6 Ways to Free Up Storage Space in Windows 11
As a Windows 11 user, you have plenty of options to free up disk space on your system. Unnecessary apps, temporary Windows Update files, and media can occupy a huge chunk of your hard drive. Limited storage space prevents you from downloading the necessary software and slows down your PC.
If you’ve hit the storage limit on your Windows 11 PC and need to free up disk space, you’ve come to the right place. Read on as we detail sixstrategies it’s possible to use to optimize your storage.
1. Delete Previous Windows 11 Installation Files
If you’ve recently upgraded to Windows 11 from Windows 10, you will likely still have the previous Windows installation files lingering on your hard drive. Similarly, Windows also saves update files that can accumulate to a large chunk of valuable disk space. The operating system backs up the existing system state in case of an update failure.
However, if Windows 11 seems to be working well for you, removing previous Windows installation files and unnecessary update files from your PC is safe. To do so, follow the steps below:
2. Permanently Delete Items in the Recycle Bin
Whenever you delete a file from your Desktop or any other folder, the file is not permanently deleted. It’s stored within the Recycle Bin folder, so you can recover it if required. Over an extended period, the Recycle Bin can become home to many deleted files you no longer need. To free up space properly, you will have to delete the contents of the Recycle Bin permanently:
3. Delete Temporary Files
Temporary files unnecessarily clutter your system; the best way to deal with them is by deleting them for good. The steps to removing temporary files on Windows 11 are pretty simple:
If you want more information, check out theother ways to delete temporary files on Windows.
4. Remove Unnecessary Apps and Files
Another crucial step to freeing up storage space is removinguseless pre-installed bloatware, optional features, unnecessary installed software, and junk files.
We highly suggest removing unnecessary Windows apps (such as Maps) and software you no longer use. To uninstall applications on Windows 11:
We have more information on the topic on our piece onhow to quickly remove bloatware from Windows.
You can also uninstall optional Windows 11 features, and these are usually add-ons that might not affect your daily use. Here’s how you can remove optional features on Windows 11:
Additionally, we recommend taking your files for a deep spring clean. You should discard files and folders you no longer need for good; however, for files you do not immediately need, you can transfer them onto the cloud or another external hard drive.
Similarly, you should also clear out old installation setup files in your Downloads folder. It would help if you looked into the below folders to clear out junk files:
If you have data in another partition of your hard disk (D, F, etc.), we recommend cleaning out unnecessary files from those folders.
ensure you permanently delete your files from theRecycle Binto ensure that the disk space is freed (as discussed above).
5. Free Up Disk Space Automatically With Storage Sense
Windows 11 has an innovative built-in feature calledStorage Sensewhich effectively manages your storage and automatically frees up space.
it’s possible to automatically set up custom rules on which folders to delete, schedule cleanup scans, and more. To enable Storage Sense on Windows 11:
6. Remove Unused User Accounts
If you don’t share your PC with someone else, you don’t need to use precious disk space for another Windows user account. The Windows operating system will allocate each user account extra disk space to function, so if you don’t use those additional accounts, you don’t need to keep them around.
Before you delete an account, we recommend transferring important files onto another hard drive in case you may need them again in the future.
To delete a user account:
Free Up Space on Windows 11
Windows 11 is excellent, but storage issues can frustrate your experience. Luckily, there are plenty of things you can strive to free up disk space. Clearing out temporary files, setting up Storage Sense, and removing unnecessary apps and files can go a long way in freeing up valuable disk space.
If your disk space took a huge hit after upgrading to Windows 11, it’s not because your new operating system is bloated. Here’s why.
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