Need to free up some disk space on your Windows PC? Both Windows 10 and Windows 11 provide a dedicated settings menu to make the process easier. From this menu, you can see how much space has been used on your device and by what type of content. Show
Windows' Storage settings also allow you to quickly clear space and enable Storage Sense to automatically remove temporary files and recycle bin items. The process works similarly in Windows 10 and 11, though some of the screens and settings differ slightly. Open Storage SettingsI've been working for PCMag since early 2016 writing tutorials, how-to pieces, and other articles on consumer technology. Beyond PCMag, I've written news stories and tutorials for a variety of other websites and publications, including CNET, ZDNet, TechRepublic, Macworld, Popular Science, Time, Fortune, US News & World Report, and AARP Magazine. I spent seven years writing breaking news for CNET as one of the site’s East Coast reporters. I've also written two books for Wiley & Sons—Windows 8: Five Minutes at a Time and Teach Yourself Visually LinkedIn. On Windows 10, you can free up space on your computer in many different ways. Although nowadays, laptops and desktops include drives with multiple terabytes of storage, we always find a way to fill them up with documents, pictures, videos, apps, and games, causing the system to feel sluggish, problems saving files, and many other issues. If your computer runs out of space, Windows 10 comes with tools if your computer runs low on space. For example, Storage Sense, OneDrive Files On-Demand, Compact OS, NTFS compression, and other features to delete unnecessary files, apps, and games can help reclaim space, improve performance, and resolve problems during updates. This guide will walk you through the best ways to free up storage space on Windows 10 to store more files and install feature updates without issues. 1. Free up space clearing Recycle Bin on Windows 10Windows 10 doesn't erase files from the drive when you delete them. Instead, they are relocated to the Recycle Bin and marked for deletion. However, since the Recycle Bin can grow large over time, emptying its contents is the first thing you can do to free up space on your computer. To empty the Recycle Bin to regain storage space on Windows 10, use these steps:
Once you complete the steps, the system will free up around 10% of the drive capacity (assuming the bin is full). Change Recycle Bin settings Windows 10 reserves 10% of the available space for deleted files. Once the threshold is reached, the system will automatically delete files from the oldest to the newest. You can always adjust how much space the system should use for the Recycle Bin. To reduce the space usage for the Recycle Bin, use these steps:
After you complete the steps, the Recycle Bin will be able to keep more or fewer files from a particular location, depending on your configuration. 2. Free up space removing junk files with Storage Sense on Windows 10Storage Sense is a feature that allows the deletion of different types of junk files (including previous installation files after an upgrade and temporary files) to free up space on all the drives to make room to store other files and improve drive efficiency. Enable Storage Sense Although you can use Storage Sense manually, you can also enable the feature to run maintenance automatically. To enable Storage Sense on Windows 10, use these steps:
Once you complete the steps, Storage Sense will run automatically at your specified schedule to free up space and improve storage performance on Windows 10. The option to enable the feature is also available through the "Storage" page. However, it only activates the default settings. Utilizing the Storage Sense settings page lets you configure how the feature should remove unnecessary content from your computer. Delete unnecessary files with Storage Sense To free up space using Storage Sense on Windows 10, use these steps:
Storage Sense will run and delete unnecessary files from the computer to reclaim more space after completing the steps. Delete temporary files with Storage Sense Storage Sense also deletes temporary system and app files that can help to reclaim several gigabytes of space on the computer. To delete temporary files from the computer, use these steps:
After you complete the steps, the selected files will be deleted permanently, freeing up space for more important files. View storage usage On Windows 10, Storage Sense is also a great tool to help you understand which files use the most space to determine the files you can clean up. To view the storage usage on Windows 10, use these steps:
Once you complete the steps, you can determine the storage usage to focus on the locations to free up space. For example, inside the "System & reserved" category, you will see how much space the installation, virtual memory, hibernation files, and system restore are using and how much space the system is reserving for updates. If you have multiple drives, under the "More storage settings" section, click the "View storage usage on other drives" option to open the page that lists all the drives on the device. 3. Free up space deleting temporary files using Disk Cleanup on Windows 10You can still use the legacy Disk Cleanup tool to clear unnecessary files on Windows 10. Remove temporary files with Disk Cleanup To use Disk Cleanup to delete temporary files on Windows 10, use these steps:
After you complete the steps, those unnecessary files will be deleted from the device, freeing up hard drive space. Delete System Restore and Shadow Copies using Disk Cleanup Using System Restore and the Shadow Copies features, you can delete older files to reclaim additional space on Windows 10. To delete old system restore points on Windows 10, use these steps:
After completing the steps, you will reclaim additional space to store more important content. 4. Free up space using OneDrive files on-demand on Windows 10You can also use the OneDrive Files On-Demand feature to manually make files available online to regain some space on your computer. Enable OneDrive Files On-Demand On Windows 10, the Files On-Demand feature should be already enabled in OneDrive, but if it is not, use these steps:
Once you complete the steps, you can move files to the OneDrive folder and make them available only online to free up space (see steps below). Make files available online-only To make local files available online-only with OneDrive, use these steps:
After you complete the steps, you will be able to access all of your content using File Explorer, but you will only be able to open them with an internet connection. In addition to making synced files available only with an internet connection, you can free up even more space by moving other files to the OneDrive folder and using the above steps to make them available on demand. The free version of OneDrive allows you to store up to 5GB of data. However, you can always get a Microsoft 365 subscription to lift the limit to 1TB (opens in new tab). In addition to the 1TB of storage, the subscription also gives you access to all the Office apps and services like Microsoft Teams and Family Safety. Microsoft 365 Microsoft 365 gives you full access to all the apps and perks, such as 1TB OneDrive storage and Skype minutes. You can also install Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and other apps on up to five devices, and depending on the subscription, you can share the account with up to six people. 5. Free up space removing non-essential apps and gamesYou can also reclaim space by uninstalling apps you don't need or rarely use. Games also take up a lot of space, which means that keeping your catalog to a minimum can significantly reduce space usage while improving gaming performance on Windows 10. To uninstall apps and games on Windows 10, use these steps:
Once you complete the steps, repeat the instructions to remove additional apps and games from the computer. If you previously enabled the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), you may also have one or multiple distros installed on your computer. You can always uninstall them to free up space on Windows 10. Delete unused languages Secondary languages installed on Windows 10 can also use some available storage. If you rarely use the other languages, remove them to make more room for additional files. To uninstall languages on Windows 10, use these steps:
After you complete the steps, you may need to repeat the instructions to delete additional languages as necessary. Delete maps If you use the maps feature on Windows 10, you can remove the offline maps to clear up some additional space on the computer. To delete existing maps from your computer, use these steps:
Once you complete the steps, the offline maps will be removed from your computer to reclaim additional storage space. Uninstall optional features Optional features (such as Windows Media Player, Windows Hello Face, Math Recognizer, Windows Fax and Scan, and others) also take up storage, and you can remove them to regain some extra space on Windows 10. To remove optional features on Windows 10, use these steps:
After you complete the steps, you may need to repeat the instructions to remove other features you may no longer need. 6. Free up space transferring files to external driveIf you cannot clear enough space, you can connect an external drive to move files to the new location. You can even configure the system to make the external storage the default location to save files. Relocate files to external drive To transfer existing files to an external storage, connect the drive you will dedicate to the computer, and then use these steps:
After completing the steps, you may need to repeat the instructions to move additional files and folders to a new location to reduce the storage usage in the drive running out of space. Configure external drive as new save location To allow the system to save files and install apps on an external drive automatically, use these steps:
Once you complete the steps, files, and apps from the Microsoft Store will save in the new location you specified. Relocate apps and games to new drive You can also move most apps and games from the Microsoft Store installed on the computer to an external drive, which can help reduce storage usage. To transfer existing apps and games to another drive on Windows 10, connect the external storage to the computer, and then use these steps:
After you complete the steps, you may need to repeat the same instructions to move additional apps or games to the new location. The external drive must always be connected to the device when using this feature. Otherwise, you won't be able to launch the apps or play those games you moved to the new storage. 7. Free up space using NTFS compressionWindows 10 also includes a compression feature part of the NT File System (NTFS) to reduce the storage usage of current files maintaining normal access without the need to zip any content. The feature can compress files, folders, or the entire drive. Important: Data compression can negatively impact system performance as it has to compress and decompress data on the fly. You should use this option only if you do not have another option and have capable hardware. Enable folder compression To enable Windows 10 NTFS compression for a folder, use these steps:
After you complete the steps, the file compression feature will enable reducing the size of existing and future files. (The above steps focus on folders, but the same instructions apply to compress files individually.) If you no longer want to use file compression, you can revert the changes using the same instructions, but in step 5, make sure to clear the Compress contents to save disk space option. Enable drive compression To enable NTFS compression for the entire drive, use these steps:
Once you complete the steps, Windows 10 will compress the drive and any content already on the storage without reformatting. When the feature is no longer needed, you can use the same instructions to disable compression, but in step 4, make sure to clear the "Compress this drive to save disk space" option. 8. Free up space disabling Hibernation on Windows 10On Windows 10, Hibernation is a nifty feature that saves the data in memory onto the system drive before shutting down to preserve the current session upon resuming. Then you can pick up where you left off when the device returns online. Although it is a convenient feature, it requires gigabytes of space to save the memory information into the hiberfil.sys file. If the device is running out of room, disabling Hibernation can help free up space for more critical files. To disable Hibernation on Windows 10 to free up space, use these steps:
Once you complete the steps, Hibernation will no longer be available, but you will have more space for other files. In the future, you can always re-enable the feature with the same instructions, but on step 3, make sure to use the powercfg /hibernate on command. 9. Free up space compressing installation footprint of Windows 10Compact OS is a tool that compresses the footprint of Windows 10 and apps. The feature is meant for devices with limited storage, but you can use the tool to quickly reclaim a few gigabytes of space when you do not have an external hard drive. Warning: This is a friendly reminder that modifying system files is risky and can cause irreversible damage to your installation if you do not do it correctly. Before proceeding, making a temporary full backup of your PC is recommended. To shrink the size of the Windows 10 installation and apps with Compact OS, use these steps:
After you complete the steps, the process will reclaim around 2GB of storage, slightly improving performance. When the feature is no longer needed, you can always revert the changes using the same instructions, but in step 3, make sure to use the compact.exe /compactOS:never command. 10. Free up space rebuilding search indexer on Windows 10The Windows Search database can sometimes grow very large because of the amount of content that needs indexing or indexing issues, which can be why the system drive is running out of space. If this is the case, clearing and rebuilding the database and modifying the index items can significantly reduce storage usage on Windows 10. To rebuild the index of Windows 10 to free up space, use these steps:
Once you complete the steps, the system will clear and rebuild the Windows Search feature's index database, which can significantly reclaim a lot of space. The only caveat with this process is that during the rebuild, searches using the Taskbar, File Explorer, and across Windows 10 might be incomplete until files are re-indexed. Configure indexer You can also minimize the space by preventing Windows Search from indexing specific locations. To remove indexing folder locations from Windows Search, use these steps:
After completing the steps, Windows Search will update the database, hopefully reducing its footprint and making space for other files. 11. Free up space deleting users no longer sharing deviceIf you share the computer with others, it may be possible to free up space by deleting accounts that no one is using anymore. To delete a user account and files on Windows 10, use these steps:
Once you complete the steps, the profile and data will be removed from the computer, regaining more space for other files. You may need to repeat the steps to delete other accounts on Windows 10. 12. Free up space disabling Reserved Storage on Windows 10"Reserved Storage" on Windows 10 is a feature that sets apart several gigabytes of space for updates, system cache, and temporary files. When new updates are available, the system automatically cleans up the storage to minimize problems during other updates. Although this is a great feature to minimize problems during updates and upgrades, it takes away space you could use to store more documents, pictures, and videos. If you understand the feature and prefer not to use it, you can disable it to free up space. The only caveat with this method is that once you disable the feature, the changes will apply during the next feature update of Windows. Important: Only use these instructions if you understand the feature. Otherwise, it is not recommended to disable Reserved Storage as it may cause issues during updates. To disable Reserved Storage on Windows 10, use these steps:
After completing the steps, the feature will turn off on Windows 10, allowing you to reclaim around 7GB of space after the next feature update of Windows 10. In addition to all these different ways to free up drive space, sometimes malware can cause storage problems. If you notice strange behaviors and the hard drive is running low in space, a virus may be causing the problem. If this is the case, you can use these instructions to scan, detect, and remove any malware causing storage issues. More resourcesWhy you can trust Windows Central Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test. For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10 and Windows 11, visit the following resources:
Windows 11 View at Best Buy (opens in new tab) View at Walmart (opens in new tab) View at Amazon (opens in new tab) Cutting-edge operating system A refreshed design in Windows 11 enables you to do what you want effortlessly and safely, with biometric logins for encrypted authentication and advanced antivirus defenses. How do I free space on my PC?Here's how to clear disk space and increase storage on your desktop or laptop, even if you've never done it before.. Uninstall unnecessary apps and programs. ... . Clean your desktop. ... . Get rid of monster files. ... . Use the Disk Cleanup Tool. ... . Discard temporary files. ... . Deal with downloads. ... . Save to the cloud.. What is taking up space on my PC?To see which files are using the most space:. Select File Explorer from the taskbar and find the files you want to move.. Under This PC in the menu on the left, select a folder to see what files are saved in it. ... . To see the size of the files in a folder, select View from the taskbar, then select Details.. How do I clear up free space?Close apps that don't respond. Android manages the memory that apps use. You don't usually need to close apps. ... . Uninstall apps you don't use. If you uninstall an app and need it later, you can download it again. ... . Clear the app's cache & data. You can usually clear an app's cache and data through your phone's Settings app.. |