To do this, open the Settings menu and go to System > Storage and click the link at the bottom for Change where new content is saved. Luckily, you can fix this by changing your default save locations for apps, documents, music, pictures and videos. If your computer has multiple hard drives or a partitioned hard drive, you may find yourself running out of space on one drive (or partition).
#CLEAN SPACE WINDOWS 10 WINDOWS#
I'm pretty good about emptying the Recycle Bin on something approaching a regular schedule, but I'm also very happy to have Windows track down and eradicate needless temp files and old downloads.
#CLEAN SPACE WINDOWS 10 PC#
You can also choose to move local files off your PC and to the cloud via OneDrive if they haven't been opened for a specified period of time. You can set it so Windows automatically deletes unused temporary files, as well as files that have been in the Recycle Bin and Downloads folder for more than a day or up to 60 days. You can automate some of this cleanup by heading back to the Storage page in Settings and toggling on Storage Sense.
Next, click Temporary files from the list that shows you how your storage is being used on the C: drive and check the boxes for the type of temp files you want to jettison before clicking the Remove files button to delete them. Go to Settings > System and click on Storage on the left panel. You can delete temporary files without running Disk Cleanup, along with files you downloaded that you may no longer need. And if you want to delete system files, such as the Windows.old folder (which holds your previous installations of Windows, and can be several gigabytes in size), click Clean up system files. Select the file types you want to delete - from Downloaded Program Files to Thumbnails - and hit OK. If you're unclear about what files are included for each item listed, click the View Files button to check before proceeded. You can find Disk Cleanup in the Start menu under Windows Administrative Tools > Disk Cleanup or you can just search for it. Windows has a built-in disk cleanup utility, aptly named Disk Cleanup, which can help you clear up space by removing various files - including temporary internet files, system error memory dump files and even previous Windows installations that may still be hanging around. You will see a warning pop-up asking if you are sure you want to permanently delete your Recycle Bin items.
To empty the Recycle Bin, go to your desktop, right-click on the Recycle Bin and click Empty Recycle Bin. Instead, they sit in the Recycle Bin and continue to take up valuable hard-drive space.
When you delete items, like files and photos, from your PC, they don't immediately get deleted.
With that caveat, here are eight tips for reclaiming some drive space on your Windows PC or laptop.
#CLEAN SPACE WINDOWS 10 FREE#
These options will take you only so far if you need more free space after following these tips, you may need to add a second hard drive or replace your current drive with one with more storage capacity. If you're bumping up against your PC's physical storage limit, here are some quick tricks you can use to reclaim a couple of gigabytes' worth of storage space. No matter how large a hard drive or solid-state drive you have in your PC or laptop, there will come a time when you run out of space.