Windows 10: How can I undo disk cleanup? (downloads folder)

A few days ago I performed disk cleanup and cleaned my downloads folder, as I had a lot of junk in there. However, I forgot that I had one important notepad document saved there, and I can't seem to recover it. I used a few different data recovery software and none of them were able to find it, besides the shortcut (.lnk) to the txt document. I also tried to do restore from previous version (no previous versions available) and file history (but it was off). Is there anything I can do to recover this file?

:)

 

Disk Cleanup - downloads folder


Just noticed that 1809 disk cleanup now has downloads in the list - could cause problems if you're not paying attention. I'm used to blindly ticking all boxes...

 

DISK CLEANUP

Hello,



Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

1. Which files are you trying to delete using disk clean up?
2. Which version of Windows are you currently using?

Please reply back with the information to the above questions in order to provide you with appropriate troubleshooting steps:



I understand that you are trying to free up memory using Disk Cleanup. If you are trying to delete files using disk cleanup on Windows 10, I suggest you to refer the following article on

Disk cleanup in Windows 10 for steps to perform disk clean up on your PC.



Hope it helps.



Sandeep Kumar M

Microsoft Community – Moderator

 

Disk Cleanup - downloads folder


Storage Sense is no better. It also has Downloads listed, same as Disk Cleanup.