Disk clean up can be a very useful tool espceially in Servers when Disk space is fully utilized.

Usually on a server the C drive only contains program files and the Operating system other P:artitinsor disk hold the actual data so therefore C drive is usually kept to a minimum and sometime space needs to be freed up. The best tool to do this is Disk Cleanup which in Windows 7, Vista etc it comes installed by default but in Windows Server 2008 it does not.

So there are too options to get the tool the first which I don’t like to do due to that fact that on a server installed programs features etc need to be kept to a minimum but it can be useful to have installed so you dont have to use the command line.

Adding the Desktop Experience feature

To get the disk cleanup tool as you usually have it like in Windows 7 and vista you will ahve to install a feature called Desktop Experience.

Go to Server Manager and click on features.

Then click Add Feature

Now Tick the Desktop Experience feature and when asked add the Ink feature as well:

Click Next and finish the installation. This will need a reboot so make sure to do it during a maintenance window or add it to future installs.

Once installed you can launch the Disk cleanup tool the usual way in the properties of the hard disk.

Copy cleanmgr.exe to System32 folder

This way is my favoured way as it doesnt require any installation or even better no reboot, which obviously is the most important in a production environment.

This is as simple as it sounds all you have to do is copy 2 files to the Windows System32 folder, there is a downside and that is it wont appear in the Disk drive properties so you must use the full System32 path to launch it.

The files are in different directories depending on the version of 2008 you are running. You must copy the .exe file to the System32 folder (usually C:\WINDOWS\System32\) and the .mui file to System32\en-us\

Windows Server 2008 32-bit:

C:\Windows\winsxs\x86_microsoft-windows-cleanmgr.resources_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6001.18000_en-us_5dd66fed98a6c5bc\cleanmgr.exe.mui

C:\Windows\winsxs\x86_microsoft-windows-cleanmgr_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6001.18000_none_6d4436615d8bd133\cleanmgr.exe

Windows Server 2008 64-bit:

C:\Windows\winsxs\amd64_microsoft-windows-cleanmgr_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6001.18000_none_c962d1e515e94269\cleanmgr.exe.mui

C:\Windows\winsxs\amd64_microsoft-windows-cleanmgr_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6001.18000_none_c962d1e515e94269\cleanmgr.exe

Windows Server 2008 R2:

C:\Windows\winsxs\amd64_microsoft-windows-cleanmgr.resources_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_en-us_b9cb6194b257cc63\cleanmgr.exe.mui

C:\Windows\winsxs\amd64_microsoft-windows-cleanmgr_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_none_c9392808773cd7da\cleanmgr.exe

Now all you have to do if you ever want to run disk clean up is from RUN or command prompt type this:

C:\Windows\System32\cleanmgr.exe

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