How to Delete Files from Windows 10 Permanently

For some reasons, you might want to know how to delete files from Windows 10 permanently. Here we bring 3 methods to help you easily delete junk files from your drive and no one will be able to recover them.

Posted by @Tina December 17, 2024 Updated By @Tina May 12, 2023

Need to delete files from Windows 10 PC

Are you encountering computer freezes or slow running speed? In fact, even if you don’t actively add any files to your computer, your computer may be filled with junk files such as backup files, page files, temporary files, etc. Especially the C drive will be full since you don't notice that various files are stored in it by default.

Thus, in order to speed up your computer and keep it in its best condition, it's inevitable for you to delete junk files permanently from Windows 10 PC.

3 ways to delete files from Windows 10

Knowing that cleaning up junk files on your computer is important, but master the skills to search and delete those junk files are as important. Next, we will discuss the basic methods on how to permanently delete files from Windows 10.

Method 1. Delete junk files via File Explorer

As a basic tool for viewing and managing files in Windows system, File Explorer provides users with a graphical user interface to handle files in the computer, it is named explorer.exe in the task manager. Besides, this tool keeps pace with the times, and continues to improve its functions with the update of the Windows system.

If you want to know how to delete files permanently from your PC on Windows 10 with File Explore, please press "Windows + R" , then enter "%temp%" in the "Run" program and click "OK" to open the Temp folder. In the folder, you can delete files according to your needs.

Method 2. Delete junk files with Microsoft Total PC Cleaner

Microsoft Total PC Cleaner is a simple tool released by Microsoft that can help you maximize your computer's disk space by cleaning up junk files that take up space on your Windows 10 PC. It is very easy to use without any instruction guide. You can refer to the section below to learn how to use it to clean up junk files from your Windows 10 PC.

Step 1. Download Microsoft Total PC Cleaner from the Microsoft Store and open it, this tool will ask you to confirm your system disk, read the instructions carefully and click "Continue".

Step 2. Select the target partition (here we choose C drive), and then click "Select Folder".

Step 3. Click "Start Scan" in a pop up window to scan your computer for all junk files.

Step 4. After the scan, all junk files will be listed and you can see how much space you can free up. Check the files you want to delete and click "Clean".

Step 5. When the cleaning task is completed, you'll be reminded that "Your disk has been cleaned", then click "Done".

Method 3. Permanently delete junk partitions with a brilliant software

How to delete files from Windows 10 permanently? As mentioned above, we can use File Explorer and Microsoft Total PC Cleaner to clean up the computer. However, Microsoft PC Cleaner focuses on cleaning various cache files, and File Explorer is designed for the users who are familiar with the computer.

To safely delete all junk files in your computer, you can choose an efficient and reliable freeware - AOMEI Partition Assistant standard. This powerful dreeware is more compatible and comprehensive than Total PC Cleaner because it provides deep PC cleaning  on Windows 11/10/8/8.1/7; it is also safer than File Explorer because it will warn you which files need to be handled with care.

Apart from the basic function of cleaning up your computer, this disk managing expert has many other functions that can help you improve your PC performance, such as resize C drive, run disk defrag, merge partitions, etc.

Let's explore how to permanently delete files on Windows system.

Download Freeware Win 11/10/8.1/8/7/XP
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Note: If you want to delete large files larger than 16MB, you can turn to the  Professional Version  to directly use the "Delete Large Files" function.

Step 1. Download and run AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard, in the main interface you can all the disks and partitions on the PC, click "Free up" and "PC Cleaner".

Step 2. You can see a prompt "Approximate 1.26 GB disk space you can free up", click "Start Scan" to scan all junk files.

Step 3. After a few moments, the progress bar completed means the scan is finished.

Step 4. This tool will select some junk files by fault, select the target files and click "Clean All".

Step 5. After finish deleting junk files, you can click "Back" to return to the main interface.

Conclusion

How to delete files from Windows 10 permanently? In this article, we share three tools including File Explorer, Microsoft Total PC Cleaner and AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. To clean up stubborn junk files in your computer more safely and effectively, AOMEI Partition Assistant is obviously the most suitable for you.

In addition, when you want to quickly solve the problem of C drive is full, you can also try to move applications in the C drive to another drive to free up space, or migrate OS to the larger disk.