In “Custom Clean”, I selected the checkboxes under “Windows Downloads” thinking they referred to Windows temporary download files. To my surprise, this action deleted the contents of my personal Downloads folder.
I often use the Downloads folder to store important work-related files, simply because it’s the default location for new file downloads. Thankfully, I was able to recover most of them using Recuva.
I’d like to suggest making it clearer in the interface that selecting this option will delete files in the personal Downloads folder. A warning or preview of the files about to be deleted could help prevent mistakes.
Clarifying this could help users avoid unintentionally deleting important files under the assumption that “Windows Downloads” refers to temporary Windows (system) downloads files.
Of course the Windows Downloads folder is meant to be temporary and not for long term storage of files.
It’s meant as a temporary location and you move the files into ‘Documents’, ‘Pictures’, etc. once you have finished downloading.
We are of course aware that people do keep files long term in Downloads - that’s why it is unticked by default in Custom Clean.
Note that Windows built on Disk Clean-Up will also clear it if you tick it there. That also has it unticked by default.
If you are going to store important files in the Downloads folder and nowhere else then you have to be careful with any temporary file cleaner.
TBH if you have important work files on your computer then you should be making full backup images with Macrium Reflect or similar.
Regular backups are much easier to get ‘lost’ files back from.
That’s particularly important if you have a SSD, revovering deleted or otherwise lost files from an internal SSD is rarely sucessful because of the way that SSD TRIM and garbage collect works.
Note that Windows built on Disk Clean-Up will also clear it if you tick it there. That also has it unticked by default.
I recently discovered that Windows Disk Cleanup no longer includes the option to delete files from the Downloads folder. Please refer to the following article:
Windows 10 May 2020 Update gets fixed to stop users accidentally deleting files they need (published in TechRadar)
As stated in the article:
Now, while the Downloads folder wasn’t selected by default when firing up Disk Cleanup, so files wouldn’t be purged automatically, unfortunately inexperienced users were just ticking every box thinking they should clean out everything …
In light of this information, I would like to reiterate my suggestion to make the interface clearer that selecting this option will delete files from the user’s personal Downloads folder. Adding a warning message or a preview of the files about to be deleted could help prevent mistakes.
Alternatively, the same approach adopted by Windows could be considered: removing this option entirely in order to avoid user confusion.