LOW Disk Space – Detailed Windows Cleanup Steps

Quick Cleanup List

When disk is almost full there here is a quick list I usually go through to recover some free space:

1. Delete files from c:\windows\temp
2. Download and run TreeSize to see what uses up the most space
3. cleanmgr
4. clear up superseded or unused system files from c:\Windows\WinSxS

1. Clean up Temp

2. Run TreeSize to see what directory uses up the space

Download the portable version from here. Run it to see the largest folders in the filesystem. This way you might identify unneeded large chunks of data that can be removed to get back a few MB or GB.

https://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free

3. Run cleanmgr

On Windows 2012R2 and later versions cleanmgr,exe is not installed in Windows by default. We need to install the Desktop Experience feature to make it available

Run cleanmgr.exe and clean up the system. In many cases the utility frees up less space than expected, then see step four!

4. Clean up superseded system packages

Windows store old, superseded or not installed system packages in the WinSxS directory in the Windows folder. Windows have the capability to go through that repository and clean it up.