tips on clearing up storage space

As for cleaning up your drive.

Go to search and type disk cleanup.

Let that run.

If that still doesn't give you enough space you can delete some of the Windows app manually.

Before you do this please backup your machine and\or create a system image.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3011736/windows...

To get rid of some of the windows apps you will need to open Powershell as and Administrator.

Go to search and type Powershell.

Right click on it and select Run as Administrator.

Run the following command.

Get-AppxPackage > c:\apps.txt

This will create a apps.txt file on your C drive with all the windows apps.

Easier to see this way.

From this file look for any apps you don't want.

For example Xbox.

To delete all the Xbox apps you would run the following in Powershell.

Get-AppxPackage *xbox* | Remove-AppxPackage

Use the same command for any other app. Just replace the *xbox*.

https://www.howtogeek.com/224798/how-to-uninsta...

Another thing I would suggest if you haven't already is use a cloud drive like onedrive to store your files.

Then go to file explorer right click onedrive and select "Choose onefolders drive to sync" and pick which ones you want... don't select to many or this will take up space.

As for Defender you want to keep that up to date because it will protect against viruses.

As for Updates you can run updates from a USB drive so it doesn't take space on your machine. You will need to make sure you keep on top of the Security and Critical updates, they also protect you.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/323166...

And I use an external drive for all my documents.

I use bitlocker to encrypt the drive in case i lose it or it's stolen.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff4...

If you do this you never have to have the files on your computer because you just work off your USB device.

That will save a lot of space too.

Hope this all helps.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Dear SaraKong,

I need to buy a USB stick for creating the system image. In the meantime, the weblink for downloading windows defender (I am not an advance user) did not take me to the updates for Windows defender.

I think I have to do this before attempting deletion of the Xbox etc apps. I will continue again tomorrow.

Best, K

Dear SarahKong, Dear Andre and Dear Rohn007,

I am very appreciative of your time and your attention!  I am going to begin following your instructions now. I will let you know my progress.

Kind regards,

K

Here are some more suggestions for disk cleanup. In the disk cleanup utility there are some additional fetures you can use to free up some more space. As well there are other techniques listed. And yes, there is some overlap with the earlier tips

Wiki Decrap - System / HD Cleanup / Clean Up / DiskClean /  (wiki in devel)
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_other-performance/decrapify-you-windows-computer/e6742978-e44e-4d38-8f5c-77cde74b5ab6?tm=1506346825193 

2015 05 29- WHY DOES MY C DRIVE KEEP FILLING UP? – EXPLAINED
https://www.infopackets.com/news/9597/why-does-my-c-drive-keep-filling-explained 
For example, Windows Explorer reports my C drive full with 78 gigabytes of data and only 6 gigabytes free. 
…
Running a utility like 'crap cleaner' will help to delete some temporary files and free up some space temporarily, but the low space warning will eventually come back because you may not be fully addressing the issue. 

  *  The Definition of Gigabytes and Terabytes
  *  The Swap File and Hibernation File
  *  Temporary and Cached Files
  *  Windows Restore Points
  *  Volume Shadow Copy Service
  *  A Dirty File System

DECRAP- DISKCLEAN- FREE UP SPACE / DISK CLEAN
If you are looking to identify what is taking up the most space, there are free tools you can download the provide a “treeview” or “treemap” display of your HD. Basically, they display the relative file and folder sizes graphically.  I’ve used this tool in the past:  https://windirstat.net/   but there are other similar tools.

If you want to do a general cleanup you can use the built in diskclean tool. Here are a couple of articles on using the tool
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-clean-up-system-files-with-the-windows-10-disk-cleanup-tool/ 2016 04 04 How to clean up system files with the Windows 10 Disk Cleanup tool

https://www.howtogeek.com/256594/how-to-enable-hidden-options-in-windows-disk-cleanup-tool/ 

If you want to do more “advanced” cleanup, including cleaning up some application specific temp files a tool like CCleaner is what I use. You can get it here:
https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download 

When you download CCleaner, make sure you get version 5.34 or later

Finally, most computers come with unwanted “demonstration” applications which the builder is paid to install. Technically it is called “crapware” (really). There are a number of free tools you can download. I have used PCDeCrapifier in the past.  This article reviews a couple of applications. Look for newer reviews too:

https://www.digitalcitizen.life/removing-bloat-crapware-pc-decrapifier-or-slimcomputer

http://www.7tutorials.com/how-remove-crapwarebloatware-optimize-windows 

http://www.7tutorials.com/removing-bloat-crapware-pc-decrapifier-or-slimcomputer 

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/five-apps/five-apps-for-crapware-cleanup/1256 

https://www.technibble.com/free-precious-time-tron-script/   Free Up Your Precious Time With The Tron Script- 2015 02 03

HOW TO CLEAN UP WINDOWS 10'S WINSXS FOLDER USING THE STARTCOMPONENTCLEANUP TASK
Task Scheduler offers a preconfigured task that may help you clean out additional files from the WinSxS folder. This walk-through shows you how it works.
Greg Shultz · March 11, 2016, 2:47 PM PST 

2017 11 12- HOW TO OPTIMIZE THE PERFORMANCE OF WINDOWS 10
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/26120-optimize-performance-windows-10-a.html 

2017 12 11- HOW TO FIX: CAN'T DELETE RESTORE POINTS (C DRIVE FULL) – HOW TO FREE UP A LOT OF “MISSING” SPACE
https://www.infopackets.com/news/10241/how-fix-cant-delete-restore-points-c-drive-full 
I have examined directory on my system and it appears that 244 GB of available space is unaccounted for.

2015 10 13- REDUCING OS FOOTPRINT BY COMPRESSING SYSTEM FILES
https://www.petri.com/windows-10-disk-optimization 
If you are short of space on a small drive try the techniques described in his article, ie;
open a command prompt and type compact /CompactOS:query and press ENTER.

HOW TO USE NTFS COMPRESSION AND WHEN YOU MIGHT WANT TO
http://www.howtogeek.com/133264/how-to-use-ntfs-compression-and-when-you-might-want-to/ 

The NTFS file system used by Windows has a built-in compression feature known as NTFS compression. With a few clicks, you can compress files, making them take up less space on your hard drive. Best of all, you can still access the files normally.

Using NTFS compression involves a trade-off between CPU time and disk activity. Compression will work better in certain types of situations and with certain types of files.

You do NOT want to compress program files, EXE COM, especially ones that you use frequently. Compressing will only slow the program down, especially when starting them.

Compression does not work well on:
  -  COM EXE program file types
  -  Office 2007 and newer “X” and “M” file types. They are already compressed.

Compressions works best on large text files such as TXT and HTM.

2017 11 07- 7 WAYS TO MAXIMIZE STORAGE SPACE ON LOW CAPACITY WINDOWS 10 DEVICES
https://www.groovypost.com/howto/maximize-storage-Space-low-capacity-windows-10-devices/ 
A few years ago starting with the launch of Windows 8.1, Microsoft and industry partners launched devices that could compete with Apple’s iPad. These devices were severely limited in their storage space, including some with around 16 GBs of storage. The use case was multimedia consumption and casual usage – web browsing, email, listening music, streaming video. You were expected to use Windows Store apps, keep your files on OneDrive and use On Demand Files to manage storage. 

HOW TO CLEAN YOUR WINDOWS COMPUTER: THE ULTIMATE CHECKLIST
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/clean-windows-ultimate-checklist/ 

DELETE WINDOWS.OLD AND $WINDOWS.~BT FOLDERS AFTER WINDOWS UPGRADE

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2066-delete-windows-old-folder-windows-10-a.html  

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/delete-windows-old-folder/ 

<snip>
When you upgrade your current version of Windows to a newer version, the upgrade process will create backups of important directories from your previous version of Windows. These directories include your user profiles, Windows folder, Program Files directory, and other important locations. These backups are then stored in two folders called Windows.old and $Windows.~BT, which can be used after the upgrade to recover any data that may not have been properly migrated over to the new version of Windows.

Before deleting the backups of your old Windows folders, please make sure that you have all of your data migrated to the new version of Windows. Unless you have created a backup, these folders will be permanently deleted from your computer.
</snip>

2016 03 21- USE THE DISM TOOL TO REVEAL THE TRUE SIZE OF WINDOWS 10'S WINSXS FOLDER
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-use-the-dism-tool-to-reveal-the-true-size-windows-10s-winsxs-folder/ 
A special option in the Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool will give you the real scoop on how much space WinSxS is occupying.

There is a command, and calculations to calculate space used by SxS
There is a command to perform the a lite cleanup, duplicated items only
There is a command to perform a Full Cleanup of all backups

2016 03 11- DISM.EXE /ONLINE /CLEANUP-IMAGE /ANALYZECOMPONENTSTORE
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-clean-up-windows-10s-winsxs-folder-using-the-startcomponentcleanup-task/ 
Task Scheduler offers a preconfigured task that may help you clean out additional files from the WinSxS folder. This walk-through shows you how it works.

ADDITIONAL ‘UNDOCUMENTED’, ELSEWHERE, CLEANUP OF OFFICE 365 CTR RELATED FILES
https://winaero.com/blog/free-about-several-gbs-of-disk-space-after-installing-office-2016/ 
We will see how to free up disk space after installing Office 2016 Click To Run (CTR).  The problem is caused by the Click To Run system, which downloads very huge updates, e.g. about 1GB per update. But it does not do any form of cleanup. Since it does not delete them later even after updates are applied, lots of disk space is taken. 

6 WAYS TO FREE UP HARD DRIVE SPACE USED BY WINDOWS SYSTEM FILES
http://www.howtogeek.com/173713/6-ways-to-free-up-hard-drive-space-used-by-windows-system-files/ 
Erase Win Update Uninstall Files
Remove the Recovery Partition
Disable the Hibernation File
Shrink the Paging File
Configure System Restore
Tweak Your Windows Installer Disc 

7 HIDDEN WINDOWS CACHES & HOW TO CLEAR THEM
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/7-hidden-windows-caches-clear/ 
Windows Update Cache
Windows Store Cache
Temp Files Cache
Thumbnail Cache
System Restore Cache
Web Browser Cache
DNS Cache

First, check out this article how you can use an external drive to facilitate the upgrade:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/wik...

Ways you can free up space:

1 – OneDrive On Demand Files - https://www.groovypost.com/howto/enable-onedriv...

If you have Windows 10 running on a limited capacity device, you probably are looking for the most affordable option to recover some space. Starting with Windows 10 1709, Microsoft reintroduced OneDrive Files on Demand. This nifty functionality lets you keep all your files on OneDrive and only download the ones you need. Our recent article covers all the details how to set it up and configure it.

2 – Disk Cleanup and Storage Sense

Windows 10 is notorious for creating archived files you don’t need. Two features in Windows 10 that can help you with that are Disk Clean up and Storage Sense.

Open Start, type: disk cleanup then hit Enter.

Once Disk Cleanup opens, select the drive where Windows is installed if it’s not already. Windows will scan your hard disk for files it can clean up.

After Disk Cleanup completes its scan, click the button Clean up system files.

This will perform another quick scan including every file that can be removed. Browse through the list then check off what you don’t need. Pretty much everything in Disk Cleanup can be safely removed. If you keep files in Recycle Bin for safe keeping, you probably should remove them.

Storage Sense helps automate storage management by automatically deleting files like temporary files and content in your Recycle Bin. Starting with Windows 10 1709, you can delete files in your Downloads folder that haven’t changed in 30 days. Storage sense can also be set to run automatically when you’re low on disk space.

To set it up, open Start > Settings > System > Storage. Click Change how we free up space.

Enable and modify the settings you would like to be applied when you are running low on space.

Within the Storage interface in Settings, you can get a bird’s eye view of what’s stored on your drive and what might be using up a lot of space. Under Local Drive, click your Local drive where Windows 10 is currently installed.

There you will see a list of locations and the amount of space being used by each. As you can see, Temporary files are using about 7 GBs of space, installed apps and games 6 GBs, and Documents 2 GBs. If you click on one of the locations listed, you are not given many options except viewing the contents of the location and manually removing files you might no longer need.

3 – Delete Data Stored by Apps and Games

Going back to apps and games a bit, sometimes data no longer in use is kept by the app. If you have exhausted all the options previously mentioned, maybe it’s time to see how much data is being stored by each app installed from the Store.

Open Start > Settings > Apps > Apps & features. Select an app then click Advanced options.

Click Reset which will delete all the data stored by the app.

4 – Delete Your Recovery Partition

The recovery partition used to reinstall Windows 10, can eat up a significant amount of disk space. It’s used rarely, if ever, so there is no need to keep it. If that makes you nervous, you can back up your recovery partition to a USB thumb drive, which you can use to reinstall Windows 10 when you need to.

To do that, open Start, type: create the recovery drive and hit Enter.

Connect a USB thumb drive with enough space—16 GB should do—then click Next. At the end of the wizard, you will be asked if you would like to delete the recovery partition. Proceed to do so.

5 – Use Treesize to Find Hidden Large Files (Free)

We previously reviewed Jamsoft’s TreeSize (https://www.groovypost.com/howto/map-hardrive-u...) and found it handy for finding large files not readily visible in Windows 10. The program is simple and easy to set up. Our previous article covers the details for scanning your drive and looking in the right places. Jamsoft provides a portable version of Treesize, so you can run it from a thumb drive and scan your system without using up disk space for the program itself.

6 – Archive Large Files to an External Hard Disk

Storing large files on your local drive that you are not using doesn’t really make much sense these days. Moving infrequently used multimedia, like photos and videos, to an external drive can free up significant amounts of disk space. Because of my Internet limitations, I still need to keep my music locally, so that means my iTunes library probably consumes the most space on my Surface Pro.

Archiving files to an external drive is easy. Before you do that though, you need to invest in an external drive. It’s fairly easy to find one that is really cheap with lots of space. Once you have one, I recommend you check out our guide on how to partition a hard drive for macOS Time Machine and Windows 10 Backups. https://www.groovypost.com/howto/partition-hard...

There are several backup methods you can use, but I always go with the manual method, which involves copying files from your personal folder to a backup folder on your external drive. Select the files or folders then performing a drag and drop action using the right mouse button to your external drive. When the context menu appears, click Move here.

Repeat this step for other folders where you keep large files.

7 – Install an SD Card for Apps.

For devices with an SD card slot, Windows 10 lets you move large apps and games from the main drive. These days, you can get an SD card with as much as 256 GBs of space. This is more than perfect for a system with limited onboard space.

Note: This only works with Microsoft Store apps. Classic desktop apps and those that come built into Windows 10 cannot be moved.

In Windows 10 open Start > Settings > Apps > Apps & features. Select an app or game downloaded from the Windows Store, then click Move.

Click on the Select a drive to move this app to: list box, choose the drive representing your SD card then click Move.

Sources: https://www.groovypost.com/howto/maximize-stora...