Today I De-Cluttered & Audited my Windows 11 PC with the help of AI

We’ve all been there: over time, a computer accumulates background clutter, old software lingers in the corners, and mysterious tech glitches start to pop up. Today, I decided to give my Windows 11 machine a thorough audit, cleanup, and health check.

Here is exactly what I learned, the terminal tricks I used, and how a collaborative approach with AI helped me safely optimize my system.

Removing Legacy Software

The first step to a fast PC is removing things you don’t need. I started by auditing my installed programs. The list of programs has grown over the years and i becomes hard to determine what is needed, especially with the clutter that comes with some programs.

So I asked AI to help me. But since I have a habit of being “lazy” I first asked for a way to get a full list of programs installed to be able to share it with AI. I got this prompt:

powershell "Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*, HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\* | Select-Object DisplayName, DisplayVersion | Format-Table -AutoSize > $env:USERPROFILE\Desktop\programs.txt"

That worked like a charm, so I shared the file with AI and went back and forth to clean it all up.

Where we had some confusion was with text entries like OldMHUUninstaller. AI assumed it was a program, but that program was nowhere to be found. Apparently, the PowerShell command produces additional output.

I had Pegasus installed, but was advised to remove it. See below how we made sure Windows 11 is in good health.

Removing Startup Fat

Next, I trimmed the startup fat by diving into Task Manager > Startup Apps. Again, I asked for a prompt to share:

powershell "Get-CimInstance Win32_StartupCommand | Select-Object Name, Command, User | Format-Table -AutoSize > $env:USERPROFILE\Desktop\opstarten.txt"

Also, this gave me a nice text file, but it was shorter than the list of apps I had on my screen. Since this list was much shorter than my program list, I just made 2 screenshots and shared those.

Little optimization here, I have been keen on that for a long time.

Smart Storage Automation (Storage Sense)

Windows 11 has a built-in janitor called Storage Sense. It automatically clears out system cache and empties the recycle bin.

I did not have this enabled, was not even aware of the feature. I enabled it but was careful not to include my “Downloads” folder since I use it as a temporary archive. I also made sure my cloud service folder remains untouched.

Whenever a cleanup is needed in these folders, I want to be in charge!

Running a Non-Invasive Health Check

Because I had just uninstalled some very old legacy software and deleted Pegasus for optimization, I still wanted to ensure my system is in good health. I got some suggestions for command prompts. I was unfamiliar with these, so I proceeded carefully to make sure no damage would be done. First, I just wanted to do a check.

The full Windows Scan

The first prompt I got was:

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

I found that a bit tricky. So I asked for just a scan:

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

This scans the actual Windows component store against Microsoft’s official cloud blueprint.

No errors found!

The Active File Integrity Scan

sfc /verifyonly

This checks every single Windows file for corruption without modifying them.

No errors found!

Quick logbook check

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth 

No component store corruption detected!

Behind the Scenes: How I Used AI as a Tech Collaborator

What made this cleanup efficient wasn’t just the tools, but how I approached the problem using AI. Instead of blindly running scripts or using third-party “PC Booster” software, I used the AI as a sounding board.

AI has a tendency to give you a full list of things to do. I wanted a step-by-step approach.

You know what, you can just ask for it!

We worked step-by-step, so I could ask questions and explore for myself. Before every major terminal command, I want to understand why we are running it and what it would do. By being cautious, asking for “read-only” scans first, and understanding the logic behind the settings, I stayed in full control of my machine.

After each step I took I provide feedback to AI to make sure AI and I kept on the same page. After the big program cleanup, I even made a new programs.txt file as an update so the AI could see what the status had become. That was helpful because some more optimizations surfaced.

The Takeaway

An optimized PC does not require magic (sketchy) software.

In this age of AI, you can be in control and learn useful new things. And by documenting it I create a future reference for you and for myself.