How to Free Up Space on Windows 10 — 15 Proven Methods

Storage Sense is Windows 10's built-in automatic cleanup tool. It removes temporary files, empties the Recycle Bin on a schedule, and can delete files in your Downloads folder that you have not used in a while. Enable it once and it runs automatically.

• Go to Settings › System › Storage
• Toggle Storage Sense to On
• Click "Configure Storage Sense or run it now" to customize the schedule and what it cleans
• Scroll down and click "Clean now" for an immediate one-time run

Disk Cleanup is a more thorough manual tool. The critical step that most guides miss: you must click "Clean up system files" to unlock the biggest categories, including Windows Update Cleanup, which can alone account for 5–15GB.

• Press Windows + S and type Disk Cleanup
• Right-click the result and select Run as administrator
• Select your C: drive and click OK
• Click "Clean up system files" at the bottom of the dialog
• Check all available categories, especially Windows Update Cleanup and Previous Windows installation(s)
• Click OK, then Delete Files

After a major Windows feature update, the old Windows installation is stored in C:\Windows.old. This folder can take 15–30GB and is kept for 10 days as a rollback safety net. After 10 days it is completely safe to delete.

• Run Disk Cleanup as administrator (Method 2 above)
• Click "Clean up system files"
• Check Previous Windows installation(s)
• Confirm and delete — Windows.old is permanently removed
• Do not attempt to delete it manually via File Explorer — use Disk Cleanup to avoid permission errors

Installed applications — especially games, creative software, and vendor-installed bloatware — can consume tens of gigabytes. Audit your installed apps and remove anything you have not used in 6 months.

• Go to Settings › Apps › Apps & features
• Sort by Size to see the biggest offenders first
• Click any app, then Uninstall
• Also check Control Panel › Programs › Uninstall a program for older desktop apps not listed in Settings

The Downloads folder is one of the most neglected storage hogs. Installer files (.exe, .msi), ZIP archives, large PDFs, and video downloads accumulate here silently. Sort by size and delete anything you no longer need.

• Open File Explorer and click Downloads in the left sidebar
• Switch to Details view and click the Size column header to sort by size
• Select and permanently delete large files you no longer need
• Move anything worth keeping to an external drive or cloud storage

Windows and applications constantly write temporary files to %temp% and C:\Windows\Temp. These are safe to delete and can accumulate several gigabytes over months of use.

• Press Windows + R, type %temp%, press Enter
• Press Ctrl + A to select all, then press Delete
• Skip any files Windows says are currently in use (click Skip All)
• Repeat by pressing Windows + R again, type temp (without %) and delete those as well
• Finally, run cleanmgr to catch the Windows system temp folder as well

Hibernation saves your RAM contents to disk so your computer can power off completely while preserving your session. The hibernation file (hiberfil.sys) is sized to match your RAM — if you have 8GB of RAM, this file takes 8GB. If you use Sleep instead of Hibernate, you can safely disable this and reclaim the space.

• Press Windows + S, type cmd, right-click and choose Run as administrator
• Type the following command and press Enter:

• The hiberfil.sys file is deleted immediately and the space is freed
• To re-enable hibernation later: powercfg /hibernate on
• Note: this also disables Fast Startup — cold boots will be slightly slower

The page file (pagefile.sys) acts as virtual RAM on your hard drive. By default, Windows manages its size automatically and it can grow to 1.5× your physical RAM. If your system has 16GB or more RAM, you can safely reduce it.

• Press Windows + Pause/Break (or search Advanced system settings)
• Click Advanced › Performance › Settings
• Go to the Advanced tab and click Change under Virtual memory
• Uncheck "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives"
• Set a custom size: 1024 MB (initial) and 4096 MB (maximum) is sufficient for most users with 16GB+ RAM
• Click Set, then OK, and restart Windows

Modern browsers cache images, scripts, and videos locally to speed up page loads. Over time this cache can grow to 1–3GB per browser. Clearing it costs nothing in functionality — pages just reload slightly slower until the cache rebuilds.

• Chrome / Edge: Press Ctrl + Shift + Delete, set time range to All time, check Cached images and files, click Clear data
• Firefox: Press Ctrl + Shift + Delete, set time range to Everything, check Cache, click Clear Now
• You can also clear browser caches via Storage Sense (Method 1) if you enable the "Delete temporary files that my apps aren't using" option

OneDrive Files On-Demand lets you keep files in the cloud without storing them locally. Files show in File Explorer and download only when you open them. This can free up tens of gigabytes if you have a large OneDrive library synced locally.

• Click the OneDrive cloud icon in the system tray
• Click Help & Settings › Settings
• Under the Sync and backup tab, click Advanced settings and enable Files On-Demand
• In File Explorer, right-click any folder in your OneDrive and select "Free up space" to move it to cloud-only storage
• Cloud-only files show a cloud icon and remain accessible — they just download on demand

Sometimes a single file — a forgotten video export, a large backup, or a runaway log file — is eating gigabytes. TreeSize Free and WinDirStat are free tools that visualize your entire disk usage so you can pinpoint exactly where the space went.

• TreeSize Free: Download from jam-software.com — right-click any drive and select "Scan with TreeSize Free" for a fast sorted view
• WinDirStat: Download from windirstat.net — provides a color-coded treemap that makes large files immediately visible
• Look for unexpected large files in AppData, ProgramData, and user profile folders
• Common hidden space wasters: game save files, database logs, virtual machine images, old backup archives

Files you delete are moved to the Recycle Bin — they still take up disk space until the Bin is emptied. This is obvious, but surprisingly many users have several gigabytes sitting in a Recycle Bin they have never emptied.

• Right-click the Recycle Bin icon on your desktop and select Empty Recycle Bin
• Alternatively, in Disk Cleanup (Method 2) check Recycle Bin to include it in the cleanup
• To automate this: Storage Sense (Method 1) can empty the Recycle Bin automatically after 1, 14, 30, or 60 days

Your Documents, Pictures, Videos, and Downloads folders default to your C: drive. If you have a secondary drive (D:) or an external drive, you can redirect these folders there — freeing up C: permanently and preventing it from filling up again.

• Open File Explorer and go to This PC
• Right-click Documents (or Pictures, Videos, etc.) and select Properties
• Click the Location tab, then Move
• Select a folder on your D: or external drive and click Apply
• Windows will ask to move existing files — click Yes
• Repeat for each personal folder you want to redirect

NTFS compression can shrink the contents of your C: drive by 20–30% on average, recovering 5–15GB. It works by compressing files transparently — Windows decompresses them on the fly when accessed. On modern processors this has minimal performance impact, but it is best avoided on older or slower SSDs.

• Open File Explorer, right-click your C: drive and select Properties
• Check "Compress this drive to save disk space"
• Click Apply, then choose "Apply changes to drive C:\, subfolders and files"
• The process runs in the background and may take 30–90 minutes
• Not recommended for HDDs with heavy write workloads or very old SSDs

System Protection stores snapshots of your system (restore points) on your C: drive. By default it reserves up to 10% of your drive — on a 500GB drive that is 50GB. You can delete all old restore points except the most recent one to reclaim this space, while keeping the ability to restore.

• Search for Create a restore point and open it
• Select your C: drive in the list and click Configure
• Click Delete to remove all existing restore points (Windows will immediately create a new one)
• Reduce the Max Usage slider to 3–5% to limit future storage use
• Alternatively, in Disk Cleanup › More Options tab, click "Clean up..." under System Restore