Most people know to physically clean a desktop PC, but few realize that junk piling up inside Windows itself can impact performance. While Microsoft offers several tools for this task, their effectiveness varies significantly. Disk Cleanup, the oldest tool shipped with Windows since 98, offers minimal results, freeing only about 1.66GB on a nearly full drive.
Storage Sense, found in Settings, uses the same underlying engine and offers similar limited results, running primarily when disk space is low rather than on a schedule. Microsoft PC Manager, a separate free install, proved the most thorough scanner, identifying roughly 26GB of potential cleanup items, though it includes some non-junk files. In a test on a 1TB drive with 4% free space, PC Manager identified the majority of real junk, including a 9.25GB NVIDIA shader cache and significant Chrome cache data that the Windows tools completely missed.
To maximize Storage Sense, users must manually change its default setting to run regularly rather than only when space is low. For those seeking a deeper clean, PC Manager offers a "Manage large files" feature to visualize space hogs, though it nags with boost notifications. Ultimately, Disk Cleanup is redundant, and users should rely on Storage Sense with adjusted settings or PC Manager for comprehensive maintenance.
Source: Engadget · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing