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We all have a habit of saving a ton of files to our PC’s hard drive, many of which we will never view or need again. Most of these files are saved in nested folders, meaning that we don’t even know most of them are there until we start running out of space. I know you’re probably thinking that there’s no way you could run out of space with modern HDD and SSD drive capacities. It is true that both HDD’s and SSD’s are growing in size while reducing in price but what you also need to consider is that the data we are saving and storing is also growing in size. In this digital age we find that the photos we take and in particular the videos we record are all in HD or even 4K quality. While there are very good cloud solutions available for storage, the vast majority of PC users continue to store files, including all those photos and videos on their PC’s. With that in mind I will now show you how to remove unwanted files from your hard drive.

DELETE UNNECESSARY FILES

Here’s how to both find and delete temporary files:

  1. Use the Windows key + I keyboard shortcut to open the Settings app.
  2. Click on System.
  3. Click on Storage.
  4. Under Storage select the drive you want to analyse. (Note that the This PC drive is the main computer’s hard drive where Windows 10 is installed.)

5. On Storage usage, you can see that Windows 10 categorises the content based on default folders (e.g., Pictures, Documents, Music, etc.), apps and games, and system files, and you can view the storage usage. Just click on of the item’s name to get more information.

6. To delete its content, click the view button to open the folder location, and delete the files that you don’t need.

7. Now go back to Storage usage and click on Temporary files. In this section, Windows 10 will list different kind of temporary files you may want to delete, including Temporary filesDownloads folderRecycle bin, and more. Click on the button of the content you want to remove and follow the instructions to delete the files

8. Ok, so now go back to Storage usage and click Other. Windows 10 uses this section to list all the folder that couldn’t be categorised. Identify which folders are using the most storage space and click on them to access the location

9. Select its content, right-click, and select Delete to remove the files and folders.

This completes our tutorial on how to delete unwanted files form your Windows 10 PC. Don’t forget to check our blog regularly for handy Tips & Tricks and for all the latest advisories to help keep your business IT systems safe and secure.