Windows 11 Has a Cleanup Recommendations Screen—Check It Before Deleting Files by Hand

When a Windows PC is getting full, do not start randomly deleting unfamiliar folders.

Windows 11 has a built-in Cleanup recommendations screen designed to show potential places to recover storage.

Open Settings > System > Storage > Cleanup recommendations. Windows can organize suggestions into categories including temporary files, large or unused files, cloud-synced files, and unused applications. You decide what actually gets removed.

That last part matters: a recommendation is still something you should review.

Be especially careful with personal files

A large video you recognize may be an obvious candidate to move or delete. An unfamiliar system folder is not.

Likewise, understand what Windows is proposing before removing cloud-related files. Do not treat every item consuming disk space as junk.

What about Storage Sense?

Storage Sense is Windows' automatic cleanup feature. Microsoft says its default behavior can remove unnecessary temporary files and eventually items from the Recycle Bin. Downloads and cloud content are not automatically cleaned under the default configuration unless you configure Storage Sense to do so.

That makes Cleanup recommendations a useful starting point for someone who wants to see the choices before Windows performs cleanup automatically.

If important personal files are involved, make sure you have a backup before doing major housekeeping.

Bottom line: Let Windows identify the easy cleanup candidates first. Random deletion should not be your storage-management strategy.

Sources and Further Reading

Microsoft Support — Free up drive space in Windows: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/experience/storage-filemanagement/free-up-drive-space-in-windows

Microsoft Support — Manage drive space with Storage Sense: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/experience/storage-filemanagement/manage-drive-space-with-storage-sense