Clean Your Hard Drive

A Quick Spring Cleanup

If time is of the essence, and you don't feel like trudging through the deepest recesses of your hard drive, these speedy tips will help you get started on the road to digital leanness.

Bring in a Pro Cleaner

The quickest way to reclaim disk space under Windows 98 (but not Windows 95, alas) is to use its Disk Cleanup feature. At the click of a button, this tool empties the Recycle Bin and removes unneeded temporary Windows files, temporary Internet files (otherwise known as your Web browser's cache), and any downloaded program components such as ActiveX controls and Java applets. Navigate through Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools and select Disk Cleanup. You can also use Windows Explorer or My Computer to locate the drive you want to clean up. Right-click its icon, select Properties, and click the Disk Cleanup button. Deselect any of the four options if you don't want to lose anything from a particular area, then click OK. Keep an eye on the Description area of this tool, which explains exactly what sorts of files you're deleting and what the consequences of your actions will be. And check out "Get Rid of Old Windows" later in this article for information on a fifth option that may appear here.

Note: Windows 95 users can mimic this function with the Fast & Safe Cleanup function in Norton's CleanSweep products.

Download the CleanSweep Deluxe trial from Fileworld.

Take Out the Recycling

Remember that deleting files just sends them to the Recycle Bin; it doesn't clear your hard drive. To do that you'll need to empty the Recycle Bin. Right-click the Recycle Bin icon or the Recycled folder in Windows Explorer and select Empty Recycle Bin.

Let the Temps Go

Windows and compatible applications tend to throw large volumes of files into temporary folders, and they leave them there. Leave Temp folders alone for long enough, and you'll have megabytes of dross. Check your hard drive for folders called Temp; there may be one in the root directory, and there's definitely one in the Windows folder. They need cleaning out. First, close all active programs so you won't be trying to clobber files that may actually be in use. Now, in Windows Explorer, navigate your way to a Temp folder and click the Modified column in the folder twice. This sorts the files into ascending date order. Hold down the Shift key, click the top file and scroll down until you find files stamped with today's date. Click the last file before today's date and press Delete.

Clear Your Registry

It's not just your hard drive that gets filled with junk. Your Windows Registry can get bloated, too. Windows 98 will compress the Registry database if it has more than 500KB of wasted space, but that doesn't take care of superfluous entries that can bloat the Registry even more. Two undocumented keys in the command-line Scanreg program can help. Scanreg is the program that backs up your Registry, but it has other hidden talents, too.

Begin by entering DOS mode by selecting Start, Shut Down, then click "Restart the computer in MS-DOS mode" and select OK. When a DOS prompt appears, enter the command SCANREG /FIX. This command will remove superfluous Registry keys if you have any. Now enter SCANREG /OPT. This compresses the Registry. Finally, type WIN to return to Windows.