Today's computers come with hard drives that have amazing amounts of disk space.   But no matter how big, new programs, caches, and temporary files can use up this free space pretty quickly and cause clutter on the drive and computer slowdowns.

You will see many programs out there offering to help you free up hard disk space, for a fee.   Windows has built-in tools that will do just as thorough a job in cleaning up your hard drive - and, they're free!

Remove Unnecessary Windows Components

Double-click the Computer or My Computer icon on your Desktop.  A window will open, listing the drives found on your computer.  We are going to clean up the C: drive, which is the primary hard disk on a computer.

Right click on the C: drive.   A menu will display, left click on Properties.  This will open the C Properties window.   You will see the amount of used space (blue), the amount of free space (pink) and the total capacity of the hard drive.  Below that, you will see a pie chart diagram showing you the amount of used and free space.

Click the Disk Cleanup button, which is found right below the pie chart.  Windows will calculate how much space can be freed up.  This may take a few moments, depending on the size of your hard drive.

When Windows is done with the calculation, the Disk Cleanup window will display.  At the top of this window, click the More Options tab.

In the Windows components area (if you have Windows XP) or the Programs and Features area (if you have Windows Vista), click the Clean up button.


If you have Windows XP

You will see a list of components that can be uninstalled if you don't use them.   Components with check marks are installed.

To see what programs are included in that category, click on the category and then click the Details button.

To uninstall a program, click the check mark to clear it, click the OK button and then follow the on-screen directions.


If you have Windows Vista

After you click the Clean up button, the Uninstall or change a program window will open.   On the left side of this window, click on Turn Windows features on or off.  Depending on your settings, you may see a window asking you to confirm this action.   Click Continue.

The Turn Windows features on or off window will open displaying all the features available for your version of Vista.  An entry can be a single feature or a feature with subfeatures.   Entries with subfeatures display a plus (+) to the left of the name; click the plus to see the subfeatures.  When adding or removing features that have subfeatures, you can add or remove as many of the subfeatures that you want.  This lets you finely tune how you want Vista to operate.

Next to each feature is a box that can have three states.  If the checkbox is checked that means that the feature, and all of its subfeatures if it has any, are enabled.  If the box is filled with a solid blue color, then that means that some subfeatures of this feature are enabled but not all of them.  If the checkbox is empty, then that feature and none of its subfeatures are enabled.

To enable a feature, simply put a checkmark next to the feature name.
To disable a feature simply remove the check from the feature or one of its subfeatures.  When you are happy with how you disabled and enabled the features, you should click on the OK button to save these changes.