[Tip] How to Free Up Hard Disk Space in Windows 10

When we install new updates, device drivers in Windows operating system, Windows keeps a copy of installed drivers and updates. When we browse websites on Internet using web browsers, lots of temporary Internet files (cache) are stored on hard disk. Also Windows creates temporary files regularly to perform system and users initiated tasks. Sometimes 3rd party software also creates temporary files which are stored in TEMP folder.

There are many temporary and unnecessary files stored in Windows which can be removed to get extra free space on your hard disk drive. Long time back, we posted a detailed tutorial to get free space in Windows. You can read more about it at following link:

[Tip] How to Get Extra Free Disk Space in Windows?

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If we talk about Windows 10, it comes with some new features to free up disk space. For example, we talked about “Storage Sense” feature in another tutorial which can be used to automatically free up disk space in Windows 10:

[Tip] Automatically Free Up Disk Space in Windows 10

Apart from Storage Sense feature, you can also manually free up disk space in Windows 10. Microsoft has added an extra section to Settings app which helps users in removing unnecessary and temporary files to get extra hard disk space. It might come handy if you are facing low disk space problem in your computer.

To access this new feature, you just need to follow a few simple steps given below:

1. Open Start Menu and click on Settings option. It’ll open Settings app. Alternatively, you can direct open Settings app using WIN+I hotkey.

2. Now click on “System” icon and in left-side pane, click on “Storage” section.

PS: Alternatively, You can directly launch the “Storage” page using “ms-settings:storagesense” command in RUN dialog box as mentioned here.

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3. Now under “Storage Sense” section, click on “Free up space now” link.

Free_Up_Space_Now_Option_Windows_10_Settings.png

4. It’ll open next screen where Windows will start scanning for temporary and unwanted files and after a few seconds, it’ll show a list of all available files which can be safely deleted to get free space on your hard disk drive.

Remove_Temporary_Files_Get_Extra_Hard_Disk_Space_Windows_10.png

Various categories are listed such as Windows update cleanup, downloaded program files, temporary Internet files, device driver packages, thumbnails, Windows error reporting files, delivery optimization files, etc.

5. Select all or desired checkboxes and click on “Remove files” button. It’ll take some time in purging the files based upon their size.

That’s it. Now you’ll get some extra free space on your hard disk specially C: drive.

Published in: Windows 10

About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on various TV channels.

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