XP users have been known to face problems with files that are too old or new for the operating system to handle. This can be caused by a number of factors, but the most common one is that XP doesn’t support older files. To make Disk Cleanup more effective at cleaning up older files, you can compress them before it starts cleaning them up. This will help XP to speed up its work and make sure that all of your files are cleaned up properly.
To get to the Disk Cleanup utility, right click on one of your hard drives in My Computer, and choose Properties.
Click on the Disk Cleanup button.
The Disk Cleanup utility will scan your hard drive to determine the amount of space to be saved. Click on “Compress old files” in the list, and you will notice the View Files button change to Options. Click that.
In this resulting window you can change the amount of days to wait for unaccessed files to be compressed. Click OK and you are done.
