Build 19018 Kills Disk Cleanup Downloads Item
Here’s an interesting tidbit of Windows 10 administrivia. Starting with Build 19018 — the latest Fast Insider Preview released November 5 — the Disk Cleanup utility no longer includes Downloads among its selectable items. That’s right: Build 19018 kills Disk Cleanup Downloads item. Here’s visual proof, with a screen cap of the utility from Build 18362.449 at left, and from Build 19018.1 at right. I set up the screen caps to put the preceding item — Device driver packages — at the head of the pick list in each capture. If you look closely at left, Downloads follows Device driver packages. At right, Language Resource Files follows that same item instead. Net result: Downloads is gone.
Now you see Downloads (left), now you don’t (right). Very interesting!
[Click image for full-sized view.]
What Build 19018 Kills Disk Cleanup Downloads Item Really Means
In two words: not much. For one, thing you can still access the Downloads item through Settings → Storage → Configure Storage Sense → set the “Delete files in my Downloads folder” to something other than “Never.” For another, you can always manage the contents of Downloads through Explorer yourself manually. For a third, you could turn to the GitHub Comet project and use Managed Disk Cleanup (mdiskclean.exe) instead. It still includes the Downloads item. For a fourth, Microsoft has itself stated that “The Disk Cleanup experience (“cleanmgr.exe”) is being deprecated,” though they are “…retaining the Disk Cleanup tool for compatibility reasons.”
Makes the whole thing kind of like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, eh? But gosh, it sure is interesting to see how the elements of the Windows 10 UI and its utilities continue to change and evolve. At least, it is to me. Enjoy!