A Better Disk Cleanup
Windows XP Home or Professional

This tip will show you how to create an unattended automated disk cleanup which will also empty your Prefetch folder. This tip assumes you have Windows XP installed in c:\windows most do)

Step 1.
Create a new text file and place the following contents inside:

c:\windows\system32\cleanmgr.exe /dc /sageset: 1
c:
cd \
cd c:\windows\prefetch
del *.* /q

Step 2.
Save the file as clean.bat  (be sure to save it with the "Save as type" set to All Files and not Text Documents - if you don't remember to change the "Save as type" to "All File" this file will not work.)

Step 3.
Execute the file. This will run the Disk Cleanup program in a special mode which asks what items you will want cleaned when Disk Cleanup performs an unattended cleanup. Check the items you wish to have cleaned up, then click OK.

Step 4.
Right-click on the clean.bat file and click edit. Change the first line to read:

c:\windows\system32\cleanmgr.exe /dc /sagerun: 1

Step 5.
Save the file. You can execute this file in place of running Disk Cleanup, or, to have this program run unattended, run the Add Scheduled Task Wizard in the Control Panel and create a scheduled task using the clean.bat file you just created.

Note: This cleanup script will also clear windows Prefetch directory. Often this directory can become cluttered with old application and a cleaning would free up disk space. Removing old Prefetch files might result in a one-time decrease in the speed with which applications open as Windows has to rebuild the Prefetch cache again. However, the change is so slight most of us will not notice it.

Or you can use a cleanup program like our Zappit System Cleaner to schedule automated cleaning of your system. See http://zappit.net/ for more details.

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