Storage in hard disk and solid state form may be more affordable these days, but that doesn’t mean it’s unlimited. With games now taking up hundreds of gigabytes, and Windows updates needing significantly more space than they used to, you may find your drive filling up more often. Fortunately, we have a few quick tricks to help you clear clutter for whatever you need.

The Simple Stuff

The most obvious tip dates back to the Windows 95 days. Evidently, emptying your recycle bin is one of the quickest ways to free up space. If you like to live dangerously, you can go to your Recycle Bin properties and enable the option to remove files immediately whenever they’re deleted, but we don't recommend it.

Either way, we just mention this because if you like to keep your desktop clean of any icons it may be weeks since you last emptied it. Also, Windows 10's Storage Sense feature defaults to empty the bin after 30 days.

Uninstall unnecessary apps and bloatware

This also may seem like a simple idea, but Windows comes with a bunch of applications and features that may be useless to you. Go into the App Settings window, and you'll be able to remove applications quickly through the menu there. Apps like Mixed Reality can be uninstalled from this menu, but if you want to remove other unused features click Optional features, and you can get rid of items like Windows Media Player or Internet Explorer 11.

Third party tools like Revo Uninstaller can help in this task, and make it a 3-click affair. These tools can also delete any leftover files after using Window's solutions ensuring that everything is cleaned up.

Temporary Files

Going to Settings > System > Storage, will offer you a chance to see how much space is being taken up by Temporary files or Downloads. Clicking on Temporary Files allows you to get a more granular understanding of the storage usage, and you can select the checkboxes, that apply when you press the “Remove files” button.

Disk Cleanup

One extra way to take control of your space is to use Windows built-in Disk Cleanup utility. Disk Cleanup is part of the Windows Administrative Tools folder in your Start Menu, or you can just search for it within the menu.
Upon launch, choose the drive to clean up and the application will show all the items you can clean up, from temporary files to thumbnails, and system files like previous Windows installations (and Windows.old folders) and files needed for updates. Select what you want to delete, and hit “OK” to finish the task.

Storage Sense

More recent versions of Windows 10 have an automated disk cleanup utility known as Storage Sense. Find it in the System Settings > Storage.

Setting up Storage Sense allows Windows to automatically delete temporary files as well as items in your downloads and Recycle Bin after a set period.

Default Save Locations

Windows sets the default save locations for documents, videos, pictures, downloads and other items to a folder on the drive Windows is installed on. Those who use a lean drive for the operating system, but other drives for games and files, will want to change this setting to free up space on the main drive.

Clicking the “Change where new content is saved” button will allow you to do that. This page will allow you to change the default save locations and even install locations for new files and apps.

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