outdated drivers

Probably 3 weeks since the last run. Now says:-

So I should just let this junk accumulate?

Your browser is meant to control its cache, downloads, browsing history and cookies. You tell the browser how much space for the cache, how long to keep the browsing history and what to do with cookies (keep, delete on close etc.) Leave it to deal with those jobs.

As for the others, are short of disk space? If you are not down to the last bytes then why do you care? 1TB SSD in this Windows machine, currently 25.8GB of temporary files & app cache. Who cares with 626GB free space. Browser cache is set to 500MB and to delete cookies on exit, the actual Download directory is currently 66GB in size. Files from Downloads get moved somewhere safe if wanted for some time. Otherwise the directory will get deleted should I ever get low on disk space.

Even worse if those headlamps are towing a double horse box and you have no idea what is behind the towing vehicle.

You can delete the cookies and browsing history in your browser settings. There should also be an option to delete cookies when you close your browser, plus another option to keep those for sites that you may use a lot.

There is a good chance that the temporary system files will not be deleted if still in use and/or they will be re-created soon afterwards.

Drivers do not necessarily have or need installer packaging - a configuration file can be enough.

Same could be argued with a monolithic kernel with all the base drivers installed at compile time. How many of those are furnished as binary inclusions by the device makers, rather than as source? You still have some trust issues including opaque binaries from third parties.

Windows hardware quality labs (WHQL certification) do this for many drivers (at a price!). Having said that, the recent CrowdStrike debarcle used a WHQL certified driver!

Deletion of cookies and browser history are a personal choice thing (and browsers have options to do that for you if wanted). Cookies serve useful purposes as well as malign!

Those can build up, and if low on disk space (where low is less than 10% free - since that is the point NTFS will lose performance) they can be worth removing. (again windows has standard tools that can do those and more)

Applications caching is there to improve program load and executer performance. So deleting the contents when not necessary can actually harm performance.

Things like registry "cleaning" are even more dubious and more likely to result in configurations that are less stable. Also registry access is a core component in windows and is highly optimised, so there is no tangible performance gain is removing "junk", but there is a risk of doing damage each time you mess with it.

Ok All enough said. Firefox is set to delete cookies but I don't recall a cache size option.

OK John. Ignorance is bliss! It occurs to me to wonder how the rest of average PC users manage to survive!

Pretty much everybody knows somebody who can fix things. And no, not children, who know everything there is to know about playing games, but nothing about the computer itself.

IME generally by ignoring the whole thing, and letting the computer do whatever it does by default - at least until the point it stops working properly and then they ask for help.

(how many emails do you receive with a "sent from my iPhone" message at the bottom? People don't even seem to question the concept that one could even change that to something more appropriate or even just delete it altogether)

It is certainly possible to get Windows into a state where it is unrepairable short of wiping the hard drive and reinstalling from scratch i.e. it will refuse to do a factory reset.

I would guess that some people think it is unchangeable, and others think people will be impressed by it.