# How to clean Windows with Rain Cleaner, step by step > A real walk-through of Rain Cleaner 2.16.1 on Windows 11: choose a profile, read each item, preview, confirm the list and check the history afterwards. URL: https://raincleaner.eu/guides/how-to-clean-windows-with-rain-cleaner ## 1. Open Clean and read the list Open Clean in the left menu. Rain Cleaner scans and lists what can be freed. Each row shows what it is, where it is on disk, its size, a risk label and a Why? button that explains what you lose if you remove it. Risk labels: Safe (Windows recreates it when needed), Mild (something is slower once or you lose a little convenience) and Your call (you could lose something you may want, so it is never ticked for you). Sizes say Measured by Rain Cleaner when the program measured them itself. Rain Cleaner Clean page: profiles Quick, Deep, Before selling the PC, and a list of items with size, risk label and Why? button ## 2. Pick a profile, or tick items yourself Profiles only tick items a person could tick by hand, and never anything that is blocked. Quick ticks only the Safe items. Deep also ticks items that cost a little convenience once, for example the browser cache, so sites load slower the first time. Before selling the PC is like Deep and also empties the Recycle Bin, which cannot be undone. Before you give a PC away, also use Windows itself: Settings → System → Recovery → Reset this PC → Remove everything. A cleaner is not a replacement for that. ## 3. Preview first Preview checks what would be cleaned without deleting files and reports the expected result and what would be skipped. On the test PC 1.1 GB was selected, but the preview reported 167 MB that would really be freed and 31 skipped items (all of them junctions or symbolic links, which Rain Cleaner skips on purpose). The freed amount can be much lower than the selection, and the preview shows this before anything is deleted. The preview journal is saved in C:\ProgramData\RainCleaner\journal. ## 4. Confirm the list Clean selected opens a confirmation with every selected item and its size. Nothing is deleted until you press OK. Rain Cleaner confirmation dialog listing every selected item with its size before cleaning ## 5. Read the result After the cleanup, the list shows what is left. Some rows explain why they are not ticked: on the test PC the Windows Update store was blocked because Windows was waiting for a reboot to finish an update, and the crash reports row warned that 20 reports were from the last 14 days and are the evidence of why something crashed. Under the list Rain Cleaner says how much was really freed - here 167 MB - and offers Pro once, with a Not now link. Pro can repeat the Safe part on its own when the system drive runs low; you do not need it to clean by hand. Rain Cleaner after cleaning: remaining items, a Windows Update store item that is blocked because a reboot is pending, and the freed size ## 6. Check the history History lists what Rain Cleaner changed on this PC, newest first, with Export HTML and Export JSON. Exports leave out user names, the computer name, serial numbers, MAC and IP addresses. Deleted files are marked Cannot be undone, and the page says plainly that the history is kept by the program, not a tamper-proof record. ## Windows can do much of this too Settings → System → Storage → Temporary files and Disk Cleanup clean many of the same kinds of files without any extra program. Rain Cleaner brings the explanations, preview, confirmation and history into one place. The free version has no ads; Pro has a free 7-day trial with no card. Author: [T. Vasilev](https://raincleaner.eu/about) · [About the author](https://raincleaner.eu/about) ## Official documentation - [Microsoft: storage cleanup (Windows 10 / 11)](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/experience/storage-filemanagement/free-up-drive-space-in-windows) References checked: 2026-10-25. Options and menu names can differ by system version. Read the linked documentation before making changes. Want a second opinion before deleting anything?Rain Cleaner shows what it found before cleanup, and you decide what goes. Free version without ads; Pro has a free 7-day trial, no card. Windows 10 / 11, 64-bit.[Get Rain Cleaner →](https://raincleaner.eu/)  ·  [All guides →](https://raincleaner.eu/guides) ## Quick questions Is the cleaning in Rain Cleaner free? Yes. Scanning, the profiles, Why?, preview, cleaning and history are all in the free version. Pro adds automation such as cleaning when the disk runs low. Why was less freed than selected? Part of a selection can be skipped: files in use, files without access, and junctions or symbolic links. Preview shows the expected amount and the skipped items before you clean. Can I undo a cleanup? No. Deleted files are gone, and the history marks them Cannot be undone. That is why every cleanup is listed for confirmation first. ## Read next - [Free up disk space on Windows 11 safelyBuilt-in tools first, and what to check before you delete.](https://raincleaner.eu/guides/free-up-disk-space-windows-11-safely) - [Delete temporary files on Windows 11 safelyWhat is safe to remove, and what needs a second look.](https://raincleaner.eu/guides/delete-temporary-files-windows-11-safely) - [Windows Update Cleanup: is it safe?What it removes, what you lose, and when to use it.](https://raincleaner.eu/guides/windows-update-cleanup-safe-to-delete-windows-11) - [WinSxS folder too large?Why it looks so big, and the safe ways to shrink it.](https://raincleaner.eu/guides/winsxs-folder-too-large-what-to-delete-windows-11) - [Windows.old: is it safe to delete?What it holds, what you lose, and the supported way to remove it.](https://raincleaner.eu/guides/windows-old-safe-to-delete) - [Delivery Optimization files: safe to delete?What the cache is and how to clear it with Windows tools.](https://raincleaner.eu/guides/delivery-optimization-files-safe-to-delete) - [Find large files on Windows 11](https://raincleaner.eu/guides/find-large-files-taking-space-windows-11) - [Windows cleanup guide](https://raincleaner.eu/guides/windows-cleanup) - [Windows 11 disk cleanup checklist](https://raincleaner.eu/guides/windows-11-disk-cleanup-checklist) - [Before you clean Windows](https://raincleaner.eu/guides/before-cleaning-windows) - [hiberfil.sys and pagefile.sys](https://raincleaner.eu/guides/hiberfil-sys-pagefile-sys-can-you-delete-them) - [Windows 11 PC health check](https://raincleaner.eu/guides/windows-11-pc-health-check-before-using-a-cleaner) - [Windows 11 slow after an update](https://raincleaner.eu/guides/windows-11-slow-after-update-what-to-check) - [Find a driver by Hardware ID](https://raincleaner.eu/guides/find-driver-by-hardware-id-windows) - [Rain Cleaner vs CCleaner vs BleachBit](https://raincleaner.eu/guides/rain-cleaner-vs-ccleaner-vs-bleachbit) - [Drivers after a clean install of Windows 11](https://raincleaner.eu/guides/drivers-after-clean-install-windows-11) - [Install INF drivers with PnPUtil](https://raincleaner.eu/guides/install-inf-drivers-pnputil-windows-11) - [Free up Android storage safely](https://raincleaner.eu/guides/free-up-storage-android-without-deleting-important-files) - [Find duplicate photos on Android](https://raincleaner.eu/guides/find-and-delete-duplicate-photos-android) - [Windows 11 cleaner without ads](https://raincleaner.eu/windows-11-cleaner) - [Windows protected your PC: verify and run Rain Cleaner](https://raincleaner.eu/windows-protected-your-pc-rain-cleaner) - [Security reporting](https://raincleaner.eu/security) - [Roadmap](https://raincleaner.eu/roadmap) - [Linux server disk full](https://raincleaner.eu/guides/linux-server-disk-full-find-what-is-using-space) - [journald logs too big](https://raincleaner.eu/guides/journald-logs-too-big-limit-journal-size) - [CCleaner alternatives for Windows 11](https://raincleaner.eu/guides/ccleaner-alternatives-windows-11)