how much disk space does windows 11 take up

Windows 11 typically uses around 26GB of storage for the Windows folder, but it also uses other space for the virtual Memory (p[age File) and for system restore points, most likely, Windows is using at least half your available drive space.

Download the free TreeSize app from the Microsoft Store.

Very Important - to run TreeSize, you must right click its icon and choose Run as Administrator.

Please provide a screenshot of your C drive in that TreeSize utility, so I can see your hard drive and work out where that space is being used and if there is an underlying problem.

Please ensure the full TreeSize window is in the screenshot, there is information on the top and bottom bars I needs to see.

Windows 11 typically requires a minimum of 64 GB of storage for installation, but the actual space it occupies can vary based on updates, system files, and additional features. Given that your apps and temporary files only account for about 45 GB, the remaining space could be taken up by system files, recovery partitions, or other hidden files that may not be immediately visible in your disk usage statistics.

To identify what's consuming the disk space, you can use the built-in Disk Cleanup utility or third-party tools to analyze disk usage. This will help you see if there are large files or folders that can be cleaned up or removed to free up space.