How to Free Up Space on Windows 11/10

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When you Free Up Space on Windows 11/10 computer, there are several ways to free up space for more important files and speed up the computer. “Drive Space” refers to how much information a computer can hold. As a device is used, data is saved to the hard drive so that the user can find it again when they need to.

When documents are saved in Microsoft Word, it’s clear that data is written to drive space. For example, you can quickly get rid of temporary files by using Storage Sense. You can delete files that have already been synced to the cloud from OneDrive. With NTFS compression, files can be shrunk so that more content can fit in the same amount of space.

With Compact OS, Windows 11 and apps can take up less space. You can also get rid of apps and games you don’t use much, move files to a different drive, and do other things.

10 Ways to Free Up Space on Windows 11/10

Remove Temporary Files

• Press Windows + I > open the Settings app.
• Go to System> Storage.
• Click the “Temporary Files” option.
• Check the items you need and click the “Remove files” button.

Use the Disk Cleanup Utility

• In the Windows search bar, type “Disk Cleanup” and hit Enter.
• Select the boxes next to the items you don’t want and click the “Cleanup System Files” button.
•  Follow the on-screen instructions & remove temp files.

Reduce the Size of WinSxS Folder

• Go to Control Panel.
• Set to view by Category and select “System and Security“.
• Select “Schedule tasks” under Administrative Tools.
•  In the left panel, select Task Scheduler Library -> Microsoft -> Windows -> Servicing.
• In the middle panel, right-click “StartComponentCleanup” and choose “Run“.

Turn on OneDrive Files On-Demand

• Click the OneDrive icon on the taskbar and log into your account.
• Right click the OneDrive icon and choose “Settings“.
• Navigate to “Settings” tab and make sure the option “Save space and download files as you use them” is CHECKED.
• Open your OneDrive folder, select all the files and folders, bring up the context menu and choose “Clear space“. In this way, all files are kept in the cloud, freeing up disk space Windows.

Get a Larger Hard Drive

• Select the disk to be copied and choose “Copy Disk” from the action panel.
• On the next interface, select the larger drive as the target disk. Note that all data on the target disk will be cleaned. Click “Next” to continue.
•  Choose the copy options depending on the basis of your preference. It is worth mentioning that no matter you choose “Fit partitions to entire disk” or “Copy Partitions without resize“, you can resize each partition by dragging the slider on the lower part.
•  Here you will be told how to boot from the destination disk. Please keep this information in mind and click “Finish“.
• Finally, click “Apply” to save the changes.
• Remove the original system disk and boot from the larger hard drive.

Use Storage Sense

•  Click Settings > System > Storage.
• Under the Storage Management in the right pane, turn on the toggle switch against Storage Sense.
• Click the ‘>’ sign at the extreme right of the Storage Sense option to open settings.
• Tick the Keep Windows running smoothly by automatically cleaning up the temporary system and app files option. This allows Windows to delete junk files as and when needed.
• Switch on the toggle under the Automatic User content cleanup section.
• Click the Run Storage Sense under the Configure cleanup schedule and select the option from the dropdown menu as per your need.
• Specify the period of deletion of files under the Recycle Bin and Downloads section.
• Specify the period after which the content becomes online-only under the OneDrive – Personal section.

Disable Hibernation

When you leave your PC idle for a certain period of time, Windows puts your PC into Hibernation to save power. However, to keep your unsaved data from getting distorted or deleted, Windows saves a temporary copy of all the unsaved work. You can disable the Hibernation feature to save space. Follow the steps below:

• Type cmd in the search box and select Run as Administrator.
•  Insert the command powercfg /hibernate off in the Command Prompt and hit Enter.

Move Files to External Storage Drive

If you have a spare external storage drive, like an external HDD or SSD, you can transfer some data to it. This will allow you to free up storage space on the hard disk. To transfer the data, connect the external drive to your PC and follow the steps below.

• Open File Explorer and browse for files and folders taking up large space.
• Select the files and folders you want to move, right-click and select Cut. Alternatively, select the data and press Ctrl + X.
• Open the external drive and choose a destination to save the data.
• Right-click and choose Paste or press Ctrl + V.

Scan for Malware

It’s possible that a virus is making fake files on your computer to slow it down. So, you should run a deep system scan and get rid of any trojan horses or other bad software. Here are some of the best antivirus programmes you can use to do the scan.

You can also use Windows Defender, which comes with Windows, to look for malware on your computer. If you want to, you can open the Settings app, go to Windows Security, and click Virus & Threat Protection. Next, click the Quick Scan button to start a scan. You can also choose a deep scan of your OS by clicking Scan options below it.

Rebuild Indexing Library

Indexing is the process of storing information about a file, such as its content, metadata, dates, etc., so that when a user searches, the operating system can “look up” the information. Over time, this stored information can grow to be a lot, even if some of the content that was indexed no longer exists. So, you can try to make some space by rebuilding the indexing library or removing indexed files and folders from the list.

The Microsoft Support Center is a good place to get more help.

FAQ

How do I free up space on Windows without deleting anything?

1. Decrease or delete hiberfil. sys file size.
2. Move Pagefile. sys file to another drive.
3. Compress all the data.
4. Decrease Recycle Bin size.
5. Move User Libraries.
6. Move TEMP and TMP folders.
7. Delete duplicate files.
8. Delete unnecessary files.

How do I clean junk files in Windows 10?

1. In the search box on the taskbar, type disk cleanup, and select Disk Cleanup from the list of results.
2. Select the drive you want to clean up, and then select OK.
3. Under Files to delete, select the file types to get rid of. To get a description of the file type, select it.
4. Select OK.