Clean up Computer

I have two questions, please click the link for attachments:
I am unable to delete temporary folders as I cannot mark the checkboxes (refer Temporary Files and (2)).
Also in the Installed Apps list I have lots of duplicate apps with different installation dates (refer Microsoft, Sheets and Drive), can I uninstall or delete the older ones?

Thank you.

2025_06_29

Dayna said:

...please click the link for attachments...

Click to expand...

No, I will not click any unknown link!
Never in my whole live!
If you want to attach files, please attach them as pictures, text files or pdfs to your posting.

Kees said:

No, I will not click any unknown link!
Never in my whole live!
If you want to attach files, please attach them as pictures, text files or pdfs to your posting.

Click to expand...

Kees: my apologies. I thought a link would be easier.

I have two questions, and attached the pics.
I am unable to delete temporary folders as I cannot mark the checkboxes (refer Temporary Files and (2)).
Also in the Installed Apps list I have lots of duplicate apps with different installation dates (refer Microsoft, Sheets and Drive), do I uninstall or delete the older ones?

Dayna said:

I have two questions, and attached the pics.

Click to expand...

Thanks for attaching the screenshots this time

Dayna said:

I am unable to delete temporary folders as I cannot mark the checkboxes (refer Temporary Files and (2)).

Click to expand...

That is simply because it hasn't yet finished scanning. Your screenshot of System > Storage > Temporary files says that it is "Scanning: Temporary Windows installation files". If you haven't cleaned up recently there could be a lot to scan and it could take some time. Just be patient, it will finish eventually. When it has it will look like mine, the tick boxes will be available and there will be a 'Remove files' button.

Dayna said:

Also in the Installed Apps list I have lots of duplicate apps with different installation dates (refer Microsoft, Sheets and Drive), do I uninstall or delete the older ones?

Click to expand...

The apparent duplicates are multiple different versions of Visual C++ redistributables. These will have been installed by software that required one of them. Although it may seem that you only need the latests version this is not the case, some software will only work with one particular version. Anyway, they are so tiny it's not worth worrying about.

If you pay close attention, you’ll notice that the different C++ redistributable installations don’t have exactly the same name. They’ll have different version numbers and different years in their titles.

That’s because Microsoft Visual Studio is itself being updated over time. This also affects the standard software libraries in each version. An application written using a specific version of Visual Studio would need the library redistributable of that version of the developer tools.....

....We don’t recommend that you delete any Visual C++ redistributable, because doing so could make multiple applications on your computer stop working. Given how little space they take up and how broadly they are used, it doesn’t seem worth the hassle to mess with your current ecosystem of standard library files.

Click to expand...

Dayna said:

I have two questions, and attached the pics.
I am unable to delete temporary folders as I cannot mark the checkboxes (refer Temporary Files and (2)).
Also in the Installed Apps list I have lots of duplicate apps with different installation dates (refer Microsoft, Sheets and Drive), do I uninstall or delete the older ones?

Click to expand...

Don't delete anything of those that cleanmgr.exe can't, they are needed and used by system and so protected.
Redistrubutable are not APPs, are not duplicates but needed to run programs written in Visual C language in various versions.
Recycle bin you just empty of files although they are not actually deleted, just marked as deleted so space could be overwritten or erased by Trim command in case of SSD. It still keeps record of that data but is much smaller in size and not normally visible. That will be deleted after some time if you have Storage Sense enabled in Settings>Storage. To force it now I use Download UnCleaner - MajorGeeks it's very safe.
Google drive you can just uninstall and it should delete all data from it. In Chrome you should look at it's cleanup options, windows do not control that.