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HOW TO USE WINDOWS 2000: DELETING UNNEEDED FILES

The applications you use from day to day (for Word Processing, accessing the Internet, etc.) are designed to save time by storing frequently needed information in easily retrievable temporary files. While these files- the most common are called tmp and cache files- can save time in the short term, they have a nasty habit of hanging around long after their usefulness has run out. These useless files build up over time, taking up more and more space on your hard disk. If you've been using your computer for a while and have never deleted your tmp and cache files, you may be able to free up a large amount of space on your hard disk by using the Disk Cleanup tool.

  1. Click on the Start button (usually located at the bottom-left corner of your screen).  This will bring up the Start menu.

  1. Click on Programs This will bring up a menu. Click on Accessories. This will bring up another menu.

  2. Click on System Tools, then Click on Disk Cleanup.  The Select Drive window will appear.

 

  1. Click on the little down arrow to show a list of the drives available for cleaning, then Click on the drive you would like to clean.  After a couple of seconds, the Disk Cleanup window will open:

 


 

At the top of the Disk Cleanup window, Disk Cleanup will show how much space it can free on the selected disk.  Just below that, you will see a list of file types.  To the left of each file type is a box, either checked or unchecked.  Drive Cleanup will only remove the file types that have a checkmark in the box next to them.


 
  1. For each file type you want Disk Cleanup to delete: If the box next to the file type is unchecked, Click in the box next to the file type (a checkmark should appear in the box).

    For each file type you want Disk cleanup to leave alone: If the box next to the file type is checked, Click in the box next to the file type (the checkmark should disappear from the box).

    Note: Unless you have a specific reason for keeping one or more of the file types listed by Disk Cleanup, you can go ahead and delete them all.   

  2. Once you have finished checking and unchecking file types, Click on the OK button.  A window showing Disk Cleanup's progress will appear.  Once all of the files you selected have been deleted, Disk Cleanup will close itself.

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