What Are Junk Files And How to Remove Them

What are junk files?

What are junk files? Junk files refer to unnecessary files left on your computer. Generally, there are some common junk files on your PC:

✿ Junk files in the recycle bin. Many users misunderstand that they can delete unwanted files simply by moving them to the recycle bin. In fact, junk files in the recycle bin are still stored on the computer.
✿ Temporary files. Temporary files are automatically generated when the system or installed programs are running, and remain in the computer after use.
✿ Cache files. A cache file is a file generated when you browse a webpage, so that you can access it at the fastest speed when you browse the same webpage again.
✿ Program residual files. When you uninstall programs from your computer, they will leave some residual files.
✿ Thumbnail. In order to open the picture again quickly, the computer will generate a thumbnail.
✿ Program installation files. When you download and install some applications, the files such as program installation packages will stay on your PC.

Why clean up junk files in your computer?

Although each junk file does not occupy much computer space, if you don’t clean up them on time, they will accumulate in the PC and affect the speed of the system. What's more, when excessive junk files are left in the computer, you may encounter the dilemma of the C drive is full or even the computer freezes.

Thus, it's of vital importance to clean up junk files from your PC on time. Next, we’ll share some methods to clear junk files.

4 Ways to clean up junk files

If you just know what are junk files on your computer, but don't know how to clean them effectively, you can refer to the following method to solve the problem.

● Method 1. Use CMD to delete junk files

As one of the most commonly used tools in the Windows system, CMD can not only create partitions, delete partitions, format partitions, but also delete temporary junk files in the computer.

Step 1. Press "Windows" key, then input “cmd” and click "Run as administrator".

Step 2. In the new window, type "%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe %temp%\" and press "Enter" to find out the temp files on the PC.

Step 3. Then, input "del %temp%\*.*/s/q" and press "Enter" to delete all the temporary files from the PC.

● Method 2. Clean up junk files with Disk Cleanup

Another built-in tool that helps clean up junk files is Disk Cleanup, which removes thumbnails, recycle bin files, temporary files, etc. Please follow the steps below.

Steps 1. Press "Windows" and input "disk cleanup", then click "Open".

Step 2. In the popped window, select C drive and click "OK".

Step 3. Select the junk files you want to remove in the target drive and click "OK".

● Method 3. Remove temporary files with Run program

Surprisingly, you can directly delete some temporary junk files on your computer through the Run program. Details are as follows.

Step 1. Press "Windows+ R" to open the Run program and type "temp", then press "Enter".

Step 2. Then you can directly find out temp files in your PC. Press "Ctrl + A" to select the target files and press "Delete".

Step 3. Open the Run program again, then input "%temp%" and press "Enter".

Step 4. You will find the Local Temp files. Press "Ctrl + A" to select all the files and press "Delete".

Step 5. Open the Run program once again, then type "prefetch" and click "OK".

Step 6. This time, you can press "Ctrl + A" and "Delete" to delete all Prefetch files.

● Method 4. Run Storage Sense

In Windows 10, you can also try to use Storage Sense to delete junk files from your computer. In addition, you can also set the time to use it to clean your computer regularly, please read the following carefully.

Step 1. Open "Windows Settings" and then click "System".

Step 2. Select "Storage" and turn on the "Storage Sense" button, then click "Configure Storage Sense or run it now" to set the time to run the Storage Sense.

Step 3. In the "Configure Storage Sense or run it now" window, please set the proper time to run Storage Sense.

How to Completely delete junk files with PC Cleaner

As we all know, knowing what are junk files is not effective in removing them from computer. Although the mentioned methods can clean up junk files to a certain extent, they are not the most comprehensive and thorough. Here, we recommend the almighty PC Cleaner - AOMEI Partition Assistant for Cleanup.

Its "PC Cleaner" function can thoroughly scan your computer, and after a few simple clicks, you will completely clean up all junk files including system and registry junk files.

In addition, when your computer or C drive is full, it also thoughtfully prepares functions such as resize partition, extend partition, clone data disk, etc.

AOMEI Partition Assistant for Cleanup

The Best Windows Disk Partition Manager and PC Optimizer

Free Download
Windows PCs and Servers

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant for Cleanup. Click the "Clean Junk Files" tab.

Step 2. Click the "Scan Now" button to start the process of scanning junk files.

Step 3. After the scan process is finished. All system junk files (including recycle bin files, temporary files, log files, invalid shortcuts, and so on) and registry junk files (including DLL registry, system registry, and program registry) will be displayed.

Step 4. You can also click the button behind to view the junk files details.

Step 5. And, you can click the button behind to locate the file.

Step 6. By default, the program will select some junk files to clean up, for example, temporary files, log files, and so on. You can also manually check to select more or uncheck to deselect fewer listed junk files. Or, click "Select All" to select all junk files to clean up if you need to clean up all.

After selecting junk files that are not needed anymore, you can click the "Clean Now"button to start the cleanup.

Step 7. The process of the cleanup might take time, and the selected files will be cleaned up. After the process is finished, you will get a cleanup completed window displaying how many files you have cleaned and not yet cleaned.

Bonus Reading: Delete unnecessary large files

Besides the junk files on your PC, there're some unwanted large files occupying the space of it. To further clean up your computer, you can go to the “Delete Large Files” to find out and delete unnecessary large files.

AOMEI Partition Assistant for Cleanup

The Best Windows Disk Partition Manager and PC Optimizer

Free Download
Windows PCs and Servers

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant for Cleanup. Click the "Delete Large Files" tab.

Step 2. You can either click "Scan System Drive" to start the scan of your system C: drive. Or, click "Custom Scan" to manually select paths to be scanned. (Here, we take the "Custom Scan" as an example.)

Step 3. After clicking "Custom Scan", all local and external drives on your PC and the common Desktop, Documents, and Downloads paths will be displayed. You can manually select paths to be scanned. Once necessary paths are added, you can click the "Scan Now" button to start the scan process.

Step 4. The scan process might take time. After the scan is complete, all large files found will be listed.

Step 5. You can also check the large files and click the button behind to locate them.

Step 6. Tick the files you want to delete, and then click the "Clean Now" button to start the deletion.

Step 7. The deletion might take time. After the process is finished, the selected files will be deleted, and you will get a cleaning completed window displaying how much data you deleted in total. 

Step 5. Just for a while, the large files will be deleted successfully, and then you will see a warm notification suggesting you clean up your PC regularly.

Verdict

What are junk files and how to remove them? In this post, we made the detailed definition on what is a junk file and provided several methods to clean up the junk files. If you want to clean up your PC at once, you can try the free AOMEI Partition Assistant.