● Covered by 1 source · 1 reportLow impact1 neutral
Microsoft's PC Manager outperforms built-in tools for Windows junk file cleaning
Key points
- Disk Cleanup and Storage Sense found 1.66GB of junk.
- PC Manager identified 26GB, including 15.5GB unticked.
- Manual measurement showed 20GB of actual junk.
- PC Manager located 90% of junk, older tools 8%.
Windows Cleaning Tools Compared
A test was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of Microsoft's internal tools for cleaning junk files from a Windows PC. The tools examined were Disk Cleanup, Storage Sense, and the separately installed Microsoft PC Manager. The test used a 1TB C: drive with 4% free space, scanning for removable files without actually deleting them.
Findings of the Scans
Disk Cleanup, a tool present since Windows 98, offered to free 1.66GB of space. Storage Sense, designed for background operation, identified the same 1.66GB. Microsoft PC Manager, a free download, listed 26GB of potential cleanup, though 15.5GB of this was unticked by default, indicating it wasn't considered junk by the tool itself.
A manual assessment of the drive revealed approximately 20GB of actual junk files. Disk Cleanup and Storage Sense collectively identified about 8% of this total. In contrast, PC Manager's scan covered roughly 90% of the actual junk, including a 9.25GB NVIDIA shader cache, 5GB of Chrome cache, and 2.2GB of app crash dumps, all of which were missed by the other two tools. PC Manager also found caches from developer tools like Python and Node.js.
Implications for Users
The test suggests that Disk Cleanup is largely redundant, as its functionality is mirrored by Storage Sense. However, Storage Sense also proved ineffective at identifying a significant portion of junk files. Microsoft PC Manager demonstrated superior capability in locating and categorizing various types of junk files, making it a more effective option for users seeking to free up disk space.
✨ This summary was generated by AI from the outlets' reporting listed below. It is not independently verified and may contain errors — check the original sources. How BrevFeed works →
The daily brief
One email each morning: the day's tech stories, clustered across outlets and summarized. No account needed.
One email a day. Unsubscribe in one click, any time.
Today's brief
Spend a few minutes, get the whole day. Every topic's top stories in one hands-free rundown — listen, watch, or read the transcript.
▶ Play today's brief
New every morning, and the back catalogue is archived by date.
Reporting from
A comparison of Microsoft's Disk Cleanup, Storage Sense, and PC Manager tools found that PC Manager identified significantly more junk files on a test drive. Disk Cleanup and Storage Sense located only 8% of actual junk, while PC Manager found approximately 90%, including large caches and crash dumps missed by the older tools.