Removing Junk Files in Windows 7

Most of the time, people only take note of the free space in their hard drive when they get warning messages from their computer reminding them that they are running out of disk space. This could come in the form of messages that occur when attempting to save or copy large files. If you see these warning signs, then you have probably a lot of files and programs in your PC that need to be deleted. However, before you delete your personal stuff, you can trim off the junk files first, or the unnecessary data that your computer has created over the course of its life.

All junk files are technically not useless from the start. These may be the cookies that were saved temporarily as you browse the internet. Or, it may be the data that were installed in your computer in one of the programs that you've previously installed (but uninstalled eventually). This can get as large as 2 GB, if you haven't done any purging for the last couple of months. This space is big enough to store a lot of data, so it is important for you to clean the junk off your computer. Considering that these documents are now immaterial to you, it can definitely be disposed of anytime.

So how do you go about with removing the junk files in your PC? Your targets here are the two main sources of junk: the Recycle Bin and the Temporary Internet Files folder.

1. Do it manually.

The first way to do this is pretty easy if you have the Recycle Bin icon in your desktop. But if it's not there, follow these steps:

* For Windows 7 users, right-click anywhere in your desktop.

* Click Personalize. This will open the Personalization dialog box.

* On the left-hand size, select Change desktop icons. The Desktop Icon Settings dialog box will appear.

* Under the desktop icons, put a check mark beside the Recycle Bin.

* Click OK or Apply. You will now see the icon in your desktop.

There are three ways on how you can delete all data from this location. First, you open the bin, press CTRL+A to highlight all items, right-click the selection then choose Delete. The second option would be to tap the "Empty the Recycle Bin" option in the toolbar. The last but the easiest way to do this is to right-click the icon in your desktop, and then select Empty the Recycle Bin.

The next one is to remove all your "Temporary Internet Files". However, you cannot find its folder through the Search function. As such, it would be easier if you know the location of the Temporary Internet Files folder. You can visit it by pasting its location in the explorer address bar. Here is its location in Windows 7:

"C:UsersusernameAppDataLocalMicrosoftWindowsTemporary Internet Files"

After locating the folder, highlight everything pressing CTRL+A then press Delete on your keyboard. Another way to do this is through the following:

* Click the Start button.

* In the search bar, type Internet Explorer. Proceed to open the said browser.

* Open the tools option, or the gear icon on the right-hand side of the toolbar.

* Select Internet Options.

* Under the General tab, go to Browsing History.

* Click Delete.

* Check all the types of data that you want to delete, then press OK.

2. Use Disk Clean Up.

As you can see, it is very tedious to do the clean-up manually. Aside from getting to each folder just to delete the contents, you might not be able to capture other junk files such as Thumbnails. Fortunately, there is an option in Windows 7 which makes this simple for you - the "Disk Clean Up" utility tool.

This tool is effective in removing unnecessary files in your computer with just one click. As such, this is frequently suggested by computer professionals if you are going to do a regular PC maintenance.

However, unlike in previous Windows versions, you cannot see the Disk Clean Up in the Accessories folder. Rather, it is hidden in a system folder in your local disk. To access this program, you have to do the following:

* Click Start, then type Run in the Search box.

* Open Run.

* Type "cleanmgr.exe" in the field then tap OK.

* In the Disk Clean Up dialog box, select the drive. The tool will run an analysis on how much free space can you get from cleaning the drive.

* Tick the check box on the data your wish to remove.

* Click OK.

Removing junk files is important for your system. Besides having more space for more productive data, it can improve the performance of your computer.