Freeing up drive space on XP

Totally Stolen from:
 
  1. Empty Recycle Bin (Yes, I know. Not rocket surgery so far. Keep with me, I'm getting warmed up.)
  2. If you bought a PC with XP preinstalled, consider running the PC Decrapifier. It clears out the useless bundled software the manufacturer included to cut costs through renewal kickbacks.
  3. Uninstall any programs you don't need. My criteria: If I can't remember what it is or haven't used it in 6 months, I don't need it. I use SAFARP (Small and Fast Add Remove Programs) , but Windows Add / Remove Programs works here. [UPDATE] A comment reminded of something here - XP Hotfix Files. I've used (and recommend) Doug Knox's " XP Remove Hotfix Backup" program.
  4. Run CCleaner to clean up temporary files and clear out orphaned registry keys. Registry cleanup used to be simple until Office started stashing unused keys to indicate features which would be installed on first use, after which registry cleaners often did more harm than good. However, CCleaner is regularly updated and has always worked for me. If you're scared to monkey with the registry, CCleaner will still help find unused temporary (permatemp?) files which can be removed.
  5. Start looking for big files to be removed. I use FolderSize and WinDirStat for this. Actually, I use FolderSize more for day to day stuff, but for clearing out the underbrush with a machete style work, you can't beat WinDirStat. The treemap really helps you zoom in on the large files or folders; when you click on them they're automatically selected for you in the folder view above. By the way, the screenshot shows it working in Vista.
Published Tuesday, December 19, 2006 3:30 PM by wwright

Comments

Monday, September 01, 2008 6:06 PM by Anthony

# re: Freeing up drive space on XP

Some really helpful pointers - thanks a lot.

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