Clean System Partition to Regain Disk Space June 16, 2016October 23, 2018 Raza Ali Kazmi Windows Efficient management of resources is one key ingredient in achieving success in every sphere of life. This is one area which is getting greater attention nowadays as factories and industries throughout the world are investing a lot in studying on how to efficiently manage their resources – whether they be humans or machines. Same goes for a computer, even if it’s a personal computer. Performing regular maintenance operations helps its resources from getting bogged down over the period of time and as a result, the computer keeps performing at it’s optimum. One such area which is very sensitive yet contains loads of trash besides the invaluable data is the system drive, usually C:/. In this article, we will look at various methods on how to efficiently sweep away all the junk data from the system drive in Windows 10 without affecting even a single system file. Before you proceed to these steps, you can save your time and automatically clean all junk in Windows using the ST Cleaner utility here: Clean System Junk, Regain Disk Space ST Cleaner download: Verified by Verisign Solutions Solution 1: Use the Disk Cleanup Facility Disk Cleanup is a wonderful one-stop for all your needs kind of utility that helps remove several kinds of junk (such as Setup Log files, Temporary Internet files, Program files that are left behind by third-party programs even though they’ve been uninstalled just to name a few). Here is how you can use Disk Cleanup to weed away heaps of junk. Double click This PC. Right-click the system drive and select Properties from the context menu. Click on Disk Cleanup. Now click on Clean up system files. (Make sure you’re using an account with administrative privileges as they are required to perform this action). Switch to the second tab and click Clean up under the System Restore and Shadow Copies section. Be advised that this action will remove all the System Restore points from the computer and this means you won’t be able to restore you computer in the future if something wrong happens. Now switch to the first tab, select all the contents to be removed by selecting the checkbox before them and then finally click on OK to kickstart the cleanup. Solution 2: Turn Off Hibernation Hibernation enables the computer to resume the session and open up all the programs, tabs etc that were in use before the user sent the computer into Hibernation. However, there is a downside to this as well. It actually leads to the consumption of a lot of space in the system drive. This is due to the fact that once the users opts for the Hibernation mode, all the active programs are transferred from the System Memory to a specifically reserved place (equal to the System Memory in capacity) in the system drive. Here is how you can turn off Hibernation if you do not intend to use it in the future and want to save up on space in the system drive. Click start. Type Command Prompt. Right-click it and select Run as administrator. Type the following command and press Enter to execute it. Powercfg –h off (You can type the same command and replace off with on in the future if you wish to turn on the Hibernation mode). Click start once again. Type Edit power plan. Click Change advanced settings. Turn off Hibernation from all the options. Solution 3: Turn Off Windows Features Windows inculcates in it tons and tons of features just about to facilitate every kind of user. However, different kinds of features are deemed helpful by different kinds of users and they surely don’t require all the features unless they’re a big computer geek. Windows Features is one such facility that can be safely discontinued to free up valuable amount of disk space. Open the start menu. Search for Turn Windows features on or off. This will open up the Windows features window that contains a lot of options. Search for every single feature on the web before deciding whether you wish to retain it or turn it off. This might be a little time consuming, but the end results will surely justify the time you put in. Solution 4: Reduce the Virtual Memory Virtual Memory bails out the operating system by allowing it to use the space from the hard drive when the System Memory runs out of space. This feature particularly comes in handy when the user is using a very graphic intensive software like 3D games, graphics designing softwares etc. It would be better not to alter this option at all. However, if the user thinks the computer has enough System Memory to cope with all the programs they run on the computer, then they can alter the Virtual Memory. Be advised that if the System Memory runs out of space, the computer can crash while displaying the Blue Screen of Death. Here is how you reduce the Virtual Memory. Click on start. Type sysdm.cpl and open it from the Search Results. Switch to the Advanced tab. Click Settings. Now open the Advanced tab. Click on Change under the Virtual Memory heading. Enter the desired valued for the new Virtual Memory size. Click OK | OK | OK. Solution 5: Use ST Cleaner ST Cleaner by Sorcim Technologies is an excellent piece of software that can reach deep into every nook and corner of your computer and remove all the trash and junk items that are sitting there for no good. It also exercises extreme caution and does not even touch the system areas so that the operating system continues to function seamlessly even after the cleanup has been performed. Download and install ST Cleaner by executing the downloaded setup file. Launch ST Cleaner and switch to the System Cleaner tab. Click Scan. Solution 6: Uninstall Unnecessary Programs Removing programs that are no longer required may also go a long way in alleviating your computer’s woes. This also encompasses removing unwanted programs as well as any toolbars that are installed by freeware programs without the user’s consent. Here is how you do it. Click the start button. Type Add or remove programs. Open it from the Search results. This will open up the APPS & FEATURES page from where you can uninstall any programs / toolbars safely.