Avast Cleanup Premium is an optimization tool that includes a range of scans and 1‑click maintenance features designed to detect unnecessary items and performance issues. These scans help free up disk space and improve your system's speed.

Scan your Windows device

If you are using Avast Cleanup Premium for the first time, the application opens automatically after installation. Click Scan now to run a general scan.

The scan results appear on the main dashboard. When the scan is complete, follow the instructions for each found issue.

• The Quick Clean card groups key maintenance features (cleaning system junk, browser data, broken registry keys, and broken shortcuts), allowing you to remove the most common junk items in one click.
• Additional optimization options are also available (such as app management and disk optimization).

Free up disk space

Avast Cleanup Premium scans your Windows device for unnecessary data, such as browser data and system junk, and safely deletes it to free up disk space. Use the tools below to clean different types of data and optimize your device.

Disk Cleaner

To remove unnecessary files:

1. Open Avast Cleanup, hover your cursor over the side menu, and select Clean Junk ▸ Disk Cleaner.
2. Choose a cleaning mode (Basic, Full, or Custom), or manually select the items you want to remove.
   Full mode deletes the contents of your Downloads folder, as well as logs, caches, backups, and recycle bin contents. You should always review the contents before using full mode.
3. Optionally, for each item on the list, click ••• (three dots) ▸ Ignore to move it to the Ignored list or click the arrow to view more details.
4. Click Clean to remove the selected files.

The selected files are removed, freeing up disk space on your device.

Browser Cleaner

To clean your browsers:

1. Open Avast Cleanup, hover your cursor over the side menu, and select Clean Junk ▸ Browser Cleaner.
2. Choose a cleaning mode (Basic, Full, or Custom) or manually select the browsers you want to clean.
   Full mode deletes autofill data saved in your selected browsers.
3. Optionally, for each browser on the list, click ••• (three dots) ▸ Ignore to move it to the Ignored list or click the down arrow to choose which items to clean (browsing history, cache, cookies, and so on).
4. Click Clean to remove the selected data.

Selected browser data is removed, helping free up space and improve privacy.

Free up space in Cloud Storage

Cloud Cleaner helps free up space in your online storage by identifying and removing duplicate, large, and old files.

1. Open Avast Cleanup, hover your cursor over the side menu and select Cleanup Premium ▸ Cloud Cleaner.
2. Click Connect next to the relevant cloud storage service, then follow the on-screen instructions to sign in to the selected account.
3. Once you are signed in, click Start scan to analyze your cloud storage.
4. Click Review under the chosen category.
5. Select the items you wish to delete, then click Remove.

The selected files are removed from your cloud storage.

Broken Registry Keys

To clean the Windows registry:

1. Open Avast Cleanup, hover your cursor over the side menu, and select Clean Junk ▸ Broken Registry Keys.
2. Choose a cleaning mode (Basic, Full, or Custom) or manually select the entries you want to fix.
3. Optionally, for each item on the list, click ••• (three dots) ▸ Ignore to move it to the Ignored list or click the arrow to view more details.
4. Click Clean to remove the selected registry entries.

The selected registry issues are removed, which may help improve system stability.

Broken Shortcuts

To remove broken shortcuts:

1. Open Avast Cleanup, hover your cursor over the side menu, and select Clean Junk ▸ Broken Shortcuts.
2. Choose a cleaning mode (Basic, Full, or Custom) or manually select the shortcuts you want to remove.
3. Optionally, for each item on the list, click the arrow to view its full path.
4. Click Clean to remove the selected shortcuts.

The selected broken shortcuts are removed from your system.

Enable Auto-Clean

Auto-Clean runs silently in the background with no actions required from you and frees up space on your Windows device by removing dispensable items, such as broken shortcuts and registry items.

To enable Auto-Clean:

1. Open Avast Cleanup Premium, hover your cursor over the side menu, and click Settings.
2. Select the Auto-Clean tab.
3. Click the gray (OFF) slider so that it changes to green (ON).
4. Optionally, use the menu to specify the frequency of scans.
5. Optionally, select the file types you want Avast Cleanup Premium to remove during automatic cleaning. The file types that Avast ticks automatically are safe to clean without losing crucial data.

Auto-Clean is now enabled.

Manage applications

Avast Cleanup Premium scans your Windows device for outdated or unused applications, then allows you to easily update, sleep, or uninstall them. This helps ensure that your applications are running optimally and frees up resources on your Windows device.

Update applications

1. Open Avast Cleanup Premium, hover your cursor over the side menu, and click Manage programs.
2. In the Software Updater tab, find the application you want to update, and click Update.
   If you have not run a scan before, you cannot choose the updater tab. In the top-right corner, click Scan programs to run your first scan.
   

The application is now updated.

To select when an application is updated, click Settings (the gear icon) in the Updater tab, then select Updater, and choose the update schedule.

Put applications to sleep

Certain applications slow down your system by running silently in the background. Avast Cleanup Premium scans for these applications, then allows you to safely put them to sleep and boost performance.

1. Open Avast Cleanup Premium, hover your cursor over the side menu, and click Manage programs.
2. Select the Processes tab. The Processes screen shows applications that are running unnecessarily in the background and slowing down your Windows device. To put an application to sleep, click the green (ON) slider next to an application, so that it changes to gray (OFF).

The selected applications are now sleeping. You can open and use sleeping applications as normal. After you close the application, Avast Cleanup Premium automatically returns its status to sleeping.

To turn on a sleeping application, click the gray (OFF) slider next to an application so that it changes to green (ON).

Uninstall unused applications

1. Open Avast Cleanup Premium, hover your cursor over the side menu, and click Manage programs.
2. In the App Uninstaller tab, find the application you want to uninstall, and click Uninstall.
3. Select Uninstall to confirm the unistallation of the application.

The application is now uninstalled.

To change the duration after which applications should be categorized as unused, click Settings (the gear icon) in the Uninstaller tab, then select Uninstaller, and choose your preferred duration using the drop-down menu under Unused programs.

Analyze your Windows device

Open Avast Cleanup Premium, hover your cursor over the side menu, and click Optimize disks, to check for a variety of problems that may impact the performance and security of your Windows device. Follow the instructions on the Optimize disks screen, to resolve the problems.

For more information about the issues that Avast Cleanup Premium may detect during an Optimize disks scan, refer to the following article:

• Avast Cleanup - FAQs

Manage your data

Avast Cleanup allows you to easily shred sensitive data, or recover data that is lost. This helps ensure your data is secure.

Shred your data

Data Shredder permanently deletes your files to free up space and increase security on your device. To shred your data:

1. Open Avast Cleanup Premium, hover your cursor over the side menu, and click Manage data.
2. In the Data Shredder tab, click Select files.
3. Click Select files or Select folders, depending on what you want to shred.
4. Navigate to the file or folder you want to shred, select it, then click Open.
5. In the relevant panel, click Shred to start shredding the file or folder.
6. In the Shred these items for good? confirmation pop-up windows, click Shred.
   To stop shredding the file or folder, in the relevant panel, click the X icon ▸ Cancel shredding.
   
7. When the files are shredded, click Back to Dashboard or Shred more.

Recover your data

Data Recovery helps you to recover deleted files from hard drives and other storage devices. To recover files:

1. Open Avast Cleanup Premium, hover your cursor over the side menu, and click Manage data.
2. In the Data recovery tab, click Scan now.
3. Select the relevant options in each category to narrow down your search. Click the drop-down arrow beside Show advanced filters to add extra filters on your search.
   Adding detailed filters can help you to find the desired items that you are looking for and help reduce the scan time.
   
4. Click Scan.
   The scan may take several minutes to complete.
   
5. Tick the boxes beside the files you want to recover, then click Recover.
6. Select a folder you want the files to be recovered to, and click OK.
   We recommend choosing a different drive to increase your chances of successful data recovery. Data recovery to the same drive may end in the overwriting of recovered files and lead to the failure of the operation.
   
7. Click Start recovery.
8. When the files are recovered, click Back to Dashboard or Recover more.

Undo changes

Undo Center helps you to review and undo recent changes made by Avast Cleanup Premium:

1. Open Avast Cleanup Premium, hover your cursor over the side menu and select Help.
2. Select Undo Center, then click the drop-down arrow beside the date a backup was made.
3. Click Undo next to changes you wish to reverse.

The changes are now reversed.

Further recommendations

To learn more about Avast Cleanup Premium, refer to the following article:

• Avast Cleanup - FAQs