A cache folder is a temporary storage data collection center that stores your system’s essential data in some particular folders. These cache folders may store temporary appdata on your system, but sometimes it takes up a huge amount of free space on your computer. If you are trying to clear all the caches on your Windows 11 system, you are just in the right place.
How to clear all types of cache in Windows 11
There are several ways you can clear your several types of caches in Windows 11.
Step 1 – Removing unnecessary files using the Disk Cleanup
The best way to get rid of all the temporary cache files is to use the Disk Cleanup tool.
1. At first, press Windows+R keys together.
2. Next, type this command and hit Enter.
cleanmgr /low disk
The Disk Cleanup window will be opened.
3. When the Disk Cleanup: Drive Selection window opens up, tap on the “Drives:“.
4. Now, click on the drop-down and choose the “(C:)” drive.
4. After that, click on “OK“.
Wait a while for your computer to analyze the number of trash files.
5. Now, in the “Files to delete:” section, tick all the boxes one-by-one.
6. After that, click on “OK” to clean up the drive.
7. You will notice a prompt asking for your permission to delete the items.
8. Just click on the “Delete files” to remove those files.
This is the way you can delete almost all the temporary files on the Local Disk (C:) drive. You can redo the same steps to remove the temporary files from the other drives on your system.
Step 2 – Clearing Windows Store cache
Windows Store keeps a lot amount of cache of the Store apps on your system.
1. At first, press the Windows key+R keys together.
2. Then, type “wsreset.exe” and click on “OK“.
This will remove and reset the Windows Store cache on your system.
Step 3 – Remove the location Cache
Windows keeps track of the location of your system. You can clean the location history.
1. Open the Settings window.
2. Then, click on “Privacy & Security” on the left pane.
3. Next, on the right-hand side, scroll down and tap on the “Location“.
4. On the right-hand side, click on the “Clear” of the ‘Location history’ pane.
This will clear the location history and a tick sign will appear when it has completed the cleaning process.
Step 4 – Clear the DNS cache
The DNS cache contains the older DNS cache as well as the current one on your computer.
1. At first, click on the Windows icon and type “cmd“.
2. Then, right-click on the “Command Prompt” and tap on “Run as administrator“.
3. After that, type this command and hit Enter.
ipconfig/flushDNS
Once you have flushed the DNS, you can close the Command Prompt window.
Step 5 – Empty the Temp folders
The temp folders contain a large number of data in the temp folders.
1.At first, press the Windows key along with the ‘R‘ key.
2. Now, type “%temp%“. Just click on “OK” to open the Temp folder.
3. If you see a warning message, click on “Continue“.
4. When the Temp folders open up, press ‘Ctrl+A‘ together.
All the folders and files inside the Temp folder will be selected.
5. After that, press the ‘Delete‘ key to empty the Temp folder.
6. Now, again press the Windows key+R keys together.
7. Further, write “temp” and click on “OK“.
8. Just as before, simply remove all the files inside the folder.
Once you are done, close the File Explorer.
Step 6 – Delete the Prefetch files
There are some more files you have to clean. Those are in the Prefetch folder.
1. You have to press the Windows key+R keys together.
2. Then, type “prefetch” in the box and hit Enter.
11. Select all the contents inside the folder and press the ‘Delete‘ key to remove all the contents within the folders.
You can now close the File Explorer.
Step 7 – Use the Storage Sense
You can turn on the storage sense to automatically clear the storage if there isn’t much free storage.
1. At first, click on the Windows key+I keys together.
2. Then, tap on the “System” on the left-hand side.
3. After that, click on the “Storage” from the right-hand side.
4. Then, scroll down and toggle the ‘Storage Sense’ to “On“.
5. Next, click on the ‘arrow’ button beside ‘Storage Sense’ to modify it further.
6. Now, toggle the ‘Automatic User content cleanup‘ settings to “On“.
7. You can further toggle the ‘Configure cleanup schedules’ to the settings you prefer.
8. Finally, scroll down further and tap once on the “Run Storage Sense now” to run the storage sense.
9. Once the Storage sense completes the scanning process, you will see a tick and ‘Done‘ message.
Close the Settings window.
Step 8 – Clean Browser Cache
Browser cache does tend to eat up a lot of free space on your system, you can occasionally clear them out.
We have shown how to clear browsers on the two most used browsers –
Google Chrome –
1. At first, open Google Chrome.
2. In the Google Chrome screen, just tap on the three-dot menu at the top-right corner. Then, click on “More Tools“.
3. Next, click on the “Clear Browsing Data” option.
4. In the Clear Browsing data pane, go to the “Basic” tab.
5. Then, click on the ‘Time range:’ section an select “All time” from the drop-down list.
6. Next, check these three options –
Browsing history
Cookies and other site data
Cached images and files
6. Finally, click on the “Clear data” option to start clearing the chrome browser data.
Close Google Chrome once you are done.
Microsoft Edge –
1. Open the Microsoft Edge on your computer.
2. Now, go to an open tab. Then, paste this address in the address tab and hit Enter.
edge://settings/privacy
3. Now, just scroll down to the ‘Clear browsing data’ section.
4. Then, tap on “Choose what to clear“.
5. Set the ‘Time range’ settings to “All time“.
6. Then, check all the boxes and tap on “Clear now“.
This should clear all the browsing data in Microsoft Edge.
This way, you can clean up almost all the cache files stored on your device and enjoy lots of new free space on your computer.