Cleaning out the junk files on your PC is something you should do on a regular basis. Microsoft has included a file cleaning utility in Windows, and it’s called Disk Cleanup. Running Disk Cleanup will often make your system a little snappier and you can also free up a large amount of used disk space.
You can find the Disk Cleanup utility in the following locations:
WinXP: Start > Program Files > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup
Vista/Win7: Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup
If you occasionally clean out your unwanted system files using Windows “Disk Cleanup”, you may have seen that the Disk Cleanup utility takes a long time scanning for “Compressed Folders”. I have seen this many times and it makes me impatient every time.
A few weeks ago, a friend of mine at work (Bill M), told me that there’s a registry hack to make Cleanup skip the long wait. He was right, I found it using a simple Google search.
Here’s the registry hack (works in XP, so far – have not seen this work in Vista and Win7):
WinXP: Open up the registry editor by clicking the Start Button, then choose Run, type in “regedit” and press the OK button.
Vista/Win7: Hit the Start button and type regeditin the quick search.