Windows applications create several files on your hard drive for temporarily storing the data. These files are supposed to be removed when application terminates. Often, they will not been removed because of a program error, sloppy architecture, your system gets reset or does not shut down properly, or another application locks up or crash. It is important to know that any file which is left behind in this manner will remain on your system unless you manually search and remove it. Over time, these junk and obsolete files can accumulate to megabytes of wasted hard drive space, as well as turn into potential error-producing cross-linked drive references. XP Disk Cleaner  targets these specific types of files which are missed by common disk utilities like Uninstaller, Defrag and Scandisk etc.

    XP Disk Cleaner is a powerful tool for cleaning disks from information that clogs your system and reduces the performance of your computer. With the help of this tool you can search and delete temporary files and folders and other applications, search for invalid links to documents that don't exist, uninstall software, disable/enable unused fonts, delete Cookies, and search and remove duplicate files.

    You can also use this tool to work with your documents: to find and delete old back-up files and duplicates based on different criteria. The program has a friendly user-interface and is easy to use. The disk cleaning process can be launched automatically using the command-line, reducing your participation to save you time.

    Over time, computer system's hard drive space will seem to shrink, even though no new software has been installed. This is almost always a direct result of junk and obsolete file accumulation. We recommend that you clean your drives for these files at least once a month.

You need to run XP Disk Cleaner:

• Once a month.

• Whenever new software is installed and used for the first time.

• When software is uninstalled, to remove garbage it has left.

• Whenever you feel that your hard disk space is shrinking.

The default options of XP Disk Cleaner are best. It will search system hard disk for invalid files and will show you in the list. You can at any time stop the search process by pressing the stop button.

After the search is complete XP Disk Cleaner will show you a complete list of files it has found. Then select the files from the list which are to be removed and press the delete button to get rid of them.

You can customize each and every aspect of XP Disk Cleaner from the search process till the deletion process.

You can select and customize the XP Disk Cleaner search to specific drives or folders. XP Disk Cleaner provides you a list of drives on your system, and a check box in front of them.

When XP Disk Cleaner is run for the first time it by default selects all the drives on your system excluding Floppy Drive and read only Drives such as CD ROM drive.

To include a drive in search process just mark the Check box in front of the drive Name. To exclude the drive from the search process just uncheck the list box.

You can select and customize the XP Disk Cleaner search for files. By default XP Disk Cleaner  will search for following files:

• *.~* ~*.* *.??~ *.--- *._mp : Temporary Files

• *.chk : Scandisk lost clusters

• *.bak *.old *.syd : Backup files

• *.gid : Help file search index.

• mscreate.dir : Microsoft Setup temporary files

• *.nch *.pch *.ncb *.exp: Visual Studio Temporary files.

• *.wri : Readme files

You can at any time modify or customize this list. We want to mention note here that adding or editing the existing file types can lead to hazardous results if you are not experienced or comfortable with such matters (you should have at least working knowledge of DOS). Please note that a "*" sign means all the part of filename. A "?" denotes a single letter of file name. Please also note that file names in windows are not case sensitive. So let's consider an example.

*.chk on the above means search for all the files whose extension is chk. So it could be File0001.chk, File0002.chk all are valid candidates.

??.chk means to search all the files whose extension is chk but filename must be only two letters long. So FI.CHK is a valid but File0001.chk is invalid as file name is having more than two letters.

C*.Chk means to search for all the files on your hard disk that begins with "C" and have a CHK extension.

*.* : Means all the files on your hard disk irrespective of extension. Be careful.

You cannot mix * and ? in one search like "c*s??.*" . It will be ignored.

You can Add, Edit and Remove the files using the above search rules:

• Add : Add a new search criteria with extension you want to search.

• Edit : Select an exiting search criteria and press the Edit button to
  modify the search extension.

• Remove: You can remove a search criteria by selecting it and
  pressing the remove button. We recommend you to disable it
  by removing the check mark in front of the entry instead.

Besides all other options you can also customize other important aspects of Search process. Just press the option in the XP Disk Cleaner Window and select Others. You will see the options described below.

• Find Files that have not been accessed since last xx months

Using this option you can instruct XP Disk Cleaner to search for files that have not been access since last xx months. Thus sometimes you also want some very old files to be deleted from your computer without affecting the new files.

• Skip Read only files or System files or hidden files

Using this option you can instruct XP Disk Cleaner to skip the read only or System Files or hidden files. This setting will override all others and if a file is read only or has System Attributes set it will not be included in the search process.

• Find Zero Length (empty) Files

Zero Length files are the files which contain no data in them but they still use precious resource on your hard drive. These files could be safely removed.

• Find Shortcuts that do not point to valid targets

Using this option you can instruct XP Disk Cleaner to search for shortcuts which do not point to a valid target. This problem mostly occurs when we uninstall a program and it does not remove its shortcuts/icons from your system. Thus an applications program file could be deleted but its shortcut is still in your start menu. This is a safe option and should always be used to remove invalid shortcuts.

Sometimes you may wish to exclude some of the folders from a search. They may contain some important documents or due to any other reason you may wish that the folder should not be touched during the search.

Just press the option in the XP Disk Cleaner Window and select folders. Here you will see a list with name "Folder to skip from search" Press the add button and a window will appear showing you all the drives and folders on your system. Browse to your folder. Select that folder with your mouse and then click the button labeled "Ok". Your folder will be added to the list of safe folders. System Cleaner and Optimizer will not search this folder and all the folders within it.

At any time if you feel that you want to include folder blocked earlier in the scan process just select the folder and press the remove button to remove folder name from the safe list. Now all the future searches will include this folder in the search process.

Under this step the XP Disk Cleaner will be scanning your system for junk files. It will display all the selected drives which has been scanned.

The status of the scanning process will be shown at the bottom in a static bar. Wait till the value in the list viewer all show 'Completed'.

System Cleaner will display a summary report of total junk files found on your system. Click on the "View Details" link to view a list of junk files. You can open a file, explore its path and can see its properties. You need to select the files you want to delete.

 System Cleaner and Optimizer removes invalid files using any one of these three modes specified in the options.

• Permanent Direct Delete of Files

This is a permanent method of removing files. Files removed in this manner should be inspected carefully because it will be extremely difficult to recover them once been deleted use them once. Use this method only if you are absolutely sure that the selected files are no longer needed.

• Move Files to Recycle Bin

This is the safest and recommended method of removing files. When removal is performed in this way files are moved to Recycle Bin. At this stage Files can be restored at there original location and there last access date and time can also be viewed. Thus you can always recover the files from the Recycle Bin. But remember, files still occupy a space on your hard disk and space can only be utilized when you empty Recycle Bin.

• Create Restore Point

If you enable this Create restore point option, all the files selected for deletion are backed up and can be restored from Rescue Manager.

You are advised to be extremely careful about the methods used to remove the files. Always have a current backup of your system before performing any of these procedures.

When the search process is complete System Cleaner will show you a summary of files found. To view details just select an item in the list click on the list to view details (as shown below).

Each file will include the following details:

• Name and Path of file: Where the file is stored on your system.

• Reasons for selecting the file. What are the reasons that the file is here in the list of invalid files. It could be one of the following

1. Bad file type: The file belongs to invalid category. You can modify these from the options -> Files and customize them.

2. Invalid Shortcut: A shortcut that does not points to a valid target.

3. Old File: File is on your system for quite a long time, may be years. You can modify the time limit or disable it from the options.

4. Empty File: A zero length file is file whose size is zero. It is a file whose size is zero. You can enable or disable this from the options. Normally it is safe to delete the Zero Length Files.

• Size of file.

• Creation Date: The date and time on which file was created.

• Last Access Date: The date and time on which the file was last accessed or last used.

Removal

You can remove these file by selecting them. After you have made the selection you can remove these files from your system by pressing the "Next" button. System Cleaner will remove these files from your System in either of the three modes you specify in the options.