Spring Cleaning Your Windows 11 PC: A Comprehensive Guide

Just as dust accumulates in your home during the winter, your PC collects superfluous files and folders over time. To make room for new programs and cherishable photos, a thorough computer cleaning is necessary. Fortunately, Windows 11 offers a range of built-in functions and tools to assist in this task. Additionally, numerous third-party programs can analyze your system and identify unnecessary files.

Many users install software for a single task and subsequently neglect it. With Windows 11, you can uninstall installed programs and apps directly from the Start menu. As part of your digital spring clean, focus on identifying and uninstalling these neglected programs.

To initiate the process, open the Windows 11 Start menu, click on "All," and meticulously examine the list of installed applications. Upon identifying a program that is no longer needed, right-click on it and select "Uninstall." Windows will then utilize the relevant uninstall routine to remove the program.

However, this built-in uninstall process often falls short, leaving behind residual folders and files on the hard drive. Specialized uninstall tools, such as the full version of Ascomp Cleaning Suite, Revo Uninstaller, or Iobit Uninstaller, offer a more thorough approach. These tools meticulously track down files, folders, and registry entries left behind by standard uninstall programs and delete them.

Revo Uninstaller also provides the capability to remove Windows apps that you no longer need. Its "hunting mode" allows you to drag a crosshair over the icon of the program to be removed, whether it resides on the desktop or in the taskbar. After right-clicking, you can then remove the software without an uninstall routine or remove it from Windows Autostart.

Windows installs a wide array of system apps and games during installation, many of which you may never use or be unable to use. These include, for example, weather and camera apps, Skype preview, or the two Xbox programs. These apps cannot be removed via the list of apps in the Start menu. Instead, you need to use PowerShell.

Type "PowerShell" in the search field of the taskbar and click on "Run as administrator." The commands for uninstalling specific apps can be found online. If you wish to reinstall an app later, you can do so via the Microsoft Store.

Alternatively, removing apps using the freeware version of CCleaner is easier than manually entering PowerShell commands. Under "Tools" > "Uninstall," the tool displays a list of existing applications, which also includes apps from the Microsoft Store.

In addition to its own apps, Windows also contains a number of features that are active by default but are not required by many users. You can access the associated switches by typing "Control Panel" into the search field in the taskbar and clicking on the relevant term. In the icon view, click on "Programs and Features" and in the following window on "Turn Windows features on or off."

As a home user, you can usually uncheck the boxes in front of “API support for remote differential compression,” “Windows Media Player Legacy (App)” under “Media features,” “Print and document services,” and “Host-enabled web kernel for Internet information services.”

Windows does not rely solely on external cleaning tools. The operating system comes equipped with an internal cleaning service that can operate automatically in the background, but can also be fine-tuned manually.

Windows 11 offers automatic maintenance of hard drive memory. You can find it in the Settings of the operating system under "System" > "Storage." Ensure that the switch for "Storage Sense" is set to "On."

To check which areas are covered by Storage Sense, click on it once. In the next window, there should be a tick next to "Clean up temporary files." The switch for "Automatic User content cleanup" should also be set to "On." You can retain the default setting for the options below.

Storage Sense allows you to automatically clean specific folders of obsolete files. Consider setting the option "Delete files in my ‘Downloads’ folder that have not been opened for over" to "30 days." This ensures that the files in your Downloads folder under C:\Users[your_name]\Downloads are cleaned up regularly. Once you have changed this setting, you can scroll down and click on "Run Storage Sense now" to perform an initial cleaning run. It will start immediately.

Other cleaning options are also available in Windows. The classic one is Disk Cleanup – a tool that has been available in the operating system for a long time. You can call it up by typing "cleanmgr" in the search field of the taskbar and clicking on the suggestion. Now select a drive and click on "OK." You can now also find most of the functions of this tool in the Settings of Windows 11 — for example under System > Storage > Cleanup recommendations.

In the following window, you can empty the recycle bin or clear the Downloads folder in your Windows profile. Click on "Show advanced options" to open a window with offers for deleting temporary files. You can normally accept the default settings at this point. To delete, click on "Remove files" in the upper part of the window. Then go back to the previous window by first clicking on the three dots next to "Temporary files" and then on "Cleanup recommendations."

Scroll down and click on the down arrows next to "Large or unused files," "Files synchronized with the cloud," and "Unused apps." Take a look at the list of files and apps and tick everything you no longer need. Then click on the "Clean up X MB" button in each case.

High-resolution digital photos often occupy significant space on your hard drive. Therefore, periodically reviewing your photo collection and identifying duplicate images for deletion is worthwhile. As such collections can often contain thousands of images, using software for this task is recommended.

Two categories of programs exist for searching for duplicate photos. Some compare photos based on file names alone. Others can identify identical or even similar motifs.

The latter group includes Duplicate Photos Fixer Pro, which is available in both a free and a paid version. However, the differences are subtle. The free version can only delete up to 15 images at a time, requiring manual removal for the rest. Also, no support is available in the free version. Both versions work quickly and with high accuracy.

Over time, Windows 11 accumulates various forms of clutter, including orphaned folders and files, cache content, photos, and videos that are no longer needed, and much more.

The most effective way to eliminate this junk data is to reinstall Windows. You don’t require a boot stick or other boot media for this; you can utilize a built-in Windows function. When resetting, you have the option of keeping your existing files and programs or completely reinstalling Windows.

Important: Before commencing, always back up the data you wish to retain. For example, copy email archives, locally stored photos, documents, database files, and other important files to a second drive or the cloud to prevent data loss.

To begin, open the Settings of Windows 11 and navigate to "System" > "Recovery" > "Reset PC."

In the first window of the wizard, click on "Remove everything" and then on "Local reinstallation." The "Cloud download" option can take several hours, depending on your internet connection speed.

After clicking on "Next" and "Reset," Windows will restore your PC to its original state.