Finding and deleting junk files on your PC is a task that everyone thinks will take hours, when in reality it only takes a minute or two. Just don’t use Windows 10 File Explorer! The Storage menu in Windows Settings was designed to remove clutter from digital files. It’s the DIY kit for the most sophisticated WinDirStat tool (which we recommend if you want to dig deeper).
The need is only growing: 128GB and 256GB SSD laptops are still the norm, but photos and videos already take up a lot of space. If you are a fan of restarting classic games like Flight simulator, You need to know that they can take up to 150GB of storage, just for your loneliness. Here we show you how to recover part of that space.
Mark Hachman / IDGYou can use the traditional Windows 10 File Explorer to search for massive files that you want to delete, but if you do, you will spend too much time on the task.
How to use Windows 10 storage settings
In the Windows 10 settings menu, go to Configuration> System> Storage. At the top, you’ll see a toggle to turn Storage Sense on and off. We will talk about that later.
Mark Hachman / IDGThis is the Windows 10 Storage page, within the Settings menu.
In the center of the screen, you’ll see your local hard drive (or drives) with an easy-to-read menu that explains how storage is partitioned within your PC. Notice how the subtext points you to the task at hand: “Uninstall unused or unwanted apps and features”, “Remove unused cloud backed content”, etc. Each category tells you how much storage on your PC is tied to apps, videos, etc.
Applications traditionally consume the most amount of space on a PC. You may find that a “small” game you downloaded actually takes up a few gigabytes that you want to recover. Click on the Applications menu, which will take you to a page where Windows will show you the applications stored on your PC. Rearrange the list by file size to see which apps consume the most space, then right-click the app and select Uninstall get rid of that. Please note that some native Windows applications, such as Photos, will not be uninstallable.
Mark Hachman / IDGApplications generally consume gigabyte amounts at a time, so first look here for unwanted old space-consuming applications. Filter by file size to facilitate the task.
“Temporary files” and “OneDrive subtitles” are often the mother load of junk files. Clicking on the Temporary files The subtitle opens a large number of files that even Windows considers unnecessary, from temporary Internet files to the recycle bin. Click on the Delete files button at the top to delete everything.
Mark Hachman / IDGThe “temporary files” section generally contains a number of files that can be safely removed. There will be some who say that you should keep older Windows Update files in case you need to roll back a faulty update, but this is rare.
The OneDrive subtitle is a bit more subjective. By default, Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud storage service backs up your documents, images, and even your desktop folder. But it does keep a placeholder, a kind of file marker on your local hard drive. Files that you have stored locally are kept on your local hard drives, but a copy is also kept on OneDrive (as long as you have the space). Windows is smart enough to know if such a copy exists, and can delete the local copy, preserving the bookmark and keeping the copy in the cloud. (Note: don’t expect this option to just copy your hard drive to the cloud. It won’t! It will just clean up previously backed up local files, which won’t be all on your PC.)
Mark Hachman / IDGIn File Explorer, files stored on your local hard drive (on your PC) are shown with a green check mark next to them. OneDrive files stored only in the cloud it has a cloud icon. What Windows can do is delete local files that are already backed up in the cloud, saving space.
A backed up file in OneDrive can be accessed by clicking File Explorer, just like a local file. However, before you can access it, it must be downloaded from OneDrive, which may be undesirable for users with slow or unreliable internet connections. It can save space, of course, but it may not be worth the trouble.
Similarly, it may not be worth looking into the remaining storage categories as part of your digital cleaning routine. Desktop and Videos folders probably contain content you want to keep, and even select Show more categories The link at the bottom simply opens folders like Documents and Music that you may want to leave intact.
How to use Storage Sense, your digital housekeeper
Do you remember that “Temporary Files” was such an ideal location to find files that you can get rid of? Why not let Windows do it for you? That’s the reasoning behind Storage Sense, the toggle at the top of the Storage Settings page. Activate it and it will automatically delete the files in the Recycle Bin after 30 days, and it will also delete other temporary files.
Mark Hachman / IDGHowever, do yourself a favor and open the Storage Sense settings / options page, which has been modified since the feature debuted early in the Windows life cycle. Our previous Storage Sense procedure is still in effect, but Windows has added controls to optionally delete files in your Downloads folder. I never want that to happen, and you may not want that to happen either.
Note that Storage Sense is activated only when you are low on disk space. If you are downloading a massive game like Flight simulatorIt can cause Windows to crash: There is too much empty space to run Storage Sense, but not enough to download the game. You can always go to the bottom of the Storage Sense configuration page and start Storage Sense manually.
WinDirStat – the tool for Steam players
The only key limitation I’ve noticed about Windows storage settings is that they have blinders when it comes to other app stores. If you have downloaded some games through Steam, for example, Windows cannot recognize how much space they take up.
Brad Chacos / IDGWinDirStat is powerful, yet intimidating.
As my colleague Brad Chacos explains, WinDirStat solves this problem by offering a top-down view of your hard drive, with a graphical representation of the size and type of your files. Do you want to know how much space the .MP4 video files consume? WinDirStat can tell you. It presents you with this information in a File Explorer-like interface along with a graphical user interface, so you may need to explore and find any hidden Steam games, for example, that have escaped your notice.
The combination of Windows’ own storage configuration and WinDirStat might not magically clean up your hard drive, but they will help you make an informed decision about what to keep and what to remove. And if you don’t have enough storage space yet, maybe you’d like to check out our roundup of the best external hard drives to find more?
