Windows Vista Disk Cleanup...What Can Be Safely Deleted?

[Fred44]

I was just doing a disk cleanup in Vista Home Premium and noticed that many of the boxes are not ticked. I was wondering what is best to leave alone. I know that you can delete the Hibernation File cleaner, but then cannot use that option. Since I never use the Hybrid Seep or Hibernation (or whatever it's called) I was wondering if it would be OK to delete that file. It's almost 3 GB and would free up a lot of space. I just turn my computer on in the morning and have the screen saver set to kick in after 10 minutes, but never on the sleep setting. Also the other files (Downloadable Program Files, temp. Internet files, Setup Log files, thumbnails, Per User Windows error Reporting, etc.)....Which of these can be deleted and which should be left alone? I read in the TweakGuides Tweaking Companion for Vista, that you shouldn't delete your Temp. Internet files too often as it would slow down your web browsing. BTW, has anyone else seen this book by Koroush Ghazi? It was recommended by someone on one of the forums and I've used it to set up Media Player and a few other things. It has a lot of suggestions for tweaking IE, which I did , but have since done a system recovery so everything's back to default...but I digress.. any suggestions on Disk Cleanup?
Fred

 

[kemical]

Hi Fred,

basically tick everything... As for temp internet files.. If you have a broadband connection or cable then don't worry, usually the speed of these types of connections aren't really hampered if the temp files are removed. (if you use dial-up then perhaps it's a different matter).
I use this cleaner on a daily basis Download CCleaner 2.18.878 - FileHippo.com it's a more advanced cleaner than disk clean and does a better job.

As for the Tweakguides.. I can totally recommend using the guide although some tips are left down to personal choice and like everything in life, don't take it too seriously.. What I mean is.. You don't have to apply every tip he suggests and some don't even really benefit but on the whole a great source of info..

 

[Fred44]

One more question before I take the Advanced cleaner or CCleaner plunge. Regarding deleting old restore points. In "Disk cleanup" "More Options", It says "In some editions of Win vista, the disk might include file shadow copies and older Windows Complete PC Backup images as part of restore points. This information will also be deleted" Now I'm not concerned about the "older windows" part because this is a brand new computer and Vista Home Premium is the only os ever installed on this drive. Will deleting file shadow copies give me a problem if I have to do a system restore (I've already done one since I got the computer in Feb. mainly to get rid of the dreaded Norton Security Suite), and how do I know if this version of Vista deletes those files Also there are about 3 MB Temp files that the regular disk cleanup will not delete for some reason. Could there be some temporary files that should not be deleted? I know at one point I did a manual delete of temporary files on my recording computer ( I have a PC based recording studio) and it deleted a song I was working on. Of course, this was Win98 so....
Fred

 

[kemical]

I sometimes clean out all my old restore points but make sure I create a new one before moving on.. If your unsure where to click to do this, check the screenshot. You'll need to click 'Advanced System Settings' on the 'System' page of control panel and then System protection along the top...

AAAAAh...I'll type this quick before this freaking forum boots me again..
Your 3mb temp files may be old set up files and you can run an advanced form of disk clean..
Open command prompt and type 'Cleanmgr/SageSet:1' (without the quotes) hit enter
Tick all the boxes you see and click ok.
Then type 'Cleanmgr/Sagerun:1' (again without the quotes) hit enter.
Everytime you want this to run just type in the last part...