Disk Cleanup : Extended

How to Use Extended Disk Cleanup in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8​

This will show you how to access and run the Extended Disk Cleanup function in Windows, allowing you to clean up more HDD space for you to use.

   Note

This must be done in an elevated command window to complete.

Let's get started!

1) In the Windows 7 start menu search box type "cmd" (without the quotes) right click the entry and select "Run As Administrator" then enter your user credentials for the UAC prompt and click yes to open the command window.


2) In the command window that opens type the command below and hit enter.

Be advised: the command window must be left open while the cleanup is carried out.

%SystemRoot%\System32\Cmd.exe /c Cleanmgr /sageset:65535 & Cleanmgr /sagerun:65535

​

3) Now you will see the Disk Cleanup Settings window with more options available to you, select the ones you want to clean up then click ok; wait for the search and then the cleanup and then you're done.



To add a shortcut to the desktop.

   Note

This .bat file was created by CarlTR6 credit for this goes to him!

1) In the Windows start menu search box type "notepad" (without the quotes) right click the entry and choose Run as Administrator then enter your user credentials in the UAC prompt and click yes to open notepad.


2) In notepad type the code below then in the upper left of notepad at File select "Save as" name the file anything you want but it must have the .bat extension then browse to C:/Windows/System32 and click Save, then back at "File" click "Exit" to close notepad.

 cd C:\windows\system32 
%SystemRoot%\System32\Cmd.exe /c Cleanmgr /sageset:65535 & Cleanmgr /sagerun:65535

3) Now click an empty spot on the desktop and click, "New, Shortcut" in the "Create Shortcut" window browse to C:\Windows\System32\<your file name.bat> and click ok, then in the next window click next, then for the last "Choose Name" window name the shortcut whatever you want (I chose something clever, "Clean") then click "Finish" to add the shortcut to the desktop, you're done.





Enjoy!

Related Tutorials

---

• Disk Cleanup - Open and Use
• Disk Cleanup - Add or Remove from Drive Properties
• Disk Check
• How to Add Disk Cleanup to Context Menu in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8
• How to Add "Extended Disk Cleanup" to Desktop Context Menu in Windows 7 and Windows 8
• How Use the Windows 7 SP1 Disk Cleanup Tool to Recover Lost Disk Space
• How to Free Up and Recover Hard Drive Space in Windows 7

 

[Layback Bear]

I'm confused. I type in the search (disk) right click (send to desktop shortcut). Do I get the same disk cleanup as the extended?

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

I'm confused. I type in the search (disk) right click (send to desktop shortcut). Do I get the same disk cleanup as the extended?

Have a look at this section of the tutorial.


To add a shortcut to the desktop.

 

[Layback Bear]

I have a shortcut on my desktop. What I'm trying to find out, is the disk cleanup you folks are getting to with bat. files, notepad any different than using the method I used in my post #60 or is it just another way to get to disk cleanup?
Is extended disk cleanup and different than just plain disk cleanup?

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

I have a shortcut on my desktop. What I'm trying to find out, is the disk cleanup you folks are getting to with bat. files, notepad any different than using the method I used in my post #60 or is it just another way to get to disk cleanup?
Is extended disk cleanup and different than just plain disk cleanup?

Yes there is a big difference, compare the 2 for yourself.

 

[Layback Bear]

I will give it a try, thank you.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

I will give it a try, thank you.

Be sure to post back here with your comments on the 2 separate methods.

 

[Layback Bear]

IMHO the extended does do a deeper cleanup job. I will use it often. I haven't got the shortcut to work but no big deal, I just cut/paste from notepad.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

IMHO the extended does do a deeper cleanup job. I will use it often. I haven't got the shortcut to work but no big deal, I just cut/paste from notepad.

Well done mate, thanks for the update.

 

[seavixen32]

Thanks to the pair of you for some good work, it ran perfectly on my machine.

I have a folder on my backup drive named Windows Batch Files and store all my batch files there.

I also discovered that if I right-click the batch file in the location I stored it, and then choose Run As Administrator it will automatically open a command prompt window and the Disk Cleanup Settings window.

A nice program, thanks to you both.

I tried to +rep you both, but the system wouldn't let me.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello Andrew.


I wrote the tutorial and Carl wrote the .bat file; good to see you find it useful.

   Note

This .bat file was created by CarlTR6 credit for this goes to him!

@Layback use the method in this tutorial to point to the .bat file to create the shortcut for the desktop.

Elevated Program Shortcut without UAC Prompt - Create

 

[seavixen32]

Thanks again, it's no surprise this forum is so highly thought of.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Use the method in this tutorial to point to the .bat file to create the shortcut for the desktop.

Elevated Program Shortcut without UAC Prompt - Create

I just used this to create a shortcut for the desktop and it still works very well, it opens and closes all on its own, the only thing that needs done is to confirm the files you want cleaned.

 

[LM2008]

Is it normal to disk cleanup extended no to show up the size of the items to be deleted?

 

[Brink]

Yes, I'm afraid so.

 

[hoofbite]

I'm terribly sorry to revive this old thread, but I have a question.
Been at this for hours now, and this seems like the only solution that might work.

When I type the command in cmd run as admin.. I get a message saying "Access denied".
Why might this be?

Also, no "Windows Update Cleaner" option to tick in Cleanmgr

 

[Brink]

Hello hoofbite, and welcome to Seven Forums.

It sounds like you didn't run the command in an elevated command prompt.

(click on link) http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/783-elevated-command-prompt.html

 

[drugo]

hi
great tutorial
would be great a task scheduler that performt it always after 2 days after un update

 

[JamesEJ]

One more thanks guys, from an avid desktop shortcut lover. Jim

 

[paulgj]

I love this technique, even have my clean.bat file in Dropbox and create a shortcut onto all my computers desktops

 

[Nekto]

Be Aware of Windows Disc Cleanup (cleanmgr) Problems

This extended cleanup method might be very dangerous because you don't see the size of the selected options. Sometimes they exceed even the size of the hard drive, which is obvious due to some registry corruption. For example, you can search the web for "huge windows error reporting files", which cleanup resulted in wiping out the entire system. On of this files, which size was supposed to be 0 KB was displayed as about 150 GB on my laptop. Can you imagine if I ran this "extended cleanup"? It would have been really extended. I also experienced a similar problem trying to delete Windows Update Files of about 4 GB, which is not unreasonable. After this the system could not restart (was hanging attempting to complete some phantom windows updates) and was severely corrupted (restore points were gone) so only recovery disk helped. And this exact incident happened two times on my laptop.

So, please, keep this in mind while running this "extended blind cleanup".