We explain how you can clean Windows Explorer using CCleaner's Custom Clean. If you want to find out more about Windows Explorer's specific cleaning rules in CCleaner, skip to Files and data you can clean in Windows Explorer below.
What is Custom Clean?
Custom Clean is a function within CCleaner that allows you to customize how the app cleans different parts of your PC, such as your operating system and applications (like web browsers).
What are 'cleaning rules'?
These are the specific files and data that you allow CCleaner to delete from your system. You can see some in the screenshot below as checkboxes you can select beneath the Windows tab.
Files and data you can clean in Windows Explorer:
- Recent Documents - This option clears the list that Windows Explorer maintains of your most recently-opened files (see, for example, the My Recent Documents item on the Start menu or the ‘Recent files’ list in the Windows File Explorer, depending on your version of Windows).
- Run (in Start Menu) - This option clears the list that the Windows Run dialog box maintains of programs you've run from it.
- Other Explorer MRUs - Windows Explorer also maintains Most Recently Used (MRU) lists for the following types of information: Find Files, Find Computer, printer ports, and streaming data. If you select this checkbox, CCleaner will also clean the breadcrumb records used by Windows (breadcrumbs appear in the Explorer path box and display the path you took to get to a folder). Find out more.
- Thumbnail Cache - This option clears the Windows Explorer image thumbnail cache, maintained to speed up how quickly you can browse folders containing photos and images. This cache can also contain the thumbnails of images no longer on the system and are thus no longer relevant.
- Taskbar Jump Lists – When CCleaner is minimized to the taskbar, clicking the right mouse button on its icon will show you Jump List Tasks of CCleaner. The same is true of other programs. This will help you clean data associated with these Jump Lists. Find out more.
- Network Passwords - When you connect to a wireless network using Windows Explorer, you can choose to save the network password. Selecting this option will erase these saved passwords, which will leave you unable to connect to these wireless networks again until the password has been entered again.
