With the Windows 10 October 2018 Update approaching, many new and exciting features were being revealed. However, with this update came the end of the Disk Cleanup utility. Since Windows 98, Disk Cleanup has been an invaluable tool for cleaning up temporary files that do nothing more than clog up drives.
A recent example of Disk Cleanup's usefulness: it could recognize and remove as much as 10 GB of data left over from the 2018 April Update. While more modern cleanup solutions had become popular — notably CCleaner, which detects additional files and allows registry cleanup — Disk Cleanup was something you could rely on to get the job done without a third-party program.
Officially Deprecated
Microsoft officially marked Disk Cleanup as deprecated in the October 2018 Update, meaning it would be replaced by a newer tool rather than maintained going forward. The replacement is Storage Sense, found in Settings → System → Storage.
Storage Sense vs. Disk Cleanup
Storage Sense offers some advantages over the old Disk Cleanup tool:
- Can be configured to run automatically on a schedule
- Integrates with OneDrive to manage cloud file availability
- Includes temporary files, Downloads folder, and Recycle Bin management
- Modern, touch-friendly interface consistent with Windows 10 design
However, some IT professionals noted that Disk Cleanup's "Clean up system files" option — which could free significant space from Windows Update leftovers — was not fully replicated in Storage Sense initially, causing some concern about its completeness as a replacement.
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