How to Free Up Space in Windows 11

“So, how do I free up space in Windows 11?” If your mind is constantly boggled by this thought, you’ve come to the right place. 

Well, it may sound insane but there’s no such thing as “Too much storage space”. Isn’t it? Be it our living room or closet or laptop, we humans are always craving additional storage. We have so much precious digital data to store on our devices be it our smartphones, tablets, laptops, or any other gadget. From our pictures to videos to documents and other important files, almost everything is stored in a digital format. Hence, running out of storage space is quite natural! 

Over time and prolonged usage, our PC gets stored with tons of unwanted files, cache files, temporary files, and other junk data. And when your PC is running low on storage space, emptying the Recycle Bin folder barely does the trick. A considerable amount of storage is consumed by cached data and junk files that have been lying on your disk drive forever. Not just this, every app, program, and software installed on your machine occupies the disk space.

Wondering how to free up space in Windows 11? In this post, we have listed a bunch of methods that you can use to quickly recover chunks of additional storage space on your device. 

How to Free Up Space in Windows 11

Let’s get started and explore how you can reclaim free space on your Windows 11 computer. 

1. Analyze the Storage Space!

First things first! Before you proceed, we will first be checking what’s majorly consuming your disk space. Head on to your device’s storage settings to get a brief on how the space is being utilized on your machine. 

Tap on the Windows icon placed on the Taskbar, select Settings. Switch to the “System” category from the left menu pane. 

Scroll down and tap on “Storage”.

In the storage settings window, you will find a detailed breakdown of all the files that are currently stored on your PC including apps, programs, cache files, and other data. 

To view a more detailed and advanced storage consumption analysis, hit on the “Show more Categories” option. 

2. Remove Temporary Files

If the temporary files stored on your device are utilizing a huge amount of disk space, then you should get rid of them on priority. To free up space in Windows 11, you can remove the temp files via Settings. Here’s what you need to do.

Open the Settings app and head on to System> Storage. 

Tap on the “Temporary Files” option. 

Check all the items that you need to delete and hit the “Remove Files” button. 

Hit on the back arrow to move to the previous screen. Under the Storage Management section, you will see two options: Storage Sense and Cleanup Recommendations. 

First, tap on Cleanup Recommendations. Here Windows 11 will guide you to review the files and items that you can delete on your PC. 

Hit on the back arrow again and then enable the “Storage Sense” option. 

Storage Sense is an in-built Windows utility that helps you in freeing up storage space on your device. This nifty tool automatically scans your device to find and remove temporary files and other junk data. 

Also read: Common Windows 11 Problems and Ways To Fix Them

3. Use the Disk Cleanup Utility

Disk Cleanup is another useful utility tool that you can use to remove temp files, cached data, thumbnails, and other unwanted files to free up space in Windows 11. 

Tap on the search icon placed on the Taskbar, type “Disk Cleanup” and hit Enter. 

Check on all the items that you need to remove and then hit on the “Cleanup System Files” button. 

Follow the on-screen instructions and run the Disk Cleanup tool to remove temp files. 

4. Download and Install Advanced System Optimizer

Here comes another effective method to free up space in Windows 11. So, rather than performing multiple workarounds to reclaim additional storage space on your device, you can use a third-party cleanup and optimization tool that gets the job done for you effortlessly.

Download and install the Advanced System Optimizer tool on your Windows 11 device to securely deletes unwanted clutter and junk data stored on your computer. Not just this, Advanced System Optimizer is one of the most powerful RAM cleaner and optimizer tools that defragments your hard drive for better allocation of data. 

Advanced System Optimizer also prevents unexpected system crashes and encrypts all your important files using strong military-grade encryption. Advanced System Optimizer can instantly fine-tune your device’s performance as it frees up RAM, junk files browser cookies, and data. 

Also read: How to Speed Up Windows 11 and Improve Performance (15 ways)

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. What is taking up space on my Windows 11 hard drive?

To get a detailed analysis of what all files are consuming your device’s disk space, launch the Settings app and then navigate to System> Storage. In the Storage Setting, you will get an in-depth breakdown of apps, features, and temp files that are consuming the disk space. 

Q2. What does free up space do on Windows?

The “Free up Space” is an in-built Windows utility that helps you in freeing up storage space on your Windows PC. The “Free up Space” tool can be used for removing temp files, system logs, installation files, and other unwanted stuff. 

Q3. How much free space do you need for Windows 11?

To install Windows 11 on your computer, you need a minimum of 4 GB (or more) of RAM and 64 GB of available disk space. Along with this, a processor of 1 GHz or faster, graphic card compatible with Direct X 12 or later is the minimum hardware requirement to run Windows 11 on your PC or laptop. 

Also read: How to Format a Hard Drive in Windows 11

This wraps up our guide on how to free up space in Windows 11. Was this post helpful? Were you able to restore additional storage space on your computerusing the above-listed methods? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section.