Earlier, the Disk Cleanup Tool & Storage Sense offered to clear the Downloads folder. Microsoft has removed the Downloads folder from Windows 10’s Disk Cleanup tool. Microsoft says they have deleted the Downloads folder from Disk Cleanup in the Windows 10 operating system based on user feedback, starting with Windows 10 2004.
Downloads folder in Disk Cleanup removed
The Disk Cleanup utility has been around for years, and its existence can be traced back to Windows 98 days. Since its inception, Microsoft has ensured that Disk Cleanup remains a part of its Windows operating system on Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.
For those of you wondering, Disk Cleanup is a free, built-in program that allows users to easily remove unwanted system files and temporary files from their Windows 10 computers. In addition to temp files, Windows 10 users can delete offline web pages, Delivery Optimization Files, Thumbnails, DirectX Shades Cache, Windows Error Reporting files, empty Recycle Bin, among others.
Microsoft is deleting the Downloads folder from Disk Cleanup in Windows 10 for a reason. The company doesn’t want users to accidentally delete files in the Downloads folder, an option that became part of Windows 10 starting wit its October 2018 update. Up until now, Microsoft was letting users the Downloads folder as an option when performing running Disk Cleanup.
The addition of the Downloads folder option led to concern among many Windows 10 users that they could mistakenly select it and accidentally delete files stored in the Downloads folder.
Disk Cleanup appears to be losing its historical significance to Storage Sense on Windows 10, an operating system that powers more than one billion devices. Storage Sense is able to do the same work as Disk Cleanup, and it replicates Disk Cleanup to a significant extent.
Microsoft however, hasn’t deleted the Downloads folder from Storage Sense, Windows 10’s built-in storage management feature.
Storage Sense ensures that your older and unused files available over the cloud, offering you more free offline storage space.
A small but good step in our opinion!
