Technology Tips – Published June 2019 in the Guide and Digest
By Don Trauger – Kennett
Cleanmgr + is a new app developed by Mirinsoft (mirinsoft.com) which builds on the venerable Microsoft Disk Cleanup app that was introduced with Windows 98 in 1998. Disk Cleanup and Cleanmgr + are both safe file deletion programs (apps) designed to rid your computer of unneeded files of all types. Microsoft has indicated that they may remove Disk Cleanup in future versions of Windows 10 in favor of Storage Sense. Storage Sense is presently available under Settings > System > Storage. Presently Storage Sense doesn’t do much but Microsoft has said it will be improved to do the things Disk Cleanup does now. We’ll see if that works out.
Meanwhile, Cleanmgr + performs everything that Disk Cleanup does plus it removes many more items. I have found, after cleaning with Cleanmgr + then running CCleaner, that CCleaner had virtually no work to do. CCleaner is another good disk cleanup program and it can still be used to cleanup the Registry.
For now I’m recommending Cleanmgr + for those of you that are familiar with downloading apps from the Internet, creating new folders and customizing programs. Additionally, you need to run Cleanmgr + in administrative mode to allow it to function properly.
To download Cleanmgr + go to: https://www.mirinsoft.com/cleanmgrplus/summary/11-cleanmgr/50-cleanmgr. Create a new folder preferably on the Desktop screen. Right click your Desktop screen, move to New and click Folder. Right click then click Rename to name it something else besides New folder. Open File Explorer and navigate to your Downloads folder and right click Cleanmgr +.zip and then left click Extract All. In the window, click Browse and then navigate to the Desktop and highlight your newly created folder and click Select Folder. Finally click Extract and the files should appear in your folder. Now you are ready to run Cleanmgr +
To run, right click Cleanmgr +.exe and left click Run as administrator. If you see a warning that says “Windows protected this PC” just click More info and click Run anyway. This will open the app. It is safe to ignore the warning.
With the app open you have over 40 choices available for deletion and they are all safe to choose. However, under the Disk Cleanup tab, I highly recommend the following to be unchecked: Windows Components Store, Thumbnails, Recent Documents (If you use that feature in MS Word or LibreOffice), Windows Upgrade Log Files, System Hibernation File and Compress System Installation. Under the + More tab the following should be unchecked: Windows Downloads, Windows Font, Icon and Installer Caches. The app remembers your choices after closing and reopening the app.
Click Preview and it will analyze, without deleting anything, how much can be safely deleted or cleaned up. When you click Cleanup it will then perform the cleanup of your system based on what you have checked or selected.
This app performs what Disk Cleanup and CCleaner do, so you only need to run Cleanmgr + to perform an unneeded file cleanup. Run CCleaner Registry after you run Cleanmgr +.
We will discuss this app at our PC Club meeting on June 18 at 7 PM.