In this video, I’ll be showing you ten easy ways you can free up storage on your Windows
10 PC or laptop. The methods could help you free up, up to 30 gigabytes plus of storage
space and you don’t need to be a computer expert to perform the methods I’ll be showing
you, so just follow along with the video and you should be fine. Remember to leave a like
if the video helps and feel free to subscribe for more tips in the future. Before we go
into the first method, I do need to say that most of these methods will mean uninstalling
certain apps and deleting folders, so when we get to that, just make sure you double
check, so you avoid removing anything you want to keep! Let’s get into the first method.
For the first method, we’re going to check and delete any files we don’t need in our
downloads folder. Anything you’ve downloaded from the internet will be in here if you haven’t
deleted them already and if you download things often, it’s likely that this folder could
be filling up with things you can remove, such as images and program installers. 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. Let’s move on to the second method.
We’ll now move onto one of the simplest yet effective methods to free up space in
Windows 10 and that is to empty the recycle bin. If you go 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. Remember that
the files you just deleted in your downloads folder will likely be in here if you need
them. 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. Now let’s move on to the third method.
For the third method, we’re going to make sure that storage sense is turned on and set
up correctly to help us free up more space on Windows 10 automatically. To get to storage
sense in Windows 10, first go to the main settings page. You can get there by clicking
on the cog icon within the start menu. In settings, choose system and then click on
storage from the options on the left side. You can first turn on storage sense if it
isn’t already and now click on the blue “configure storage sense or run it now”
link below this to open the settings. You can change the frequency that storage sense
will run at the top, feel free to make this whatever you want depending on your situation.
If you want, you can check the box below this to delete temporary files and set it to delete
files that have been in your recycle bin and downloads folder for over 30 days. If you’re
confident you don’t need any of these files, then you can run storage sense now by clicking
on the clean now button at the bottom. This should free up some space and it will also
run automatically based on the settings you have chosen. It should also improve your PC’s
performance too. Method four to free up space in Windows 10
is to run the disk clean up tool which is already within Windows. Disk clean up allows
us to delete some of the temporary files on our PC. 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. Let’s move on to the next method.
Moving on to the fifth method, we’re going to delete any temporary files that we don’t
need. This method is similar to running disk clean-up, however it will give us a few more
options to delete, such as the temporary update files. You can do this by going back to the
main storage settings page. You can get there by clicking on the cog icon within the start
menu first, and then choose system and then storage from the options on the left side.
Have a look at the categories list, and find the section called temporary files and click
on it. You’ll now see a list of all the options you can choose to delete, thankfully
under each one, Windows will explain a bit about it, so you know what you are deleting.
Check the boxes for any of the categories you are happy to permanently delete. Double
check you aren’t deleting anything you want to keep.
The sixth method to free up space in Windows 10 is very easy and it is to simply uninstall
or delete any apps or programs that you don’t use. Windows makes it easy to uninstall apps
and programs, first go to the main settings page by clicking on the cog icon within the
start menu and then go to apps. You should now see a list of all the apps and programs
you can delete. You can use the search function to find any specific apps you are happy to
delete, or you can use the sort option where you can sort by name, installation date or
by size. To uninstall an app in here, all you need to do is select it and then 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 you all of the methods.
The next method to free up space on your computer is to clear your browser cache. The way 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 browser 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. Let’s move on to the next method.
The eighth method to free up space is another simple one. It is to transfer some of the
larger files, especially images and videos to an external drive or USB stick. If you
don’t have any of these then you can move on to the next methods but if you do then
to transfer files, all you need to do is connect your device 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 space.
The next two solutions are quite extreme in terms of what you have to do to free up space,
so I would only recommend doing them if you are desperate for extra space but it’s up
to you if you think its worth it. Take a look any way. The ninth method 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 final method to free up space is another
one that is up to you if you think it’s worth it. It is disabling 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.
So those are the ten easy methods I have to free up drive space in Windows 10, you could
also look into setting up OneDrive or another cloud storage provider to save your files
there. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments and let me know
of any video suggestions too. I hope I was able to help you free up some space on your
PC today, if the video helped make sure you leave a like and feel free to subscribe – it
really helps me out! Thanks for watching and I will see you in another video.