What to use to Optimize, Tune, Clean Up Files for a Windows 10 Home PC?

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Hello All.  What do you all use to Tune up, Clean and Optimize your PCs?  I know Disk Cleanup is available from Windows 10.  Is there any other Windows apps or 3rd Party programs you recommend?

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I can highly recommend PrivaZer. I have been using it for many years without any issues on Windows 7 and then on 10 Pro. Free to use but you can donate if you want. It is updated regularly. https://privazer.com

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Linda2019

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The built in Windows Disk Cleanup covers the basics, especially when you select “Clean up system files” in the lower left of the primary Disk Cleanup windows.

Ccleaner is probably the most widely used 3rd party cleanup utility. It has a lot of options if you study it over carefully.

Glary Utilities is another 3rd party utility that’s been around for a long time.

The single most important thing BEFORE using any disk and registry cleaner is to have up to the moment full disk image backups so you can easily and safely recover if cleaning up damages your OS.

If you’re not currently making regular image backups I’d suggest you first learn about them and setup the imaging software of your choice on you machine. I use Macrium, but there are other choices.

Desktop mobo Asus TUF X299 Mark 1, CPU: Intel Core i7-7820X Skylake-X 8-Core 3.6 GHz, RAM: 32GB, GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti 4GB. Display: Four 27" 1080p screens 2 over 2 quad.

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TechTango – are you referring to the “compress this drive” option?  That’s what I see when I open Properties on C: drive.

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TechTango wrote:

The built in Windows Disk Cleanup covers the basics, especially when you select “Clean up system files” in the lower left of the primary Disk Cleanup windows.

Linda2019 wrote:

TechTango – are you referring to the “compress this drive” option? That’s what I see when I open Properties on C: drive.

@Linda2019 , @TechTango wasn’t talking about the check-box you saw that deals with compressing the drive. TechTango was talking about a button that sits just below and to the right of the circle (it looks more like a ring, though) that shows the capacity of the C: drive (and just how full it is) in the middle of the C: drive Properties window. That button says “Disk Cleanup”.

In other words, go back to the Properties window of the C: drive and look right in the middle of it. You’ll see what is a circle, but looks like a ring and shows (graphically) the total capacity of your C: drive and how much of that capacity is currently taken up. Just below and to the right of that circle/ring, you should see a button labeled “Disk Cleanup”.

What TechTango was describing is what the resulting window looks like when you click that “Disk Cleanup” button. On that subsequent window, you then want to click another button that’s labeled “Clean up system files” and has a blue and yellow-colored shield symbol on it.

I hope this helps a bit.

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I never clean up, especially not the registry (registry cleaners are snake oil IMO, they do nothing of value and may cause problems).

I backup regularly and make sure I have a disk with plenty of free space. If I am running low I move static files off to another disk (I have lots of music) or buy a bigger disk (we all love new shiny things).

cheers, Paul

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Paul – do you use anything to address high memory usage?

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If your RAM usage is above 80% regularly when you are using the PC, you should consider adding more RAM if it is possible. In general, Windows does a good job of managing RAM. There is no real need to do memory optimization for most use cases.

With the built-in tools for disk cleanup, there is no real need to use a third-party tool. Registry cleaning is snake oil with the potential to do more harm than good. The only time I resort to registry cleaning is when I’m trying to fix a malfunctioning system. And now with the built-in reset functions, it is often easier to do that than fix a registry problem.

--Joe

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Linda2019

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All tune, optimize..software are hoax.
For cleaning up temp.. Windows 10 has build-in Storage Sense in Storage settings in addition to Disk Cleanup.

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Alex5723 – this is the first I have explored this. There’s a link on storage settings page –  “optimize”.  I clicked on it and it says the drive is “OK”.

There’s also a button to click to analyze and another button to optimize.  Have you used these tools?

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No.

I just use the free space feature and don’t “play” with SSD drives which tend to themselves.

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Linda2019 wrote:

I clicked on it and it says the drive is “OK”

That means there is nothing to do, except backup

cheers, Paul

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Without 3rd party intervention, Disk Clean-up is a safe utility for home users, especially when used in conjunction with sage switches, much more can be cleaned without potentially harming the OS.
For more info, see this link:

https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/proprietory-disk-clean-up-tweak/

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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Linda2019

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