Initiate further cleanup measures with PowerShell on Windows?
Yes, you can use PowerShell to perform many more cleanup actions on Windows to free up disk space and optimize the system. Here are some additional options:
1.) Clean up the WinSxS directory with PowerShell
WinSxS (Windows Side-by-Side) directory stores different versions of system files to avoid compatibility issues, but it can take up a lot of disk space. You can use PowerShell to clean and optimize the directory to save space. Here's how:
Start PowerShell as administrator Windows PowerShell (Administrator) or Terminal (Administrator) .
Check the status of the WinSxS directory
Dism. exe / Online / Cleanup-Image / AnalyzeComponentStore
Explanation :Perform cleanup
Dism. exe / Online / Cleanup-Image / StartComponentCleanup
Explanation :Optional: Completely remove old Windows updates Dism. exe / Online / Cleanup-Image / StartComponentCleanup / ResetBase
A notice :Remove unused Windows features Get-WindowsFeature | Where-Object { $_. Installed -eq $false} | Out-GridView
Select the features you want and uninstall them with:Disable-WindowsOptionalFeature -FeatureName "FeatureName" -Online
Replace `FeatureName` with the actual name of the feature.
Recommendations Create backup : Make sure you have backed up important data before removing files from the system directory.
Check storage space : After cleaning, you can check the free space again.
2.) Delete temporary files
Remove-Item -Path "$env:Temp\* " -Recurse -Force
Note: Check the contents of the temp directory first:Get-ChildItem -Path "$env:Temp" -Recurse
3.) Windows Update cleanup
Dism. exe / Online / Cleanup-Image / StartComponentCleanup / ResetBase
Remove-Item -Path "C:\ Windows\ SoftwareDistribution\ Download\* " -Recurse -Force
4.) Storage space analysis
Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\ " -Recurse | Sort-Object Length -Descending | Select-Object FullName, Length -First 20
5.) Remove old restore points
vssadmin delete shadows / all / quiet
6.) Remove unused Windows features
Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online
Disable unnecessary features:Disable-WindowsOptionalFeature -FeatureName "FeatureName" -Online
7.) Empty the trash
Clear-RecycleBin -Force
8.) Clear browser cache
Remove-Item -Path "$env:LocalAppData\ Microsoft\ Edge\ User Data\ Default\ Cache\* " -Recurse -Force
9.) Delete specific log files
Remove-Item -Path "C:\ Windows\ Logs\* " -Recurse -Force
10.) Storage optimization via Storage Sense (automate)
Start-Process -FilePath "ms-settings:storagepolicies" -Wait
Here you can configure how often temporary files and recycle bin contents should be deleted.
11.) Uninstall unused apps
Get-AppxPackage | Select-Object Name, PackageFullName
Uninstall apps:Get-AppxPackage -Name "AppName" | Remove-AppxPackage
12.) Clear Prefetch and Delivery Optimization Cache
Remove-Item -Path "C:\ Windows\ Prefetch\* " -Recurse -Force
Remove-Item -Path "C:\ Windows\ SoftwareDistribution\ DeliveryOptimization\* " -Recurse -Force
13.) Remove unused user profiles
Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_UserProfile | Select-Object LocalPath
Delete unused profiles:Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_UserProfile | Where-Object { !$_. Special -and !$_. Loaded } | Remove-CimInstance
14.) Script for complete cleanup
(Image-1) Initiate further cleanup measures with PowerShell on Windows?
FAQ 29: Updated on: 15 January 2025 15:47
Windows
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