Before you buy another computer, use these 7 steps to free up disk space in Windows 10. You’ll save yourself some money and not waste time re-downloading and configuring your favorite apps and games.
Every Windows 10 PC has storage space inside it. If it’s a low-cost computer, device manufacturers include 32GB of flash storage. Mid-range computers have between 500GB and 1TB hard drives to store all your files. The most expensive computers use a very fast SSD with at least 128GB of storage, and some even have a second hard drive. Regardless of their capacity, all computers have one thing in common: You can easily find yourself leaving no storage space. So you need these 7 steps to free up disk space in Windows 10.
How to Free Up Disk Space in Windows 10
- Free Up Disk Space in Windows 10 by Uninstalling Apps and Games
- Free Up Disk Space in Windows 10 Using Lightweight Apps from Microsoft Store
- Compress Folders to Zip Files to Free Up Space in Windows 10
- Free Up Disk Space in Windows 10 with Storage Sense
- Turn off Hibernation to Free up Disk Space in Windows 10
- Add More External Storage to Free Up Disk Space in Windows 10
- Use Cloud Storage on Your Windows 10
Free Up Disk Space in Windows 10 by Uninstalling Apps and Games
Before you do anything else, free up disk space in Windows 10 by removing programs, apps, and games you don’t use often. This can unlock a lot of space without much work.
Click the Windows button in the corner of your screen. Type in the search box and press the key on your keyboard.
Welcome to the Apps and Features area. Below this list is a breakdown of every app or game installed on the Windows 10 PC. This list is sorted alphabetically by default, but don’t use it that way. Instead, click the field and change by order.
The apps, programs, and games at the top of your list take up the most storage. Look at the list and decide which programs and games you no longer need. Click on the thing you want to remove.
Then click the button. An on-screen wizard will guide you through removing all programs. Apps and games you download from the Windows Store will uninstall themselves in seconds. 
Free Up Disk Space in Windows 10 Using Lightweight Apps from Microsoft Store
After getting rid of the apps you never use, it’s time to replace the big apps that take up a lot of space on your Windows 10 PC with light versions of Windows 10. Microsoft Store.
There are dozens of opportunities to replace bloated programs with modern Windows 10 apps that don’t take up much space. For example, Microsoft Office 2016, if installed, takes up about 4GB of storage on your PC. Office 365 users can remove the entire suite from their computers and replace it with only the Office Mobile apps they need. Word Mobile by comparison it is only 117MB. PowerPoint Mobile only 14MB. The Photos app is a solid alternative to the basic editing tools Adobe Photoshop Elements offers. This app also has some simple video editing tools that can replace Premiere Elements and save you storage space.
Use the biggest list of apps and programs on your Windows 10 PC to search for new ones in Microsoft’s store. The Store app is in your apps list below. You can also browse the store online here. Must Be Mobile Best Windows 10 Apps has solid changes for the programs you need to install from the internet today.
Compress Folders to Zip Files to Free Up Space in Windows 10
Before deleting any file on your Windows 10 PC, make sure to compress all the files you can. Windows 10 supports ZIP files, which can reduce the footprint of your files.
To create a ZIP file anywhere on your desktop background.
Use your mouse pointer to select. Now select inside the menu.
Type a name for the ZIP file and tap on your keyboard.
Now drag all the files you want to compress into that folder.
Storing things you don’t browse often in a ZIP file can free up huge amounts of disk space in Windows 10. The more files there are, the more space you gain with them. Don’t forget to delete the originals after adding the copies to your ZIP file. Also, you need to drag the images and videos of the files out of a ZIP file to preview them in Windows 10; this adds an extra step if you want to browse through them.
Free Up Disk Space in Windows 10 with Storage Sense
Once you’ve done all that, it’s time to use Storage Sense to get rid of the files clogging your system. Click the Windows button in the corner of your screen.
Type in the Search bar at the bottom of your screen and press your keyboard.
At the top of your screen are counters that measure how much free storage you have left. Below that is a switch for Storage Sense. When you flip, Windows 10 periodically deletes unnecessary files from the Recycle Bin and other areas.
Click the link to customize how Storage Sense works.
By default, it won’t delete files in your Downloads folder, but you can open it. You can also have Windows 10 delete older versions faster than it normally would.
Click the button to immediately remove files you don’t need.
Turn off Hibernation to Free up Disk Space in Windows 10
Every time you put your PC into hibernation, files are stored on it. These files allow your computer to restart quickly, but also increase the amount of reserved storage required for Windows 10 to run. If you have already shut down your computer, turn off Hibernation to free up disk space in Windows 10.
Click the Start button in the corner of your screen.
Type it in the search bar. Right-click on the results and select .
Type in Command Prompt and press on your keyboard.
From this point on, Hibernation is turned off, reducing the amount of reserved space Windows 10 allocates for itself. Note that every time you shut down your PC, it will shut down completely, increasing the time it takes to restart.
Add More External Storage to Free Up Disk Space in Windows 10
So far, you’ve used basic tricks to free up disk space used by your files and Windows itself in Windows 10. Now it’s time to free up disk space in Windows 10 by adding more disk space and moving your files.
As long as you have a card reader or a USB port, you can add more space to your PC. For laptops and tablets go with a MicroSD card. They usually fit inside the body of your computer and are hidden and out of sight. If you have a desktop computer, consider using a USB 3.0 hard drive. These allow you to maximize storage and performance at the expense of portability.
After you’ve purchased your external storage, it’s time to move the files from the drive on your computer to this external storage device. Drag and drop your files there, but keep things organized. You want items on the drive to be easily found.
If you want to take this one step further, set your new storage device as the default place where Windows 10 puts your files. Type in the search bar in the corner of your screen and
Click the link at the bottom of the window.
Now decide where Windows 10 stores each file type. Since an HD movie takes up more than a gigabyte of free space, videos are a great thing to store on an external drive.
Use Cloud Storage on Your Windows 10
If you don’t want to rely on a new hard drive, try cloud storage. Dropbox and iCloud are solid services, but Windows 10 has built-in support for OneDrive. Better still, the Files On Demand feature lets you see what’s stored on Microsoft servers directly from your computer. For example, your images may remain in the cloud, but you can still preview them from the Photos app. If you need a file, double click on it and Windows 10 will download it.
Click the white cloud icon in the corner of your screen to open OneDrive.
Choose from the drop-down menu.
Click .
Now tick the box. Click .
Click again in the corner of your screen.
Click on the folder in the corner of the pop-up window.
Now move the files you don’t use that often to the OneDrive folder.
Support our work ❤️
If you enjoyed this article, consider leaving a tip to help us keep publishing great content.
