Windows is chock full of temporary files that help the operating system do its job. Occasionally, these file caches can become corrupted, or get so large that they interfere with the performance of your computer.
If you’re running low on storage space, or notice some unusual behaviour from the Windows System, one of the first things you can do is clear the cache.
If you don’t know how to do this, just follow this tutorial till the end and I am sure after this you can clear all types of cache on your Windows computer easily.
You can clear the cache or remove temporary files in your Windows settings:
One of the examples is windows.old folder. Whenever we upgraded from an old version of Windows? You have a Windows.old folder on our computer, and it’s using up a huge amount of space. You can delete it, but it’s different from deleting a normal folder.
Step 1:
Right-click on the Start menu and then Settings, you can also use Windows + I for the same.
Step 2:
Then, choose ‘System’ on the left and ‘Storage’ on the right panel of the page. Here you can see all the ‘Storages’ we have in our Windows System, and for more, just click on ‘Show more categories’ and there we get more to see.
Step 3:
Then, you can select ‘Temporary files’, select almost every option, and click on the ‘Remove file’ button. This process will take some more time, so wait for the cleaning process to be complete.
This should purge your computer of temporary files and free up your disk space.
Next, you can do is,
Step 1:
Use the Windows key + R keyboard shortcut to open the Run command.
Step 2:
Then, type this command line to open the ‘SoftwareDistribution’ folder or manually, go to C drive, then inside the Windows folder search for ‘SoftwareDistribution’ folder and then go to Download and select all its content and click the ‘Shift + Del’ key to clear the content permanently.
Step 3:
In case, you’re having trouble deleting all the files, simply restart your computer, and try again.
The “Temp” folder is related to windows temporary data and you can clean it by the following process:
Step 1:
Press Windows + R to open the Run APP and type ‘temp’ in the text box or by typing this command line in the Run window and click “OK” or hit Enter.
Step 2:
If permission is asked, just click on the ‘Continue’ button.
Step 3:
The Temp folder will open in File Explorer then select the files that you want to delete. You can quickly select all of the files by pressing Ctrl+A.
Step 4:
Before deleting any temporary files from your PC, you should first close all other programs that may be running on your computer so that only Windows is running.
Step 5:
Press the Shift+Del key to permanently delete every file from your computer. Windows will begin deleting the selected temp files.
If, administration permission is asked just click on the check-box and then click on the ‘Continue’ button to delete every item.
Step 6:
Choose ‘Skip’ if a “Folder is Use” notification appears.
“%temp%” folder is used to store the application-related data but not operating system data and you can clean it by the following process:
Step 1:
Press Windows + R to open the Run APP and type ‘%temp%’ in the text box or you can open the “%temp%” folder by typing the following path in the Run Window, then click “OK” or hit Enter.
Step 2:
If permission is asked, just click on the ‘Continue’ button otherwise the Temp folder will open in File Explorer then select the files that you want to delete. You can quickly select all of the files by pressing Ctrl+A.
Step 3:
Before deleting any temporary files from your PC, you should first close all other programs that may be running on your computer so that only Windows is running.
Step 4:
Next, press the Shift+Del key to permanently delete every file from your computer. Windows will begin deleting the selected temp files.
If, administration permission is asked just click on the check-box and click on the ‘Continue’ button to delete every item.
Step 5:
Choose ‘Skip’ if a “Folder is Use” notification appears.
Many people think that deleting prefetch folders will make your computer fast but it’s not true, instead, it’ll increase the loading time of that particular application that you have decided to open, and thus it will make your computer slow. So there’s no need to delete prefetch items. I will make a video on this in detail and the link will be in the description below.
Even if you delete the prefetch folder with the intention of cleaning space it will be recreated by prefetch so there’s no need to do this. When you’ll delete the prefetch folder, it will slow down your boot and application loading times.
In case you want to delete prefetch files, you can do is:
Step 1:
Press Windows + R to open the Run APP and type ‘prefetch’ in the text box or by typing the path in the Run window and clicking “OK” or hit Enter. If permission is asked, just click on the ‘Continue’ button.
Step 2:
The prefetch folder will open in File Explorer then select the files that you want to delete. You can quickly select all of the files by pressing Ctrl+A.
Step 3:
Next, press the Shift+Del key to permanently delete every file from your computer. Windows will begin deleting the selected prefetch files.
You can also use the Disk Cleanup utility to remove cache or temporary files. To do so:
Step 1:
Press Windows + R and type ‘cleanmgr.exe” then Press OK or Enter on your keyboard.
Step 2:
You can see Disk Cleanup Drive Selection and then select your drive and press OK.
Step 3:
Then, again select almost every option click on ‘Clean up system’ files and press OK.
Step 4:
Click on ‘Yes’ when you’re prompted.
Step 5:
Cleck all items, then click OK.
Step 6:
Click on Delete Files. Wait for the Disk Cleanup utility to clean the files.
That’s how we can use Disk Cleanup to clear the cache on your Windows 11 system.
Windows Store creates temporary files when you’re downloading apps. To clear the Windows Store cache:
Step 1:
Press Windows + R and type “wsreset.exe” and hit Enter on your keyboard or just press OK.
Step 2:
Wait for the process to be complete. When the process is done, the Microsoft Store dial box will appear when it’s finished.
That’s how you can clear the Windows Store cache.
There are cached files created by your browser when you’re surfing the Internet. To clear the cache:
Step 1:
Open the browser in which you planning to clear the cache.
Step 2:
Press the Ctrl, Shift, and Del/Delete keys on your keyboard at the same time.
Step 3:
See if you are on the Basic or on the Advanced tab, if you are on Basic then choose the Advanced tab.
Step 4:
Select All time or Everything in the Time range section, make sure every item is selected, and then click the Clear data button.
Your cached files will be removed very soon.
If you want to clean your Windows 11 PC’s DNS cache, open the command prompt as an admin.
To do this,
Step 1:
Click on the Windows Menu icon and type “Command Prompt”.
Step 2:
The “Command Prompt” app will appear in the search results and then Right-click in it and select “Run as administrator”.
Step 3:
Then, type ipconfig/flushDNS and hit Enter on your keyboard. After some time, you’ll receive a message letting you know you’ve successfully flushed the DNS Revolver Cache.
To clean the location cache, press Windows + I for the Windows Settings option. Then choose, ‘Privacy & security’ on the left and ‘Location’ on the right panel of the page.
Microsoft operates a location service that helps determine the marked geographic location of your Windows device.
So, you can turn it ON/OFF any time you want. I will make another video on this topic but let’s continue briefly.
The marked location of your device allows apps to give you directions, show shops and restaurants that are near you, and more.
Many apps and services request location information from your device, and the Windows location service gives you control over which apps are allowed to access your precise location. So you can also Turn this ON and OFF individually.
In this section, you can set your default location in the Default location section, and in the Location history section, you can clean your location history because when your device location is ON, then your location is stored and available for a limited time on this device.
So just click on the Clear button and here you go, every location has been cleaned.
Hopefully, the methods above help you clear your Windows 11 computer system cache. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to leave us a comment below, and don’t forget to like and subscribe for more videos and click on the bell icon for the notification.
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