Today’s video will show you ten easy ways to free up storage space on your Windows 11
PC or laptop.
We’ll cover ten methods, but feel free to pick and choose those that are most relevant
and remember to be careful and check before deleting anything just in case you want to
keep it.
As always if the video helps remember to leave a like and feel free to subscribe for more
helpful videos, let’s get into the ten methods.
The first method is to check that Windows’ own built in storage cleaner is enabled and
set up correctly.
To check that we have it setup correctly, first go to the main settings page.
You can get there by searching for it in the search bar.
In the settings, click on system from the options on the left side although you should
be in here by default.
In the system settings, click on storage from the list.
Now find the option called storage sense and if you want you can turn it on from here,
or you can click on it to change some of the settings before turning it on.
Customize the settings in here to your preference but please take care as some of the settings
might delete files automatically.
For example, files that have been in your recycle bin or downloads folder for more than
thirty days.
Once you’re happy with the settings and you understand them, head back one page to
the storage settings for the next method.
Method two is to clear your PC or laptop of temporary files that you don’t need.
Back in the storage settings, below storage sense, there should be an option called something
like clean-up recommendations.
Click once on this and you will be able to delete temporary files and folders that Windows
doesn’t think you need.
Have a look in each category and I would recommend checking though before deleting anything,
but this method could help free up quite a lot of space.
The third method to free up space is to manually empty the recycle bin.
This one’s nice and simple to do but can be quite effective.
To do this, head to your desktop, you should be able to find the recycle bin shortcut.
Double click on it to open it and before you do anything, just take a look through to see
if there’s anything you want to keep.
If you find something that you want to keep, then all you need to do is right click on
it and select restore.
It will then go back to the place it was deleted.
If you’re happy to permanently delete the rest of the contents of the recycle bin, then
click in some space and then choose empty recycle bin.
Finally, click yes to permanently delete the contents.
The fourth method is to manually empty or sort through your downloads folder.
There could be files, images and videos downloaded and stored there that take up space.
You can get to your downloads folder by clicking on file explorer and then choosing it from
the quick access menu.
If you can’t find it from here, you can always search for the folder in the search
bar to get there.
Take a look in the folder and simply delete anything you don’t want by right clicking
and selecting delete.
Just make sure you don’t delete anything you want to keep.
Method five is to transfer any of your large files, such as videos to external storage.
You will of course need an external drive to do this, but its worth it for items that
you want to keep, but don’t necessarily need on your PC or laptop.
All you need to do for this is to connect your external drive and then find it within
the file explorer.
You can then copy and paste files from your PC to the external drive and you can then
delete them on your PC to free up space.
Of course, you could also purchase another drive for your PC too to make more storage
space.
The sixth method to free up space is to clear your browser cache.
This will only clear a small amount of space but might be worth it if you are desperate.
The method to do this will differ depending on the browser you use, so if you are unsure
on the exact method for your browser then you can search online for the correct way
to do it.
However, most browsers should be similar, and I’ll show you how to do it on Chrome
for this example.
In Chrome, click on the three dots icon in the top right to bring up the menu, go down
the list and select history, then open your browser history.
You can also use the keyboard shortcut Control and H to get here too.
Find where it says clear browsing data on the left side and click on that.
Now check the box that says cached images and files and change the time range to all
time at the top.
Finally select clear data to clear however much space it was taking up.
Method seven is to uninstall or remove any apps or games you no longer use.
You can uninstall a program by going to settings, then apps, then installed apps and then by
finding the app you want to uninstall and then finally click on the three dots icon
and choose uninstall.
When you delete or uninstall any apps, programs or any files whilst following this video,
you might need to empty your recycle bin again to free up even more space, so do this again
at the end of the video, after I’ve shown all of the methods.
The eight method is to run the disk clean-up tool.
This is similar to an earlier method, but there might be other files that can be deleted
this way.
To do this, search disk clean up in the search bar and click on it to open it.
In the new window, you will notice all of the categories that we can choose to delete
as well as the amount of space it will free up.
All you need to do is go down the list and check the boxes for the ones you are happy
to delete.
Please be careful though and double check that you don’t need to keep any of these
files and folders as they will be permanently deleted.
When you’re happy with the selection, click on OK and then delete files to run the tool.
The final two methods should probably only be used if you really need extra space.
They can free up quite a lot but you do lose out on some features, but you’re free to
try them anyway.
Method nine is to change the amount of space reserved for system restore points.
System restore can be used to revert to a certain point in time if you run into problems.
If you have never had to do this, it might be worth following this method.
To reduce the amount of space reserved for system restore, first search “restore”
in the search bar and click on create a restore point.
When the new window opens, click on where it says configure and then find the slider
to adjust the amount of reserved drive space for restore points.
You don’t need to decrease it all the way, but the less space you leave it, the fewer
restore points there will be should you run into any problems in the future.
Click on OK or apply, once you’re happy with the settings.
The tenth and final method is to disable hibernate on your PC.
Hibernate reserves space on your drive to use as memory if you shut down your PC and
want to return to how it was when you start it up again.
Turning it off will release this reserved space for you to use if you desperately need
it.
You can always turn on hibernate again in the future, and I’ll tell you how to do
that too.
To turn off hibernate, first search command prompt in the search bar but before you open
it, right click on it and select run as administrator.
When it opens, the text you need to enter is “p” “o” “w” “e” “r”
“c” “f” “g” space “forward slash” “h” “I” “b” “e” “r” “n”
“a” “t” “e” space “o” “f” “f”.
I’ll also include this code in the description if you want to copy and paste it in.
Now press the enter key to run the command.
You now won’t be able to hibernate your PC, but if you never did that any way, you
shouldn’t notice a difference, apart from the extra drive space.
To turn it back on in the future, the command to enter is “powercfg /hibernate on”.
It’s the same as the first command but with on instead of off.
Again, I’ll include this in the description if you want to copy and paste it.
Those are my ten easy ways to free up disk space on your Windows 11 PC or laptop.
Thanks so much for watching, if you found the video helpful remember to leave a like
and feel free to subscribe for more tips in the future.
Click the card onscreen now to watch a video of mine showing you ten easy ways to speed
up your Windows 11 device!
Thanks again for watching and I will see you in another video.