If your PC is running low on free space, you may not be able to install important Windows updates and your PC’s performance may be affected. Here are a few ways to free up some space so you can keep your PC up to date and running smoothly:
If you used Disk Cleanup to free up space on your device and then see a Low Disk Space error, it’s possible that your Temp folder is quickly filling up with application (.appx) files that are used by the Microsoft Store. For more, see Low Disk Space error due to a full Temp folder.
You can use storage sense to delete unnecessary or temporary files from your device. (Can't find storage sense on your device using the steps below? See the Free up space with Disk Cleanup section below instead.)
- Select the Start button, and then select Settings > System > Storage .
- Under Storage sense, select Free up space now.
- Windows will take a few moments to determine what files and apps are taking up the most space on your PC.
- Select all the items you want to delete, and then select Remove files.
Note
Recycle Bin and some other settings aren't selected by default. You may have to scroll down to select these items.
Select the Recycle Bin to free up space taken up by previously deleted files. Windows moves files you delete to the Recycle Bin in case you change your mind and need them again in the future. You might be able to free up a significant amount of free space by selecting Recycle Bin to permanently remove files you’ve previously deleted.
If you turn on storage sense, Windows will automatically free up space by getting rid of files you don't need, like temporary files and items in the Recycle Bin.
- Select the Start button, and then select Settings > System > Storage .
- Turn on Storage sense.
- To choose which files you want Storage sense to delete automatically, select Change how we free up space automatically, then select or deselect the check boxes for options under Temporary Files, Locally available cloud content, and Free up space now.
If your system doesn't have storage sense, you can use the Disk Cleanup tool to delete temporary files and system files from your device.
- Select the Start button, type disk cleanup, then select Disk Cleanup from the list of results.
- Select the check box next to the type of files you want to delete. (To view a description of each type of file, select the name.) By default, Downloaded Program Files, Temporary Internet Files, and Thumbnails are selected.
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To free up even more space, select Clean up system files, and then select the type of system files you want to delete.
Note
If it’s been fewer than ten days since you upgraded to Windows 10, your previous version of Windows will be listed as a system file you can delete. If you need to free up drive space, you can delete it, but keep in mind that you'll be deleting your Windows.old folder, which contains files that give you the option to go back to your previous version of Windows. Deleting of your previous version of Windows can't be undone.
- After you’ve selected the types of files you want to delete, select OK, and then select Delete files in the confirmation window to start the cleanup.
Uninstalling apps and optional features you don’t need is a good way to free up some extra space on your drive.
- Select the Start button, and then select Settings > Apps > Apps & features .
- You’ll see a list of installed apps, including how much space each one uses and when it was installed. You can sort by Size to see which apps use the most space.
- To uninstall an app, select it from the list and then select Uninstall.
Note
If you uninstall an app, you can always install it again later, either from the Microsoft Store or from any installation media you may have purchased. Make any sure you have the installation media and license keys you might need to reinstall the app before you uninstall it. If the app stores data, you may wish to export that data first or use tools and settings in the app to reduce how drive space it uses on your PC.
To free up additional space, you can also remove optional features, such as language packs and keyboard languages you no longer need.
- Select the Start button, and then select Settings > Apps > Apps & features .
- Select Manage optional features.
- You’ll see a list of optional features installed, including how much space each one uses. If you see something you no longer need, select it and then select Manage or Uninstall.
Note
For language-related features, selecting Manage opens the Region & language settings page, where you can modify or remove any language packs you no longer use.
Windows 10 may indicate that it needs more space to get the latest Windows 10 feature update. You can use an external storage device to help you complete the update.
To learn more, see Free up space to install the latest Windows 10 update.
Note
You may need to use a micro-USB adapter if your device doesn't have a standard USB port.
Personal files such as videos, music, photos, and documents can take up a lot of space on your device. To see which files are using the most space:
- Open File Explorer from the taskbar and find the files you want to move.
- Under This PC in the left menu, select a folder to see what files are saved in it. The Videos, Music, Pictures, and Downloads folders usually contain the largest files that you’ve saved to your device.
- To see the size of the files in a folder, select View > Details. Right-click in the open space and then select Sort by > Size to show the largest files at the top of the list.
- If there are files you no longer need on your device, you can either delete them or move them to an external storage device like a USB drive or an SD card.
Note
If you delete any files, remember to empty the Recycle Bin to completely remove them from your device and free up space.
To move photos, music, videos, or other files that you want to keep but don't use very often, consider saving them to an external storage device like a USB drive or an SD card. You'll still be able to use them when the drive is connected, but they won't take up space on your PC.
- Connect an external storage device like a USB drive or SD card to your PC.
- Open File Explorer from the taskbar and go to the folder that contains the files you want to move.
- Select the files, then select Home tab, and then select Move to > Choose location...
- Select the external storage device you connected in the location list and then select Move.
Saving new files to another drive will help prevent low space problems on that drive in the future, so you won’t have to move your files to another drive repeatedly. Instead of saving all your new files to the default drive, you can save some of them to a different drive that has more free space.
- Select the Start button, and then select Settings > System > Storage .
- Under More storage settings, select Change where new content is saved.
- For each content type, select a drive from the drop-down menu. If the drive you want to use isn't listed there, make sure it's connected to your PC.
Note
OneDrive Files On-Demand requires Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (Windows 10 version 1709) and OneDrive client version 17.3.7064.1005 or later. To see which version of Windows you’re running, select the Start button, then select Settings > System > About . To see which version of the OneDrive client you have installed, see Which version of OneDrive am I using?
You can save space by turning on OneDrive Files On-Demand, which stores a smaller “placeholder” file on your hard drive instead of the full-size file that's stored in your OneDrive account in the cloud. You'll be able to get to your OneDrive files from your PC without having to use up hard drive space downloading full-size versions of them all. See Learn about OneDrive Files On-Demand for more info.
If you’ve followed the instructions here but still need help freeing up space on your device, you can contact Microsoft support to chat with a support agent.
These questions relate to low disk space and Windows Update specifically. Learn more about Windows Update here.
When there isn’t enough free space available to install an update, a pop-up notification will appear to tell you additional space is required to install the update.
When you select Fix issues, we’ll provide information about how much additional space is needed, as well as give you an option to use an external storage device so you don’t need to free up quite as much space on your system drive. Learn how free up space to install Windows updates.
The total free disk space your device requires to complete an update varies. Typically, feature updates require 6GB-11GB or more of free space, while quality updates require 2GB-3GB or more. See here for the difference between a feature and quality update
Disk space is required to download the update, download new versions of any optional features and languages that are currently installed, and to apply the update. Additional space is temporarily required to support uninstall of the update, typically for 10 days. This space can be reclaimed after the update completes by going to Settings > System > Storage > Free up space now.
The update is compressed to reduce download size.
The space required to complete a feature update varies primarily based on two factors: which update path is followed and the size of optional content and other updates that apply to your PC when the feature update is installed. The rest of this answer will explore this in more depth.
Windows follows three different feature update paths depending on the amount of disk space currently available.
1. For PCs with plenty of free disk space
Windows will automatically attempt to complete more of the update process in the background while you use your PC. This significantly reduces the time your PC will be “offline” (or unusable) during the update, though it might temporarily use more disk space to complete the update. Learn more about our efforts to reduce offline time during updates (English only at this time).
2. For PCs with less free space, but still enough to complete the update automatically
Windows will automatically optimize for reducing the amount of free disk space required to install the update. This will result in a longer offline install time.
3. For PCs that don't have enough space to automatically install the update
Windows will ask you to free up disk space or use external storage to temporarily extend the storage on your PC. If you use an external storage device, Windows won’t need as much free space on the system drive as it temporarily uses your external storage.
Across each of these update paths, the total amount of free disk space required will vary based on the optional content installed and other updates that apply to your PC. For example:
- Optional features. Many optional features available for Windows are pre-installed or acquired on demand by the system, or manually by you. You can see which ones are installed on your PC by going to Settings > Apps > Apps & features > Manage optional features. These features range in size from less than 1MB to almost 2GB for the Windows Mixed Reality portal. You can reduce the amount of space required to install a feature update on your PC by uninstalling optional features you aren’t using.
- Languages installed. Windows is localized into many languages. Although many people only use one language at a time, some people switch between two or more languages. You can see which languages are installed on your PC by going to Settings > Time & Language > Language . During each update, all language resources and any associated typing, textto-speech, speech-to-text, and handwriting recognition resources must be updated. The content for each language can range from about 175MB to more than 300MB. You can reduce the amount of space required to install a feature update on your PC by uninstalling languages you aren’t using.
- Driver updates. OEMs and other hardware partners sometimes publish new graphics, networking, audio, and other drivers in conjunction with the new OS update. The size of these drivers can vary significantly based on your PC and which drivers have been updated.
- OS quality updates. During a feature update, Windows attempts to download and automatically install the latest quality update, so your PC is fully up to date when you start using it. Shortly after the feature update is released, the quality update for that feature update could be as small as a few hundred MB, but as more quality and security changes are implemented, the quality update can increase in size to 1GB or more. If your PC is short on disk space, you can download and install the quality update after the feature update is complete.
Finally, Windows Update will temporarily disable hiberfile.sys, pagefile.sys, and other system files and leverage the space these files typically consume to apply the feature update. Any files that are disabled to apply the update will be automatically re-enabled when the update is complete. As these files vary in size based on how you use your PC and the amount of RAM your PC has, even in cases where two different PCs have the exact same OS image, the amount of free disk space required to complete an update may vary.
The combination of update path and features means there’s a wide range of the amount of free disk space needed to complete an update. Here are a few examples for PCs updating to Windows version 1803:
| Optimized for reduced offline time | Optimized for minimal disk space | Optimized for minimal disk space with external storage | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimal optional features, languages, and updates | 20GB | 5.5GB+ | 4.5GB+ |
| Lots of optional features, languages, and updates | 20GB+ | 13.75GB+ | 7GB+ |
You can check total disk space left on your Windows 10 device by starting File Explorer on the taskbar and then select This PC on the left. The available space on your drive will appear under Devices and drives.
It may be best to use an external storage device in the following cases:
- When access to the internet isn't available.
- When you need to store large-sized files or a large number of files. In these situations, files might take longer to upload and it might cost more to store files.
Windows Update automatically offers updates to eligible devices. To double check that your device is up to date, open Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update , and then select Check for updates.
Generally, we recommend that you choose a larger capacity device because your local storage and disk space needs may change over time. If you know that you won't have many photos, videos, or other files and apps to save to your device, the 32GB device might be a good option for you. A good example is a device that you only use to run one small app, or that you only use for online content that never gets downloaded to the local disk drive.
When considering what storage hardware to use in your device, don't only look at the size of the storage. Often, the speed of the storage is more important than its size. Devices with slow storage hardware, such as those labeled "HDD", are often significantly slower to use than those using faster storage hardware, such as those labeled "SSD" or "eMMC".
You don't need to remove everything from your hard drive to update your device, but you'll need to free up enough space to complete the update.