Windows Disk Cleanup Utility (Cleanmgr.exe) is a great inbuilt clean-up utility that has been around for years. Microsoft has marked Disk Cleanup as a deprecated feature. A new Storage Sense feature was introduced that is all set to replace Disk Cleanup in future builds. But if you relied on the Disk Cleanup tool and used it quite a lot, then you must be in a place looking for alternatives. Not to worry, as the tool that we are going to cover in this post is a perfect alternative to Disk Cleanup. The tool is called Cleanmgr+ that comes with all Disk Clean-up plus some extra features.
Cleanmgr+ – alternative to Disk Cleanup Tool
Cleanmgr+ is completely free and as I mentioned, it comes with all the features that the original Cleanmgr.exe offered plus a few extra ones. The best part about this tool is that it uses similar technical terms and descriptions which makes it simple and familiar to use.
To get started, you need to run this tool as an administrator. As to the tool stops and restarts some of the services, it requires administrator privileges to do that. Once started, you can start selecting the types of files you want to perform a clean-up on.
Different categories are named in a similar way as in Cleanmgr.exe. Clicking on any of the items in the list will show you a description that will tell you exactly what types of files this option will delete. If you click on the +more tab, you will see all the options that Cleanmgr+ offers in addition to the default ones.
Under +more tab, you will find options like Google Chrome cache, Mozilla Firefox Cache, Opera Cache, Vivaldi Cache, Windows Defender, Windows Downloads, Windows Error Reporting, Windows Icon Cache etc.
Once you are done selecting all the options, it is time to hit the Cleanup button. You can enable preview to view the script’s status as it executes on your computer. Also, a few dialogs might pop-out as the script cleans the selected files on your computer.
The program has a little more to offer. If you go into settings, you can find an option to include Windows Disk Clean-up. Which means that the program will run classic Cleanmgr.exe as long as it is supported by Microsoft. Additionally, you can also pass parameters or run custom cleaners.
If you’d like to try out the latest Storage Sense, the program also has a link to it inside the Settings. Storage Sense in terms of features is a superset of Cleanmgr.exe and can perform everything that the Cleanmgr did.
Cleanmgr+ is for sure a good alternative to the outgoing Cleanmgr.exe. The tool has been around for years and many users have been actively using it to clean up their computers and free up some disk space. Cleanmgr+ is equally good plus it comes with added features and works with an even larger set of files.
The tool is totally free and is being actively developed. But make sure you create a system restore point before using any such tool. Click here to download Cleanmgr+. It is currently in Beta.