Regularly deleting junk files from your PC frees up valuable storage space and makes your system run more smoothly. You probably have a favourite clean-up tool for the task – such as BleachBit, Wise Disk Cleaner or even the once-great CCleaner – which purges junk at the click of a button. However, it’s also useful to know how to delete unwanted files and folders manually, so you don’t have to rely on third-party software.
The obvious problem with the DIY approach to PC maintenance is that you risk removing important items, which may ultimately slow or damage your system rather than speed it up. In this feature, we reveal all the junk files and folders it’s completely safe to delete from your PC. We tell you where to find these items on your hard drive, explain where they come from and outline the most reliable ways to remove them – without needing to download software or tweak the Windows registry. We also highlight the essential files and folders you should never delete.
We’ve used ‘C:’ to indicate the primary hard drive in your PC, but your drive letter may differ. All our removal methods were tested on both a Windows 10 PC and a Windows 11 laptop to ensure they apply to both operating systems.
As a precautionary measure, you should create a system restore point before making significant changes to your PC, and – when possible – send junk items to the Recycle Bin before deleting them permanently.
THE WINDOWS FOLDER (C:\WINDOWS)
The Windows folder is where all the important files for the operating system are stored, but it also contains a lot of unnecessary clutter. Here’s what you can safely remove from the folder.
Temp
The Temp folder is where Windows stores temporary files it creates during the course of its everyday operation. These files are only needed during their initial use, and merely waste space on your hard drive afterwards, so it’s both safe and advisable to delete them.
The Storage Sense feature in Windows is supposed to wipe these files automatically, but in our experience it does a poor job – the Temp folder on our Windows 10 PC contained 118 items from the last six months, totalling 56MB. The folder is different to the Temp folder where programs store their temporary files, which we’ll look at on page 56.
You can clear the Windows Temp folder manually by opening it in File Explorer, or another file manager such as Files (), and pressing Ctrl+A to select everything in it. Whichever you use, either click Delete on the toolbar (see screenshot above right), or press the Delete key or Ctrl+D on your keyboard, to delete the selected files. If Windows shows a warning that you need to provide administrator permission, click Continue or Skip – select ‘Do this for all current items’ to speed things up. Don’t worry about deleting anything important because Windows will create the file again if needed.
