hard drive clean-up

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Bipsy - 27 Jul 2007 20:20 GMT

I want to delete/erase/remove/clean-up any- and everything off my hard drive
that I don't use.
How do I determine that I don't use a thing?
Why can't I delete/remove/erase things like "MSN Gaming Zone" and "Movie
Maker", etc.? When I try to delete these items, I'm told that "...it can't be
deleted because it's being used by another program, etc." This when
everything appears to be closed. Also neither one of these shows up as a
program (in "add/remove programs" in Control panel) so that I can remove
them.

I run CCleaner and Disc Cleanup often. Can't defrag because I don't have
enough space left on the hard drive, which is one reason why I'm trying to
free up space.

Help would be appreciated.
##

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Bipsy

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Leonard Grey - 27 Jul 2007 20:38 GMT

MSN Gaming Zone and Windows Movie Maker are part of the Windows
operating system, so they can't be removed.

To remove programs you no longer want, go to Control Panel > Add or
Remove Programs.

---
Leonard Grey
Errare humanum est

> I want to delete/erase/remove/clean-up any- and everything off my hard drive
> that I don't use.
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
> Help would be appreciated.
> ##

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Ken Blake, MVP - 27 Jul 2007 21:21 GMT

> I want to delete/erase/remove/clean-up any- and everything off my hard drive
> that I don't use.

Although I understand that you want to do that, in my view, that's an
*extremely* dangerous attitude to take.

> How do I determine that I don't use a thing?

In many cases, with great difficulty. What makes it even more
difficult is that your computer skills are clearly not great, or else
you wouldn't be asking the question.

There are certainly some things that are safe to delete. If you don't
use a program, for example, you can remove it from Add/Remove
Programs. It's safe to delete all .tmp files. Most cookies are safe to
delete.

But other things are not so clear, and if your intent is to be really
thorough in doing this, you will almost certainly land yourself in big
trouble.

> Why can't I delete/remove/erase things like "MSN Gaming Zone" and "Movie
> Maker", etc.? When I try to delete these items, I'm told that "...it can't be
> deleted because it's being used by another program, etc." This when
> everything appears to be closed. Also neither one of these shows up as a
> program (in "add/remove programs" in Control panel) so that I can remove
> them.

Things that are part of Windows can't be deleted, whether you use them
or not.

> I run CCleaner and Disc Cleanup often.

Disk Cleanup is fine. CCleaner is fine for some of its functions, but
I caution you *not* to use its Registry Cleaning capabilities; that's
a very good way to get yourself into trouble.

> Can't defrag because I don't have
> enough space left on the hard drive, which is one reason why I'm trying to
> free up space.

If you have that little free space, the real issue is that your drive
is too small. You can save some space by deleting files you don't
need, by dedicating less space to System Restore, and by reducing the
size of the page file. But anything you do will be at best a stopgap
measure. You almost certainly need to bite the bullet and buy a larger
drive. Fortunately hard drives are very inexpensive right now.

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Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User
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Daave - 28 Jul 2007 02:11 GMT

> If you have that little free space, the real issue is that your drive
> is too small. You can save some space by deleting files you don't
> need, by dedicating less space to System Restore, and by reducing the
> size of the page file. But anything you do will be at best a stopgap
> measure. You almost certainly need to bite the bullet and buy a larger
> drive. Fortunately hard drives are very inexpensive right now.

OP might also want to disable hibernation (if it's enabled. that is):

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10877_11-5630184.html
"Delete Hiberfil.sys in Windows XP before defragmenting"

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Ken Blake, MVP - 28 Jul 2007 20:24 GMT

> > If you have that little free space, the real issue is that your drive
> > is too small. You can save some space by deleting files you don't
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>
> OP might also want to disable hibernation (if it's enabled. that is):

Yes, another way to save a little space. But I stress again that these
are all stopgap measures.

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Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User
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Gerry - 29 Jul 2007 11:42 GMT

Biipsy

How large is your hard drive and how much free disk space?

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Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

> I want to delete/erase/remove/clean-up any- and everything off my
> hard drive that I don't use.
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
> Help would be appreciated.
> ##

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