While the Disk Cleanup tool is not dead or removed from Windows 11/10, as announced by Microsoft previously, the company is moving its features to Storage Sense. The latest change for this can be spotted in Windows 11 dev build where Microsoft has replaced the Disk Cleanup option in drive Properties dialog with Storage usage to improve Storage Sense usage even more among users.
Windows Disk Cleanup
Classic Disk Cleanup is the Windows built-in tool that removes temporary files.
More often, this was frequently used to delete Windows Update files that consume gigabytes amount of storage.
Its also one of the tools relied on by people to reclaim disk space occupied by removing previous Windows installations
All it takes is one to type and enter “cleanmgr” command in the Run dialog to open it.
Storage Sense in Windows 11
Microsoft introduced Storage Sense in Windows 10 with Fall Creators Update verison. In other words, Microsoft took that as another opportunity to unify Control Panel and settings App.
How to turn on Storage Sense in Windows 11:
- The modern Disk Cleanup tool is not enabled by default in Microsoft’s new Operating System.
- You can configure it clean unnecessary files automatically.
- You can turn Storage sense on by Visiting Settings > System > Storage > Stoage management >Storage Sense
Storage sense
- optimizes your storage and seeks your permissions when it needs to make changes to Storage.
- provides where disk space went into in a neat UI. For instance, it displays which apps & features consumed valuable disk space and how many temporary files are occupied.
- runs automatically and frees up temporary system and app files if you’re running out of disk space
- even comes up with recommendations on which items to clean.
Microsoft replaces Disk Cleanup with Storage usage in Windows 11 Update
Windows 11 will be released on October 5 to eligible devices via Windows Update.
Legacy Disk Cleanup is present in Windows 11. In the latest dev version 22449.1000, Microsoft made one change towards its depreciation.
Till now, the Drive Properties dialog used to offer the Disk Cleanup option, which now, has been taken over by Storage usage.
Clicking the button takes to the “Storage used on other drives” section in the Storage sense.
To see this yourself, open Windows Explorer and right-click on any Disk Drive, and select “Properties”.
While the Storage sense provides the most comprehensive information about disk space and usage, the legacy Disk Cleanup needs to require one-time running from Run dialog to clean stuff that’s unnecessary to the users.
Both work and do the job at the end of the day, but, Windows 11 gives the chance to try Storage Sense once if you’ve not given it a go till now.
Tip: You can use CCleaner or CleanMgr+ as an alternative to these native tools.
Do you use Disk Cleanup or Storage Sense? Which do you like the most? Let us know in the comments below.
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