How to Free Up Disk Space on Windows 10
Learn how to free up disk space and how to clean C Drive on Windows 10 in less than 30 minutes and make it as good as new and boost your system performance also.
Our Windows desktop is normally considered as a backup unit for our smartphones and other devices that we can connect to a computer. These regular backups accumulate a lot of disk space and eventually makes out computer run slow. Continuous browsing of different websites and opening different files also make the C Drive messy.
A lot of temp files, junk files, browser cache, or prefetch files are accumulated on a daily basis. Microsoft Windows gives us a lot of options to free up disk space on Windows 10. A few of them are to be used on a regular basis while others can be performed on a monthly basis depending on your usage. If you can't take the pain of performing a log of optimization steps on a regular basis, you can also make use of Advanced System Optimizers to get one-click optimization solutions.
How to Clean C Drive?
There are several steps that you can perform to clean up your C Drive. Let's try the most effective ones.Move Files to Another Drive
The easiest way is to identify important files, music, movies or pictures on your C Drive and move it to other partition on your hard drive or back them up on an external drive. Connect your external drive or removal media and explore them on Windows Explorer.
Select the files and folders that you wish to move and right-click on them and select 'Move to' and select a location. You can also cut and paste on an external drive.
"Please Note: Keep minimum files and folders on your C Drive to get the best system performance. While moving files, don't move the system files or default Windows files on another drive."
Uninstall Apps You Don't Need Anymore
We install a lot of apps on our PC but some of them are of one-time use only. We should uninstall unwanted apps on a regular basis to free up disk space on Windows 10.
Step 1. Click on the 'Start' button and then click on the 'Settings' icon.
Step 2. Select 'Apps & Features' from the list of settings categories.
Step 3. Scroll down the list of installed Apps and identify unwanted apps.
Step 4. Click on the app that you wish to uninstall and then click on the 'Uninstall' button. Remove all unnecessary apps from the list and restart the computer.
Turn on Storage Sense
Microsoft Windows 10 has come up with a new feature of storage sense. You can delete unwanted and heavy files using the 'Storage Sense' feature in Windows 10 to free up disk space.
Step 1. Click on the 'Start' button and then click on the 'Settings' gear icon.
Step 2. Click on 'System' from the settings list and then select 'Storage' from the left-hand side panel.
Step 3. Toggle ON the 'Storage Sense' option on the top and it will analyse the system storage space.
Step 4. Once you see the results, click on 'Change how we free up space automatically'. Under 'Free up space now', click on 'Clean now'.
Clear Temp and Cache Files
Temporary files and Cache files are accumulated on a daily basis. Weekly clean-up is necessary to regain access to your precious space.
Step 1. Hold down Win + R to access the run command window, type '%Temp%' and press enter.
Step 2. Windows Explorer will show all the Temporary files from your user account. Press (Ctrl + A) to select all and (Shift + Delete) key to permanently remove these files.
Step 3. Hold down Win + R to access the run command window, type 'Temp' and press enter.
Step 4. Windows Explorer will show all the Temporary files from your user account. Press (Ctrl + A) to select all and (Shift + Delete) key to permanently remove these files.
Step 5. Hold down Win + R to access the run command window, type 'prefetch' and press enter.
Step 6. Windows Explorer will show all the Temporary files from your user account. Press (Ctrl + A) to select all and (Shift + Delete) key to permanently remove these files.
How to Free Up Disk Space Using Disk Cleanup?
Disk Cleanup is a regular activity to clean temporary files, residual of Windows updates and other unwanted system files from the C Drive to free up disk space on Windows 10.
Step 1. Press (Win + R) to open the run command box and type cleanmgr to open Disk Cleanup utility.
Step 2. Select the C Drive that that normally has your Windows OS installed on it.
Step 3. Once the hard drive scan will run, it will show you the temporary files that need to be removed. Put a check on Thumbnail, Temporary Internet Files, Recycle Bin, Temporary Files, Delivery Optimization Files, and click on the 'Ok' button. You can also select Downloads if there is nothing important in this folder.
Step 4. Click on the 'Delete Files' button once prompted. All the selected files and folders will be deleted permanently from your computer.
Run Disk Defragmentation
Disk defragmentation is one of the best methods to regain the maximum amount of occupied space by Windows temporary files and cache. You can manually defrag Windows 10 by performing a few steps or use the best disk defragmentation software (Disk Speed Up by Systweak) to perform this action automatically.
Step 1. Press (Win + R) and type dfrgui and hit enter to open Disk Defragmenter.
Step 2. Select the C Drive to defrag and click on the 'Analyse' button to view the fragmented space.
Step 3. If there is fragmented space identified, click on 'Defragment Disk' or 'Optimize' option.
This process is time taking and may take hours depending on the disk size. It is recommended to perform the same process on all the drives of your internal hard drive.
If you can't follow all these manual steps on a regular basis, you can use Advanced System Optimizer to automatically optimize the hard drive on a weekly basis. Such optimization software are loaded with multiple utilities to take care of other aspects of Windows system optimization.
Summing Up
Windows optimization is a continuous process to gain optimum performance from your operating system. Now that you know how to free up disk space on Windows, if you can't manually perform a lot of optimization steps on a weekly/monthly basis, you should use optimization software to regularly maintain your OS. Get the most out of your Windows and let it run as good as new with these options.
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