Here we can see, “Disk Cleanup is Going Away in Windows 10 and We Miss It Already”
Microsoft quietly announced that Disk Cleanup is now deprecated, news buried at rock bottom of a blog post about Windows 10’s Storage Sense. Disk Cleanup isn’t departure immediately but is on its answer the door.
Twenty Years of Disk Cleanup
Disk Cleanup deserves a far better send-off than a small note at the top of a Microsoft blog post. We’ve been using Disk Cleanup for over 20 years since it debuted in Windows 98.
Whatever version of Windows you’re using, Disk Cleanup has always worked equivalently. Right-click a drive, select “Properties,” then click the “Disk Cleanup” button to launch it. It still works an equivalent way on Windows 10 today, and you’ll also launch it from the beginning menu or run the cleanmgr.exe program.
Disk Cleanup has gotten more and more useful over time. Whether it had been removing a couple of hundred MB of temporary files on Windows XP or removing quite 10 GB of leftover files after installing an enormous update to Windows 10, it always worked well to release the disc space we would have liked.
Disk Cleanup was always the one-stop location for freeing up disc space on a sophisticated OS that kept adding new features over time. We’ve been teaching people to use Disk Cleanup for years, and it’s been indispensable.
Geeks Turned to CCleaner, But Disk Cleanup Was Always Reliable
Okay, okay, let’s be honest: Disk Cleanup fell out of favor. We geeks moved on to more comprehensive tools like CCleaner that also erased other sorts of temporary files, including gigabytes of NVIDIA driver installer files and web browsing histories from Chrome and Firefox.
CCleaner may need been full of features, but it eventually ended up full of additional software and featured that collected data about your PC after Piriform, CCleaner’s developer, was sold to Avast. It even had a malware scare after its servers were hacked.
Disk Cleanup was the steady tool we could always come to, and it had always been there and did a solid job without the drama. Today, Disk Cleanup still does almost everything we’d like to try to do, and that we prefer using it instead of riding the CCleaner roller coaster.
“Deprecated” Doesn’t Mean Dead—Not Yet, At Least
Disk Cleanup isn’t gone just yet, and Microsoft says it’ll keep the utility around for compatibility reasons. In other words, Windows users are so familiar with this tool that Microsoft can’t get obviate it overnight.
This utility joins an extended line of other beloved Windows features that Microsoft is slowly getting obviate. For instance, Microsoft Paint is now also deprecated, and it’ll be removed from Windows 10 proper to the shop in time. HomeGroups are already gone, and System Image Backups are deprecated and should be removed soon.
When Microsoft says, Disk Cleanup is “deprecated,” starting with the October 2018 update, meaning it’s been replaced by a replacement tool. It’s going to or might not be available in a future version of Windows 10, and Microsoft recommends you don’t believe it. During a best-case scenario, Disk Cleanup may have a couple of years left—but we bet it’ll be gone before that.
Disk Cleanup Lives on in Spirit
While Disk Cleanup is saying its goodbyes, it still lives on in spirit. The new “Free Up Space” tool in Windows 10 is essentially a contemporary, faster Disk Cleanup, and it does everything Disk Cleanup does—and more.
To find this tool, head to Settings > System > Storage > release Space Now. It’ll automatically scan your system for everything Disk Cleanup searched for.
Windows 10’s new utility may be quite a capable replacement. There’s no loss in functionality, and we shouldn’t worry. But a neighborhood of Windows we’ve known and relied on for 20 years goes away, and we’re getting to miss it.
Why you should stop using Disk Cleanup on Windows 10 and embrace Storage sense
On Windows 10, Disk Cleanup has been a handy tool for freeing up space after upgrading to a replacement version and for getting obviate junk files on your disk drive. However, beginning with the October 2018 Update (version 1809), Windows 10 deprecates the tool in favor of Storage sense, which offers a contemporary experience with more features.
You can still use Disk Cleanup, but it’s probably time to prevent it. The rationale is not just because the tool will not be maintained and future updates may break it, but also because of concerns of probably accidental deletion of private files, and with version 1809, Windows 10 is additionally introducing a replacement option that permits you to delete everything within the Downloads folder.
The option isn’t new, it had been first introduced with Storage sense, but since most people are using Disk Cleanup for years, and they are wont to checking every item within the list without giving it a re-evaluation, it’s easier to urge confused and find yourself deleting important content alongside temporary files.
If you would like to scale back the prospect of accidental file deletion within the Downloads folder and other potential problems, starting out using Storage sense is a blast. It is also important to start being more alert and remember to save lots of those downloads that you want to stay during a different location, and here’s the way to do all that.
How to use Storage sense to delete temporary files
If you’re running out of space, otherwise you want to get rid of unnecessary files to reclaim disc space on Windows 10, use these steps:
- Open Settings.
- Click on System.
- Click on Storage.
- Under “Storage sense,” click the release space now option.
- Select the temporary files you would like to delete.
Warning: don’t check the Downloads option because you’ll accidentally delete important files.
6.Click the Remove files button.
Once you complete these steps, the temporary files you chose will be deleted from your device, making additional space to store more important files.
How to disable automatic cleanup in the Downloads folder
If you always keep tons of important files within the Downloads folder, you furthermore may want to form a bound to disable the choice that deletes unused files using these steps:
- Open Settings.
- Click on System.
- Click on Storage.
- Under “Storage sense,” click the Change how we release space automatically option.
- Under “Temporary files,” use the Delete files in my Downloads folder if they need to be there for the menu, and choose the Never option.
After completing the steps, your downloads will remain within the folder until you delete them manually.
How to change the default location to store downloads
Another way to stop accidental file deletion when using Disk Cleanup or Storage sense is to vary the default location that your browser uses to store downloads.
For instance, on Microsoft Edge, you’ll use these steps:
- Open Microsoft Edge.
- Click on the Settings and more (three-dotted) menu button.
- Click on Settings.
- Click on General.
- Under “Downloads,” click the Change button.
- Select another location to store files you download from the web.
- Click the Select folder button.
If you do not want to form those changes, ready to”> you’ll activate the inquire from me what to try to do with each download toggle, and each time that you download a replacement file, you will be able to decide the situation to store the content.
Conclusion
I hope you found this guide useful. If you’ve got any questions or comments, don’t hesitate to use the shape below.
User Questions:
- Where did my Disk Cleanup go?
Microsoft quietly announced that Disk Cleanup is now deprecated, news buried at rock bottom of a blog post about Windows 10’s Storage Sense. Disk Cleanup isn’t departure immediately but is on its answer the door.
- Why is Disk Cleanup So Slow?
And that’s the cost: you would like to spend tons of CPU time trying to do the compression, which is why the Windows Update Cleanup uses such a lot of CPU time. And it’s doing the expensive data compression because it’s trying very hard to release disc space. Because that’s presumably why you’re running the Disk Cleanup tool.
- Does Disk Cleanup improve performance?
Disk Cleanup helps release space on your hard disc, creating improved system performance. Disk Cleanup searches your disk then shows you temporary files, Internet cache files, and unnecessary program files that you can safely delete. You’ll direct Disk Cleanup to delete some or all of these files.
- YSK About Windows Disk Cleanup. It can release quite a little bit of disc space spent by recent Windows Update leftovers and many other things.
YSK About Windows Disk Cleanup. It can free up quite a bit of disk space used up by recent Windows Update leftovers, and many other things. from YouShouldKnow
- Disk cleanup takes forever?