Most users know to clean their desktop PC's hardware, but maintaining the software side often gets overlooked. Microsoft offers three tools for this purpose: Disk Cleanup, Storage Sense, and Microsoft PC Manager. A recent test compared these tools on a 1TB drive with only 4 percent free space.
Disk Cleanup and Storage Sense found the same 1.66GB of junk, while PC Manager identified 26GB, though some of that included non-junk items. Manual checks revealed about 20GB of actual junk, with PC Manager detecting 90 percent of it, including large caches from NVIDIA, Chrome, and app crash dumps that the other tools missed.
Disk Cleanup is now redundant, as Storage Sense performs the same functions and more. However, Storage Sense defaults to running only when disk space is low, which may not be frequent enough. Users can adjust its settings to run daily, weekly, or monthly.
Microsoft PC Manager proved the most thorough, offering a deep scan and the ability to manage large files. It also allows users to decide which items to remove, making it a more flexible tool. For uninstalling apps, Revo Uninstaller Free is recommended over CCleaner, which has faced trust issues in the past.
To maintain a clean PC, users should set Storage Sense to run regularly and perform a PC Manager deep cleanup monthly. While these tools help, significant space savings still require removing large files like video games and media libraries.