Windows Slimmer Free
Windows Slimmer Pro
User Manual

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Welcometo Auslogics

Windows Slimmer
This is your guide to one of the most effective  Windows size optimization tools in the world that lets you:
Clean out Windows demo
content

Remove unneeded “filler” toreduce Windows size and help
it run more efficiently

Schedule regular
maintenance to keep yourWindows running at its bestInstalling Windows Slimmer
Launch the installer by double clicking on the downloaded ﬁle.
You can leave the installation options
as they are or customize them on thispage.

3Click the links to review the EULA andPrivacy Policy, then click the‘Agree and install’ button to start
installation.

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Installing Windows Slimmer

Make sure the checkbox to launch
Windows Slimmer is checked and clickthe ‘Finish’ button to complete
installation.

Free

5Pro

Windows Slimmer comes in two versions: Free and Pro. The Free version offers essential
cleanup of unneeded Windows components and apps. The Pro version lets you run
regular cleanups and size optimization, apply advanced tweaks, control notiﬁcations andmore. This table should give you an idea of what you can expect from each version.
When using the Free version, you will see all Pro features marked with the  yellowtag. This should give you a good idea of what you can get if you upgrade.
The rest of this manual will talk about both Free and Pro version features in more detail.
FREEPRO

1 question

3 questions

Regular maintenance
Smart Compact OS feature to maximize space
Notification settings control
Extended Priority Support
Ask a Question option for live expert answers

Activating Windows Slimmer Pro

To unlock and use all of the Pro features, you need to upgrade your Windows
Slimmer Free to the Pro version. Here is how to do that:Hover your mouse over the ‘Activate Pro Version’ button at the bottom-right of theprogram window (do not click). This will open a popup with two options for you toclick. The ‘Activate Today’ button takes you to a web page where you can purchasea license key. (You can also reach this page by simply clicking the ‘Activate Pro
Version’ button without bringing up the popup).

Right below the ‘Activate Today’ button in the popup. You’ll see the ‘Enter license
key’ link – click it when you’ve already purchased a license and received a license
key via email. This will bring up a small window with the ﬁeld to enter your key in.
Copy the license key from the conﬁrmation email. Then, go back to Windows
Slimmer, paste the key into the registration ﬁeld and click ‘Register’.

NOTE

When you place your order online and complete payment , a conﬁrmation message
is sent to you via email to the address you provide during checkout. You will begetting two messages: one containing your invoice and the other with your license
information. If you don’t see the message(s), please check your spam/junk mailfolder before contacting technical support. A common reason for not receiving anorder conﬁrmation is typos made in the email address, so be sure to double-checkyour contact info when placing your order.

67Backing Up with the Rescue Center
Auslogics Windows Slimmer isequipped with the Rescue Center,  which lets you create a backup prior  to running Windows cleanup andoptimization.
This helps ensure that you can always
roll back any changes made byAuslogics software if you do not like  the results.
We recommend getting familiar withthe Rescue Center prior to using
Windows Slimmer for the ﬁrst time.  
You can specify how long thosebackups should be stored and how
much disk space they may occupy.

To access the Rescue Center settings,
click on the gear icon at thebottom-right of the program window.
In the Settings window that opens,click on ‘Rescue Center’ on theleft-side navigation panel.
This will open the current Rescue
Center settings and let you change anyof them according to your preferences.

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8Backing Up with the Rescue Center
You can also view available system
restore points here by selecting ‘Restore Points’ from the left-side
To view backups created in the Rescue

menu. Use this feature if you need toCenter, click on the diskette icon at the

take your whole system back to a point

bottom-right of the main programin time before you applied speciﬁc

window. In the window that opens youchanges or installed certain software,

will see a list of available backups thatnot just Auslogics.

have been created by WindowsSlimmer.
Select a backup from the list and thenchoose the action you would like toapply to it by clicking a button above
the list, such as ‘Restore’, ‘Details’ or‘Delete’.
Clicking ‘Refresh’ will refresh the list ofavailable backups. Click ‘OK’ whendone.

NOTE
When you use a restore point, you may
lose all changes made and all ﬁlessaved after the date to which you arerolling back.

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Main Menu
The main program menu is located at the very top of the program window and gives you four drop-down

lists of shortcuts to almost every Windows Slimmer feature.

The File menu contains the main
options that let you quickly run anyprogram or open a website by simply
typing its name or address in a popupwindow; open the Control Panel, open
settings or check for updates.

The Pages menu lets you quickly
switch between tabs.
The Help menu lists the options you
have for getting information about theprogram or assistance with it.

10Main Window and Navigation
When you open Windows Slimmer, the main program window opens on the Windows Slimmer tab.

At the very top of the window, you see

The items you see on the navigation

the main menu that lets you navigate

panel are:through the program, easily accessvarious features or ﬁnd help info (seeMain Menu section above for details).

One-Time Maintenance: the program’s essential functionality isavailable here. Use it to run cleanup

Right below the main menu you see

after global changes, like OS reinstalls,

the tabs that let you switch between

updates, upgrades, etc.

the program’s sections. We’ll belooking at each tab in more detailfurther in this guide.
On the left, you see the navigation
panel that lets you go through theprogram’s functionality and apply all of
its features for maximum optimization
effect.

Regular Maintenance: lets you monitor
your Windows’ size and run regularcleanups to maintain the most
efﬁcient operation.
App List Cleanup: lets you sort
through the list of installed softwareand remove any programs that are nolonger needed.
Compact OS will compact Windows

files to reduce the amount of disk
space the OS takes up on your PC.

Using Windows Slimmer

11-Time Maintenance

OneUnder ‘One-Time Maintenance’ you can ﬁnd the essential features to use after a new PC purchase,a Windows reinstall or other global changes.

Here you see a list of categories that can be checked for cleanup potential.  

The categories that may be available for cleanup include:

We recommend selecting one category at a time for a thorough scan and cleanup.  

This helps produce the most accurate results and ensure a more effective

slimdown. If a category is not available (such as when it has been cleaned out

before), it will be greyed out and you will not be able to select it.

Outdated WinSxS libraries: Delete old

Disabled components: Remove systemversions of WinSxS libraries that are nocomponents that have been downloaded

longer used or needed.

to your PC, but are disabled and not used.

Old Windows version: If you don’t plan

Windows

Update ﬁles: Remove unneeded

to go back to your previous WindowsWindows

Update ﬁles that may remain onversion, delete the backup, which isyour PC after you download and install

normally created

updates.

when you upgrade

your PC to a newer operating system

ystem restore points: You can clear allSversion.

system restore points except for the last

Windows demo content: Clear demo

one, which can saveﬁles used by vendors or manufacturersof disk space.

to demonstrate your PC’s capabilities

a signiﬁcant amount

Redundant Windows application folders:or new interesting features.
Remove leftover

files and folders fromapplications that were once used byapplications installed on your computer,but became redundant after they wereuninstalled.

12Using Windows Slimmer One-Time Maintenance
Under ‘One-Time Maintenance’ you can ﬁnd the essential features to use after a new PC purchase,a Windows reinstall or other global changes.

To run a scan, click on a category toselect it, then hit the ‘Start Scan’button. When the scan completes, youwill see how much space you can clear
under the scanned category after a fullcleanup.

When the cleanup completes, you will
see a brief results summary and will be

Be sure to check if there are any
warnings below the table, as cleaningsome of the categories may potentiallycause issues and is recommended forexperienced users only. To proceedwith the cleanup, just click the ‘Start
Cleanup’ button.

able to click a link to view moredetailed results in an html report.

Using Windows Slimmer Regular Maintenance

13In addition to the essential cleanup available under ‘One-Time Maintenance’, go to ‘Regular Maintenance’ to clean up even more areas inyour Windows. You can use this feature on a regular basis to keep your operating system slim and efﬁcient.

On the Regular Maintenance screen, you also see a list of categories available forcleanup, and can select the ones you want to scan and process.
The categories available here include:
Memory dumps: memory dump ﬁlesare created by the system and areoften not needed beyond a certain
point CD/DVD burning cache folder.
When you are done burning a CD orDVD, the cache is no longer needed
and can be safely removed.
Recycle Bin: clearing the Recycle Bin
can often result in gigabytes of space
being freed up, as we often tend toforget about the deleted ﬁles that staythere.

Temporary folders: files kept inWindows temporary folders are meant
to remain on your drives temporarily,
but sometimes stay longer thanneeded.
Application logs: logs created byapplications are often not needed andend up wasting your drive space.

Select the categories you want cleaned up and hit the ‘Start Scan’ button. Here you
don’t need to worry about scanning one category at a time: all of them can beprocessed simultaneously. When the scan completes, you will see how much
unneeded stuff was found under each category and will be able to remove it all byclicking the ‘Start Cleanup’ button. After cleanup, there will be a brief resultssummary and a link to review a full report in html format.

Using Windows Slimmer Compact OS
The third feature in Windows Slimmer’s left-side menu is the new ‘Compact OS’tool. This tool lets you pack up system files to reduce the amount of space theytake up on your drive.
The feature is especially useful when your OS is installed on a smaller SSD drive
which tends to run out of space.
If your system drive has plenty of space available, we recommend having theCompact OS feature disabled to help your system access those files faster.

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Using Windows Slimmer App List Cleanup
The last option on the left-side
navigation panel is ‘App List Cleanup’.
It lets you go through the list of all
applications installed on your PC andremove any that are no longer needed.
This can free up gigabytes of space, assoftware is usually quite large.

15To remove a program, select itfrom the list and click the‘Uninstall’ button at the top, orclick the arrow on the Uninstallbutton and select removal option.
If you are not sure about aprogram, select it and click‘Google it’ above the list to run
an online search for information
about this program.

Besides the regular uninstall procedure, and if these additional options apply to the software you want to remove, you canchoose to force-remove an app or to uninstall it quietly. The force remove option is especially useful when an app proves toughto remove using regular means, as it ensures that every trace of the app is deleted from your system. Quiet uninstall works only ifsuch option is provided by the software manufacturer, and it basically lets you remove the app without any pop-ups or dialogs
during the uninstall process.

16Reports
Using the ‘Reports’ tab in Windows Slimmer, you can review your current resource consumption and manage operation reports.
On the left side of the screen you canmonitor current resource use
statistics. This provides a great
overview of how your system ishandling all the tasks and applications
that are currently running on it. If you
see extremely high CPU, disk, networkor memory loads, you will know thatsomething might be wrong and will beable to take action.

On the right side you see a table thatlists reports created after every
operation.

You can also click the ‘Create System
Report’ button to get a full report onyour system’s setup. This is especially
useful if you need to contact technicalsupport over the phone and may be
asked for your PC or hardware details.
It also helps when deciding if and how
your system’s hardware can beupgraded.

Click on a report in the table to selectit, then click the ‘View report’ button
below the table to view it.

You see the report name, the name of
the tool that created it and the datewhen the operation ran.
The ﬁlter above the table lets you
search for speciﬁc reports by creationtime.

Use the ‘Delete’ button to delete allreports ever created or just the reports
listed above (the ones that match yoursearch ﬁlter): you can select the option
you want from the drop-down menu
that opens when you click on the‘Delete’ button arrow.

17Auslogics StoreThe ‘Auslogics Store’ tab lists software programs made by Auslogics or its partners and recommended for your PC.
To install and try a recommended
program, click the ‘Buy Now’ button
next to it. This will open a window witha brief summary of what the software
can do for your PC, and a link to
download and install it.
Once a recommended program has
been installed, it will show as installed
and will have a ‘Run’ button and a ‘See
status’ link next to it.

NOTE
These programs may offer a trial or afree version, but require a license to bepurchased for full functionality.
Installing or using any of them iscompletely optional.

Customizing Program Settings

18The Settings manager allows you to change the program’s appearance and behavior.

Under View, select the size of interface
elements.
To access Windows Slimmer settings,
click on the gear icon at thebottom-right of the main program
window. A new window will appear,with its own navigation pane on theleft. Click through the options on thenavigation pane and adjust thesettings to satisfy your needs.
Under General, you can specify theprogram’s behavior (whether you want
it to start at Windows logon, or be
minimized on close, etc.).

Under Ignore lists, you can see files
and folders that will be skipped overduring scans. To add files here, you canright-click on your selection in theresults section after a scan. In thedrop-down menu, simply select “MoveSelected to the Ignore List”. You canalso enter them manually into the list.
The same applies for keys in theRegistry ignore list.
Under Rescue Center, adjust backup
settings (see ‘Backing up with theRescue Center’ earlier in this guide).
Under Language, you can choose theinterface language for WindowsSlimmer.
When done, click ‘OK’ to exit and apply
all changes.

Contacting Auslogics

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There are a number of ways to contact
Auslogics, including several you canreach right from Disk Defrag’s Helpmenu.

Many of the questions you may haveregarding Auslogics products havealready been answered in the FAQ
section on www.auslogics.com.

Click on ‘Help’ in the main menu, thenselect ‘Technical Support’ to go to thecontact form on auslogics.com andsend us a message. If you experience
technical issues with the program, you
can click on ‘Send debug log’ to help
our team get to the root of theproblem.

The Support section on the Auslogics
website also offers a way to retrieve alost license key, request a refund,download product manuals and more.
Should you have any questions that are
not answered on the website, don’t
hesitate to email our dedicatedcustomer support team 24/7 at thefollowing address:
support@auslogics.com.

Thank You

for Using Auslogics Software!