How to Perform Disk Cleanup on Windows XP

Disk Cleanup is a Microsoft Windows maintenance utility designed to free up disk space on a computer's hard drive. The utility searches and analyzes the hard drive for files that are no longer of any use, and then removes them.

Below are the steps on how to perform Disk Cleanup.

1. Click on the Start Button  > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup.

2. On the Select Drive dialog box, select the hard disk drive that you want to clean up, and then click OK.

3. A dialog box will pop up on your screen that says "Disk cleanup is calculating how much free space..."A blue loading bar should appear under this.It may take anywhere from less than a minute to a few minutes to complete, depending on your computer speed and how much of your hard drive space is in use.

4. A dialog box with a list of check box will pop up entitled "Files to Delete". Check everything on the list since it should not cause any damage or excessive changes to your hard drive.

5.  When you finish selecting the files you want to delete, click Ok, and then click Yes to confirm the operation. Disk Cleanup proceeds to remove all unnecessary files from your computer.