Windows, if you have a disk drive with 100GB capacity, not all the space you can use. If you know what's behind it, you'll know that a lot of space is taken up by the cache files.
The cache itself is a non-permanent file or file that may be needed again in the future, thus it will continue to be stored and hidden until the time it is needed again. Simply like that.
Cached files are actually important because they improve your system performance. But beyond that, the cache takes up a lot of space on your disk. The good news is that the cache file can still be safely deleted for the sake of cleaning the disk space.
In Windows itself a lot of hidden cache files, usually those files for the purposes of windows updates, browsing, and so on.
<h3>**Windows 10 Update Cache**</h3>
For the convenience of its users, Windows 10 stores cache files of all Windows Update files, which can be useful when you need to re-register updates. The downside is the windows update will take up a lot of space.
The Windows Update cache can be removed. But before we delete those files we have to disable Windows Update first to make sure no update is being in-
download. To do this, open the Start Menu, run *Command Prompt*, and run the command:
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**net stop wuauserv**
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Next go to File Explorer and open *C: \ Windows \ SoftwareDistribution \ Download.* Inside the download folder, you can safely delete everything. after that you have to re-enable windows update by typing the following command in command promt:
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**net start wuauserv**
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<h3>**Windows Store Cache**</h3>
One of the biggest changes in the Windows user experience is the introduction of Windows Store and Microsoft's Move to turn all of their software into the app. For many users, this step is a very big step.
The Windows Store also stores cache files when we download apps. Obviously this cache takes up space on our computer, it will also cause download problems to be interrupted or stopped. If so, the most powerful way is to clear the cache.
To clear the cache in the Windows Store, Microsoft already provides a tool called WSReset.exe that clears the cache for you.
Open Run Prompt (Win + R), type WSReset.exe, and click OK. A black window will open and it may look like nothing happened, but just wait. It may take a few minutes on a slow computer.
When the cache is successfully cleared, then Windows Store will automatically run.
<h3>**Temp Files Cache**</h3>
Windows has a system directory dedicated to holding temporary files (temp files). temporary files are usually created as intermediaries while other files are being created or modified, but they can also store temporary data that a program needs only temporarily.
Unfortunately, not all programs and processes can clean themselves, which means that the system directory for temporary files ends up cluttered by unnecessary junk files.
These files are usually safe to delete with records that the files have not been used for more than a week. Fortunately, the built-in tools provided by Windows can handle that.
To delete Temp File cache: Open the Start Menu, locate the Disk Cleanup app, and run it. When prompted, select drive C :. Wait a minute, because there is a process of analyzing file system.
Under the Disk Cleanup tab, uncheck all, and check Temporary Files, then click OK. Can be seen temporary file idi my computer reaches 1.09 GB. Very large for unused files.
<h3>**Thumbnail Cache**</h3>
Windows has a setting that allows to preview thumbnails of files. For example, when enabled, an MP4 video file will be displayed with the frame of the video itself while the PNG image file will be a preview of what the image will look like.
Thumbnails are good in terms of usability, but have you ever wondered where thumbnails came from? When you use File Explorer to browse folders, whenever you find a file for the first time, Windows should create a thumbnail for it.
This obviously not only slows down your Windows performance, but all the new thumbnail images generated must be stored somewhere. Clearing the Windows thumbnail cache is a good idea to do every few months.
To clear the Thumbnail cache: Open the Start Menu, locate the Disk Cleanup app, and run it. When prompted, select drive C :. Wait a minute, because there is a process of analyzing file system.
Under the Disk Cleanup tab, uncheck all, and check Thumbnails, then click OK.
<h3>**System Restore Cache**</h3>
System Restore is one of the most useful features in Windows. You may think that you will never need it, but it is very useful, can help you by switching to the previous state.
You never thought of using System Restore, but when you need it, you hope it exists. Better to be safe than sorry, is not it? And even with all the new troubleshooting options in Windows 10, System Restore is still important, so do not ignore this.
On the other side System Restore uses a lot of space. Really, very much space. Once created, it has the cache of all the settings and variables required for system recovery.
You can free this space by clearing saved restore points. You can also reduce the space allocated to System Restore or disable this feature, but be aware that allocating too little space can cause System Restore to corrupt.
To remove System Restore cache you can open the Start Menu, locate it
System, and run. When it opens, look in the sidebar for the System Protection link and click it.
Under the System Protection tab, select the drive system and click Configure. At the bottom, click Delete to delete all the saved restore points for your system. If you do, make sure to make another restore point soon!
<h3>**Web Browser Cache**</h3>
Every time you visit a web page, your browser adds pages including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and image files to the browser cache. If other times you visit the same page, your browser uses cache files to load pages faster.
This is good because the cache reduces the amount of bandwidth you use and improves your web browsing experience, but sometimes cache can cause problems.
For example, if a web page changes, but your browser continues to load the old cache data, the site may not work as intended. That is why one of the common troubleshooting techniques is to clear your browser cache. Plus, free up disk space used.
Each browser has its own cache-clearing process, but none of them are too complicated.
In Firefox, go to the **Options menu -> Advanced -> Network tab -> click the Clear Now button.**
In Chrome, go to **Settings -> menu
scroll down and click on Show Advanced Settings -> in Privacy click Clear Browsing Data.**
<h3>**DNS Cache**</h3>
When you access a website, your computer essentially requests web data from another computer on the Internet, but how does your computer know how to contact a particular computer? This Domain Name System (DNS) is used.
Domain Name System is a computer network on internet traffic. Think of it like a postal service: mail will move from sender to some post office before finally arriving at the recipient.
Every time Windows runs from a particular route, for example from your computer to a computer.com computer server, the computer will remember the route in its DNS cache. However, when DNS route changes, and your computer still saves the cache from DNS, this can cause problems (such as not being able to load a website).
To clear the DNS cache, open Command Prompt, run the following command:
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**ipconfig / flushdns**
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That's the 7 cache files that exist in Windows. This cache file is useful for future purposes, however, if you do not want the storage space filled with cache files, you can delete it.
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