cleanup is one of the cleaning tools that comes preloaded on your PC and lets you remove unwanted files with a few clicks. It is extremely easy to use the tool as all you need to do is select what items to be removed from your system and hit submit.

You can search for Disk Cleanup from your search function to find and launch the utility on your PC.

Method 4. Clean up Windows 10 – Enable Storage Sense on Your PC

Storage sense is a built-in feature on your Windows 10 computer that allows you to automatically free-up memory space when you are running low on memory. Your computer does the cleaning task for you but first you need to enable the feature as shown below.

Open the Settings app on your PC and click on System followed by Storage. You will find a toggle under the Storage sense section. Simply turn the toggle to the ON position and the feature will be enabled on your PC.

Method 5. Clean up Windows 10 – Turn Off Hibernate

Hibernate provides you with a quick way to get back to your computer after you have put it in sleep mode. In order to do that, the feature saves states of all the running apps on your computer. It adds to the clutter of your machine and therefore you should keep the feature turned off if you wish to unclutter your computer.

To disable hibernate on your PC, press the Windows + X key and select Command Prompt (Admin). Type in the powercfg.exe /h off command hit Enter. The feature will be disabled.

Method 6. Clean up Windows 10 – Upload Files to Cloud Storage

With the availability of a number of cloud storage providers, you should consider storing your files on the cloud rather than on your local storage. This will give you more space to play with on your Windows 10 computer and you can always fetch the files you want from your cloud provider.

Method 7. Clean up Windows 10 – Uninstall Apps You Don’t Use

Apps are big time memory sucker and if you have a lot of these installed on your computer, you may want to remove the ones you no longer use. It can be done from the Settings app or Control Panel.

Method 8. Clean up Windows 10 – Remove Junk Files

If you would not prefer performing a manual search for junk files on your computer, you can use a dedicated app to clean up your machine.

One of these apps is Ashampoo WinOptimizer that cleans up and optimizes your system for an improved performance. It is extremely easy to use the app and it has tons of features to help you thoroughly clean your computer.

• Some of the features worth mentioning here are:
• Simple and easy one-click optimization.
• Automatically find and remove junk files from the PC.
• Optimize the Windows Registry so it works faster.
• Defrag your drives with the built-in feature.

If you would like to give a try to the app, the following is how you obtain and use it on your Windows 10 computer.

Step 1 Download and install the Ashampoo WinOptimizer tool on your computer. When it launches, click on the option that says Maintain system in the left hand side and then choose Drive Cleaner from the right side.

Step 2 The following screen will tell you what junk files it can remove from your machine. Review the list and then click on the Delete now button to start removing those files on your computer.

Step 3 Once all the junk files are removed, the following message will be shown on your screen.That is how you clean up your Windows 10 PC using a nice little application.

The Bottom Line

If your Windows 10 has become all cluttered and you can’t find a way to remove the clutter, the above guide will give you some ideas on how you can get rid of junk stuff and improve the overall performance of your computer.