The time needed for the disk cleanup varies from different devices but it usually takes about 1 and half hours to finish. Fix 3: Delete Software Distribution folder.Fix 1: Run the Windows update troubleshooter.Part 1: Why does disk cleanup take forever?.It does an overall excellent job of cleaning out your hard drive without having to install third-party tools. It’s a utility that’s been around for ages in Windows and rightfully so. That’s about all there is to Disk Cleanup. The second thing you can do is to open Explorer and type in %temp% into the address bar and manually deleting all the files and folders located there.

You can do that by opening the command prompt (Start – type cmd) and running the following command: sfc /scannow Firstly, try to run a system file checker scan to make sure all the system files are OK. If you have run into the rare instance where disk cleanup won’t run, then there are a few simple things you can try. It should definitely clear out more files than it does normally. Go ahead and check everything if you like and then click OK.

You can get to the extended disk cleanup by opening an elevated command prompt and then copying and pasting the following: cmd.exe /c Cleanmgr /sageset:65535 & Cleanmgr /sagerun:65535 I had at least 11 more options on my PC when I ran the extended disk cleanup and it actually cleared out a few extra GB’s that was not removed even after I chose the system files option. Some sites have stated that the extended version is the same as when you click on Clean up system files in the normal Disk Cleanup dialog, but that’s not true.

Windows 10 also has an extended Disk Cleanup that can be run, which includes more options than what you get in the standard version. Type in Disk Cleanup and then click on Settings.Ĭlick on Free up disk space by deleting unnecessary files. If you are using Windows 8, the easiest way to open Disk Cleanup is to open the Charms bar and then click on Search. The easiest way to open Disk Cleanup is to simply click on Start and type in disk cleanup. You’ll see the Disk Cleanup button located on the right-hand side down where it shows the capacity of the drive. You can also open Explorer, right-click on the drive you want to run Disk Cleanup on and choose Properties. Click on Start, type in run and press Enter. Another way to do this is to open a run dialog and type in the direct executable for disk cleanup.

Running disk cleanup