Disk Cleanup glitched at the same numbers and won't be fully erased!

Another new problem since upgrading to Windows 10 last week...

The Downloads folder, Temporary Files and Temporary Internet Files always show the same memory data despite the fact that they are fully empty.

No matter how many times I try erasing these areas, they never go to 0 bytes.

From settings, the same issue occurs. Exact same numbers. But everything is empty! This is obviously a bug. But I'd like to know whether this is fixable?

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Yeah, I have the same kind of deal.






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there maybe some hidden files or system files there like desktop.ini, disk cleanup will not delete them
you can check in file explorer by going to view/options/click on view tab of the pop up and scroll down
and click on show hidden files folders and drives. uncheck hide protected system files.

You should not delete any system files. you might find

thomaseg1 said:

there maybe some hidden files or system files there like desktop.ini, disk cleanup will not delete them
you can check in file explorer by going to view/options/click on view tab of the pop up and scroll down
and click on show hidden files folders and drives. uncheck hide protected system files.

Many thanks. I have clicked to show hidden files and unchecked the hide protected system files.

I do see a desktop.ini file in the Downloads folder however, this is only 1KB in size. The Disk Cleanup is showing 8.38 MB in size! This is clearly a glitch. It should at least show 1 KB to reflect the content of the Downloads folder. But we can see the numbers don't match.

Used to be back in XP you could allocate a minimum size for a folder, But I'm not aware if it still holds true
in Win 10

I tried using Safe Mode but they don't erase themselves fully. Same numbers.

I've also noticed another issue, not sure if it is normal or not. Windows upgrade log files are at 12 KB size when I erase them with Disk Cleanup this seems to be cleared. But upon restart of the PC Disk Cleanup again shows 12 KB in Windows upgrade log files! This is pretty annoying. I erased all the contents in the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder but this still happens again.

I can come to the conclusion that the Disk Cleanup in Windows 10 is broken or at least partially broken. Basically Disk Cleanup should either be fixed by a new hotfix update or be ditched out of Windows 10 completely.

I haven't noticed this in Windows 8.1 or 7. I've tested it with my dads 8.1 system and my mums Windows 7 PC. They appear to be fully empty at 0 bytes. CCleaner does a better job at cleaning. But unfortunately even when everything looks clean, Disk Cleanup picks up memory. I think absolutely all Windows 10 users have this issue, unless someone can prove me wrong!

I have in the past used this workaround to clear the Temporary Internet Files count in Disk Clean up, but it comes back after a while. These days I just ignore it. As far as I can see the bug is in it misreporting rather than there being any actual files to clean up. This, from a year ago...

Breelander said:

This appears to be a bug. It looks like Disk Clean up is loosing track and misreporting the size of temporary internet files, rather than there actually being any temporary internet file to clear up. This has been reported on and off for over a year....

(so that's over two years now)

...There is a known workaround that resets the count back to zero, but the apparent 'size' will eventually start to grow again. Mine currently says 6.33MB.
The workaround is to move the location of IE's cache, but there's a catch. Once moved, you cannot move it back to its default location without editing the registry. The workaround is described here...
Disk Cleanup showing 2.9GB Temporary Internet Files - Page 3 - Windows 10 Forums

Disk Cleanup - Windows 10 Forums

Fresh re-installation of Windows 10 Pro has fixed the issue for me at least 99%.

I don't know if it is a bug related to CCleaner or Windows System restore that has previously triggered the issue.

But now on a clean installation without using CCleaner and without having gone through System Restore. Temporary Internet Files and all the others are now on 0 bytes except for the Downloads folder.

The downloads folder is indeed glitched as in my case it is the only thing that won't clear at 13.1 MB. Probably everyone has this issue. Maybe there is a fix for this, if in the first place after fresh PC install you do not download any stuff from the internet in the Downloads folder! But this avoidance will simply create personal inconvenience and it's not worth trying to avoid downloading just for the sake of having everything clean! That would probably be considered as an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and not worth our time.

The bug that I mentioned previously with Windows upgrade log files that kept returning back at 12KB on PC restart is no longer occurring after the fresh Win 10 installation. This bug was triggered after I previously made a System Restore.

I had to do a System Restore previously to fix Cortana SearchUI malfunction when I tried to fix Event ID 10016 using registry. But in doing so that created the glitch with the Windows update log files after doing system restore. I'll try and make sure I don't have to do system restore again any time soon. But having said that, this Disk Cleanup will probably get glitched again sooner or later for the other remaining files.