Windows 7 / Getting Started

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If in Doubt, Throw It Out

Parkinson's law states that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. Along the same lines, it's safe to say that files will quickly expand to fill the amount of available space on your hard drive.

Low disk space doesn't just make it harder to store files; without ample room for virtual memory (discussed later) and temporary files, Windows will slow to a crawl. Less free disk space also increases file fragmentation as Windows scrambles to find places to put data; this in turn lowers performance. Keeping a healthy amount of free disk space is vital to a well-performing system.

Additionally, removing drivers and applications that are no longer used clears more memory and processor cycles for your other applications, which can substantially improve overall system performance.

If your PC is low on disk space, try NTFS compression. Rightclick any folder, select Properties, click Advanced, and turn on the Compress contents to save disk space option. On slower PCs, compression may slightly degrade performance, but on a fast PC with a slow hard disk-your typical laptop- you might actually see performance gains due to the reduced I/O. However, compression has been known to increase fragmentation, so you'd be wise to use it only for data that you don't access or modify often. If you use NTFS compression, you can view the properties of any folder to see how much space it's using, but NTFSRatio (free, http://www.jam-software.com/) can show you how much space you're saving overall.

Note that compression is only available on NTFS-formatted drives. It's also mutually exclusive of the Encrypt contents to secure data option.

Even before you install your first application, your hard disk is littered with files from the Windows installation that you most likely don't need. The standard installation of Windows 7 Ultimate Edition places more than 39,000 files, consuming more than two gigabytes of disk space, on your PC.

Whether you need a particular file can be subjective; some might consider the 24 MB of .wav files that 7 puts in your C:\Windows\Media folder to be excessive, while others may scoff at the notion of worrying about such a piddly quantity. (To put things in perspective, this is about the same size as three photos from a 10-megapixel digital camera. It's also more than twice the total capacity of my first hard disk back in 1983.)

Naturally, it makes sense to be cautious when removing any files from your system. The removal of certain files can cause some applications, or even Windows itself, to stop functioning. It's always good practice to move any questionable files to a metaphorical purgatory folder before committing to their disposal. And I don't have to tell you that backing up your entire hard disk before you clean house is very important and not all that difficult.

The easiest way to delete the stuff Windows considers expendable is to run the super-simple Disk Cleanup tool (cleanmgr.exe), and place checkmarks next to all the categories of expendable data. For instance, if you upgraded from Vista, there's likely more than 2 GB of leftover files sitting on your hard disk under the label, Files discarded by Windows upgrade. See the "Disable the Disk Cleanup Nag" if you want Windows to stop bothering you when your disk space gets low.

Windows' System Restore feature can consume up to 15% of the total capacity of your hard disk for restore points and shadow copies.

An alternative-or perhaps a supplement-to the Disk Cleanup tool is CCleaner, freely available from http://www.ccleaner.com/. CCleaner not only deletes unneeded files, but can also clear your browser cache (IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Safari), get rid of superfluous registry entries, and wipe out history MRU lists from many popular programs.

Another useful tool is DriveSpacio (free, http://www.drivespacio.f-sw.com/), which can help you track down the files using the most disk space.

Disable the Disk Cleanup Nag

When your PC starts running out of disk space, Windows will prompt you to run the Disk Cleanup Wizard, which presents a list of some of the files you can delete to recover free disk space.

To disable this annoying warning, open the Registry Editor and expand the branches to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software \Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. If it's not already there, create a new DWORD value (go to Edit → New → DWORD value) called NoLowDiskSpaceChecks. Double-click the new value and type 1 for its data. Close the Registry Editor when you're done; the change will take effect immediately.

Note that this change only disables the warning; the Disk Cleanup tool will work just fine without it.

Unneeded programs

Next, fire up the Programs and Features tool in Control Panel and say bye-bye to the programs you don't need.

While you're there, click the Turn Windows features on or off link on the left side, and uncheck any features you don't want. For instance, the Indexing Service entry is obsolete (it's not the same one used by Windows 7's Search tool) and Internet Information Services (IIS) is only for web servers. Click OK when you're done.

If in doubt

Before you delete any questionable file, there are several things you can do to get a better idea of what the file contains:

Investigate
Right-click the file, and select Properties. If the file has a Version tab, it's likely an application, driver, DLL, or other support file. Choose the Version tab to view the manufacturer, copyright date, and possibly the application it accompanies.

Check the date
Check the file's Last Accessed date (right-click it and select Properties). The more recent the date, the more likely it's still being used. For information on removing a particular application, contact the manufacturer of that application or refer to the application's documentation.

Hide it first
If you're not sure if something should be deleted but want to try anyway, move it to another directory first to see whether everything works without it for a week or so. If all is clear, toss it.

Why not open it?
Probably the last thing you should do with a suspicious file is to doubleclick it. Instead, drag it into an open Notepad window to see what's inside without activating any potentially harmful code that might be lurking within.