Many users have a problem - no space on drive C. There may be several reasons: there are a lot of “weighty” files and folders on the desktop, there are a lot of installed programs, the system has been updated, the “my documents” folder is full, downloading files from the Internet is done by default on drive C, etc. Disk C – system disk and, as a rule, it does not have a lot of space (at best, 30 GB or even less). In this article we will look at several ways to free up disk space in Windows 7.
The article contains the most simple ways How can you free up space on your system disk? Do all the steps in the order they are given below. If the next step you take helps free up enough space, you don’t have to do the remaining steps.
Step 1 – delete temporary files
In the very first step, you need to delete all temporary files. Temporary files are needed for proper operation applications and after its completion should be automatically deleted. But this does not always happen, and they accumulate in the \Temp\ folder and take up quite a lot of space. You can find the temporary file storage using this path: C:\Users\(Username) \AppData\Local\Temp\.Delete all the contents of the\Temp\ folder.
For more thorough cleaning of drive C, you can use standard functions: C:\ –> properties –> general –> disk cleanup. Mark “at your discretion” for anything that needs to be cleared.
Step 2 - transfer everything user files to another drive
Move all your files from your desktop and other folders on the system drive to other media. Make sure that the files downloaded from the Internet are transferred to another drive. Configure bootloaders to use any other drive to store downloads.
Step 3 – remove unnecessary programs
Remove all unnecessary programs installed on your computer. This must be done through standard function installation and removal of programs. You can find it using the following path: Start –> Control Panel –> Uninstall Programs. Center the list by size and determine which programs you no longer need. For removing unnecessary program select it in the list and click “delete”.
Step 4 - disable sleep mode or hibernation (file hiberfil.sys)
If you are still not satisfied with the results of the previous actions, you can change some system settings. Namely, you need to disable hibernation (unless, of course, you use it). Hybrid sleep mode Sleep and Hibernation is a low power consumption mode. All open documents and the programs are saved to the hard drive, and then the computer is turned off. How to disable hibernation – Start -> Control Panel -> System and Security -> Power Options -> Set up a power plan. In the “Sleep” tab, you need to disable the use of “Hybrid Sleep Mode”. After the reboot, the hiberfil.sys file will be deleted from drive “C” and quite a lot of space will be freed up. Read more about these modes on the manufacturer’s website: microsoft.com
Step 5 – reduce or delete the swap file (pagefile.sys file)
There is another way to free up space on drive C. We can reduce the size or completely disable the paging file (virtual Windows memory). Thus, you can free up 1–3 GB of memory. For more details, see the article Windows 7 pagefile.sys, what this file is and how to delete it. After the pagefile.sys file is deleted from the C drive, quite a lot of space will be freed up.
Step 6 - increase space on drive C
There is another way - literally increase disk space. If you have very little space on your system disk (less than 25GB), then this method can help increase disk space and solve your problems. You can independently increase the size of the system partition using Windows 7 using these instructions.
In this article I will tell you how to quickly estimate the volume occupied by folders on your hard drive, and how to correctly free up free space on the disk from temporary and unused ones. necessary files and programs. In addition, I will tell you why you should not delete the folder winsys what are the files for? hiberfil.sys And pagefile.sys, as well as what tools exist to quickly free up space on your computer’s disk under Windows control 7. Cleaning the system drive C is shown as an example.
Estimating the space occupied by folders on disk
The fastest and visually convenient way find out the size of folders on the disk, install this special program. I recommend downloading a free program to estimate used disk space TreeSize Free(products webpage).
Cleaning the disk from temporary and unused files using the standard Windows 7 Disk Cleanup tool
Removing unnecessary programs from the disk
A good way to free up disk space (and as an added bonus, increase system performance) is to remove programs you don't use.
Go to Control Panel and select “Uninstall Programs”. A list will appear in which you can select the program you want to remove and click “Delete”.
Disk Cleanup Using CCleaner
I've talked about this free program before. Among other things, it contains the ability to clean the disk from extra files. Unlike the standard Disk Cleanup utility mentioned above, CCleaner not only removes temporary browser files, but also knows about alternative programs and browsers.
A few words about the files pagefile.sys and hiberfil.sys
The files are located at the root of the system disk and take up quite a lot of space.
- File pagefile.sys is the system swap file (virtual memory). You cannot delete it (it is not recommended to reduce it either), but you can and even need to move it to another disk. This is done very simply, open “Control Panel\System and Security\System”, select “Advanced system settings” in the “Performance” section, click “Options”, switch to the “Advanced” tab and in the “Virtual memory” section click “Change” . There you can select the location of the paging file and its size (I recommend leaving “Size as selected by the system”).
- File hiberfil.sys is an image random access memory for sleep mode (hypernation mode). How to disable this mode and delete a file is described in detail in the corresponding article on our website:
Sooner or later, everyone has to wonder how to clean a disk from unnecessary files. This material describes in detail the steps to clear memory as standard using windows 7, 8 and 10 and third-party programs. Before you start reading and applying, remember how much memory you currently have free on drive C in order to compare with what you will have by the end of the article.
There are 3 groups of files occupying memory on the computer. Operating system files, installed program files and user files that we download, copy from other sources or create.
The operating system files contain files that can be safely deleted, thereby freeing up computer memory. What are these files: Temporary files, files in the recycle bin, swap file, hibernation file, system restore checkpoint files.
Temporary files
To delete temporary files go to Temp folder. One is located at “C:\Windows\Temp” and the second “C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp”
Emptying the Trash
Files that are in the Recycle Bin still take up space on your computer's disks, so don't forget to empty the Recycle Bin.
Did you know that files can be deleted without placing them in the trash? To do this, when deleting, you need to hold down the “Shift” key. In this case, the files are destroyed immediately.
Reducing the Pagefile.sys file
The page file in Windows is called pagefile.sys and it cannot be simply deleted. This file is used by Windows 7 as an extension of your RAM. If your computer has little RAM installed, then the file does not need to be touched. But if, for example, you have 4 GB of RAM or more, then you can free up some disk space by reducing the size of the pagefile.sys file
To do this, in Windows 10, open the computer properties. To get there, go to Explorer (win + E), go to the “This PC” section, select “properties” from the right-click menu.
Click the "Options" button in the "Performance" section, which is located on the "Advanced" tab
Go to the!Advanced tab! and click the "Change" button
Uncheck “Automatically select paging file size” and pay attention to the inscription at the bottom “Current size”. If it is less than 400 MB, it is not recommended to specify an even smaller size.
To reduce the paging file, click on the “Specify size” item, enter 400 and 800 MB in the “Initial size” and “Maximum size” fields, respectively, click the “Set” and “Ok” button. Next, you need to restart your computer and you will see that there is free space on drive C. On Windows 7, operations are performed exactly the same.
Delete the hiberfil.sys file
Now let's look at the hibernation file hiberfil.sys. Hibernation is a computer shutdown mode in which everything open source software are saved to the hiberfil.sys file and the next time you start the computer, it turns on with running programs. It was as if all programs were paused. Hibernation differs from sleep mode in that in it the computer can be disconnected from the network. In sleep mode, a power outage can cause problems.
Hence the conclusion - if you do not use this mode, and many people do not even know about it, then it is better to disable it and free up disk space. Typically, the hiberfil.sys file is equal to the amount of RAM installed on the computer. For some it is 4gb, for others it is more. For example, I have 32gb and, of course, I disabled hibernation.
To do this, you need to open a command prompt as an administrator. Click Start - All Programs - Accessories - Command Prompt - Run as Administrator - Yes
In Windows 10, you can click on the magnifying glass and start typing the word “command” and it will immediately be found.
In the black window that opens, enter the following command
powercfg.exe -h off
and press Enter
The hiberfil.sys file has been deleted and several gigabytes of disk memory have been freed up, let's move on.
Restore points
Recovery checkpoints are a useful tool. It allows you, if problems arise, to roll back the computer to the state when the checkpoint was created. But if there is very little memory, you can free it by deleting these points.
To do this, open properties in the “My Computer” window and click on the “advanced system settings” link on the left.
Go to the “System Protection” tab, then select drive C from the list and click the “configure” button.
In the window that opens, you can either delete all recovery points, thereby freeing up memory on the computer, and leave “Protection” to continue working.
Or disable this feature completely, in which case checkpoints will no longer be created in the future.
Old OS folders and error folders
You can also delete unnecessary files in the following folders on your computer:
“C:\Windows.old” - this folder is created when you reinstall Windows without formatting the C drive and contains Windows folders and Program Files from the previous OS. If you don’t need anything in them, delete them (free up 20+ GB)
“C:\Found.000”, “C:\Found.001”, etc. — these folders are created by the disk check utility when errors are detected on drive C.
Removing programs
Unused programs also take up disk space and deleting them can free up some memory, it all depends on the size of the programs. On Windows 7, open “My Computer” and click the “Uninstall or change a program” button at the top.
A list of all installed programs will open, go through the list and remove unnecessary ones. It is advisable to start with the heaviest ones.
Windows 10 has two program stores. You can get into one of them as follows. Click right click mouse to Start and select “Control Panel”
The second repository for programs downloaded from the store is located at: Start - Settings
Applications and features.
There is also an “Offline maps” item nearby - if there are any, deleting them will help free up disk space.
User data
First of all, go through the folder My Documents, Videos, Images and Music. They may contain folders of programs that we have already deleted. Check if they contain anything you need, if not, delete such folders.
To make it easier to figure out which folders and files take up the most disk space, I recommend using the WinDirStat program, its description will be below.
Moving the My Documents folder
Another way to free up space on your hard drive is to move the My Documents folder to another drive. To do this, go to the folder “C:\Users\username” or “C:\Users\username”. You will see many folders.
Open the properties of the My Documents folder
go to the "Location" tab and click "Move"
select a folder on another drive, for example drive D. To avoid confusion, I recommend calling it “My Documents”.
Click "OK" or "Apply"
Confirm moving the files to the new folder.
Wait until the My Documents folder is moved to another drive.
Similarly, you can increase the free space on drive C in Windows 10. For even greater effect, you can move folders to another drive:
"Downloads" - Downloads
"Desktop" - Desktop
“Videos” - My videos
“Pictures” - My images
Enlargement of drive C at the expense of drive D
If after all these steps enough memory has not been freed up, then you can take a different path and increase drive C at the expense of drive D; I’ll talk about this in a separate article.
Disk cleaning programs
There are many good programs to clean the system from unnecessary files. I recommend using them only when necessary. The disk is full - there is not enough memory, install one of the programs, clean the disk, and then remove it. There is no need to fanatically delete 100-200kb of temporary files using programs every day.
Standard Disk Cleanup
The program is included in Windows but like everyone else standard programs performs tasks at a minimum. However, you can use it to clean up the disk a little.
To run it, you need to open the properties of drive C and click the “disk cleanup” button.
CCleaner
With it, you don’t have to delve into the question of how to clear memory on your computer; the program already knows which files can be deleted without harm to the operating system. You just need to launch it, select the necessary items and start cleaning.
But check the boxes carefully. The program can delete typed addresses in the browser, history, and even window sizes. After cleaning you will have to get used to it again.
WinDirStat
The program scans your computer's drives and visually shows which files and folders take up the most memory. With its help, you can quickly remove the largest folders from unnecessary ones.
Without it, you would have to manually go into the folders and open the properties each time, evaluate how much deleting this or that folder will help, in general, you would have spent a lot of time and effort.
Glary utilities 5
This is a whole package of utilities for computer maintenance. This program has a good data analyzer that can be deleted.
There is also an uninstallation manager in which you can select all the programs that you want to remove by ticking and with one click start the process of freeing memory from them.
Unlocker
When deleting some files and folders, you may encounter “no rights” or “file open in another program” problems. In this case, Unlocker will unlock the file and it will be quietly deleted.
What to do to prevent disk C from getting clogged
Use uninstaller programs. When you install programs and then uninstall them, some files remain stored on your disk. The uninstaller ensures that programs, after uninstallation, do not leave unnecessary files and folders in the registry.
How to completely clean your computer hard drive
This may be necessary when you sell a computer or laptop and want to permanently erase data without the possibility of recovery. After normal removal and even formatting data can be restored in some cases. You need to use the Drive Wiper function in CCleaner.
Well, if you need to delete from time to time without the possibility of recovery, it is more convenient to use free program Free File Wiper.
Conclusion
Good day, dear readers, admirers and other individuals. Have you ever noticed that you are running out of space on your computer?
As a rule, this is not a consequence of a virus or your carelessness, but simply a recovery service Windows systems, incorrectly configured paging file and others. Often the reason for a place selling is also a high browser cache value or an OS cluttered with all sorts of software garbage.
How to find out why a space disappears in Windows
As I said, there are several sources where space can go missing.
Let's look at them in order.
First, the recovery system. The fact is that Microsoft, taking care of its users, made a recovery system in Windows, which greatly influences the fact that your location disappears (although in fact it is simply “hidden”).
What it does (if you haven’t changed the settings) is that at some intervals (especially in the case of installing programs\games\) it makes restore points, which you can always use in case of a system crash/failure. The question is, are you using this recovery system?
For example, I have a hard time remembering the last time I had to do this. Moreover, the benefits of it are very doubtful. In turn, these points take up up to 12% of the space on each hard drive, which, you see, is a lot (especially on large disks). Therefore, here's how to get rid of (or at least reconfigure) the amount of space occupied by recovery points.
How to get back space on your computer disk
Start -> Settings -> Control Panel-> System -> System Restore
For Windows Vista/Windows 7/8/10:
Start -> Settings -> Control Panel-> System -> System protection
Here you can either completely disable system recovery, or distribute the points on which disks and how much space they will take up.
I cannot recommend that you completely disable recovery, because... I don’t know how often you encounter system problems and resort to recovery, but personally, I have it disabled because... I consider it a dubious tool that takes up quite a lot of space, especially since you can always use the " " article to protect and restore data.
For those who want to leave it (system restore), but configure it as competently as possible and make it so that they no longer have to look for where the space disappears:
- It is advisable that they should not be on the disk with the operating system at all or should take up as little space as possible;
- You don't need more than 3 restore points, i.e. You shouldn’t set the maximum percentage even on several disks. 3-6% on one or two disks will be enough, and then, in my opinion, this will be a lot.
By the way, before configuring these parameters, the system had already created a number of restore points, so it would be a good idea to delete them. To do this, open “My Computer”, right-click on the hard drive the place where you need to clear it and select “Properties” from the drop-down list.
In the window that appears, click on the button “Disk Cleanup” – “Advanced” – “ System Restore” – “Clear” – “Yes” – “Ok”.
Or, if you have Windows 7/Vista, you can clear the space occupied by restore points using the " button Configure - Delete", which is located on the "System Protection" tab (see path above):
This is what they call time.
Let's go to point two.
About the paging file and where space disappears
When the operating system does not have enough , it begins to unload programs into the page file, i.e. a file on the hard drive that serves as a kind of RAM, but much slower. Accordingly, the size of the paging file may vary, depending on the amount of RAM you have.
As a standard, the size of the paging file is 2-4 times larger than the amount of physical RAM, but this size can be changed, however, often to the detriment of performance (especially if there is little RAM). He also answers the question of where the place disappears, because he occupies this very place with all his strength.
Configure the location and size of the paging file to hard drives here:
- Start -> Settings -> Control Panel-> System -> Advanced > Performance > Options > Advanced > Virtual memory -> Change
I still don’t recommend disabling the entire paging file, but redistributing or reducing it is always welcome. I wrote more about the paging file and its configuration in the article, so read it to set the correct numbers.
Cache, trash and where does the space go?
During operation of the system, programs, browsers and other things, constantly create a so-called cache, i.e. temporary auxiliary files, which (files) they periodically forget to delete. Also, after deleting various programs, they usually leave behind garbage traces of files, which also sometimes weigh quite a lot.
Therefore, I recommend that you constantly clean Tempory Internet Files, browser caches, program traces and other all kinds of garbage. I wrote how to do this in the article "". I strongly recommend you read it, because it often frees up a lot of space.
Other manual cleaning
First, turn on the display of hidden files. To do this, we follow the path “ My Computer – Tools – Folder Options – View – Show hidden files and folders - OK".
Next, open the disk with the system and find the Documents and Settings folder there. It contains your profile files and some system\program settings. The whole point is that most programs, especially if you deleted them incorrectly, i.e. without use, let’s say, they leave behind a bunch of traces and debris, which sometimes cannot be cleaned out even by Ccleaner. You have to dig with your hands. The most cluttered folders in my opinion are:
- C:\Documents and Settings\name\Application Data;
- C:\Documents and Settings\name\Local Settings\Application Data.
where C:\ is the drive where the system is located, and the name is your name in the system.
Carefully rummage through these folders and delete folders with the names of programs that have not been on your computer for a long time.
You can find the remaining thick folders yourself by selecting one\group of folders in Documents and Settings and checking their volume by clicking the right mouse button and selecting “Properties” from the list. As a rule, when traveling like this, you can find a lot of all sorts of junk that was forgotten (or deliberately left behind) by program uninstallers.
In general, to make it clearer what exactly is taking up how much space on which disk and how to delete it, I recommend reading this article of mine: “”, a program in which will clearly allow you to identify what is gnawing off treasured megabytes from the disk.
Afterword
Something like this.
I hope that the article was useful to you and that you cleared and saved heaps of valuable megabytes.
As always, I will be glad to see your additions, reviews, questions, etc., which you can safely write in the comments to this entry.
PS: As a good alternative to the above-mentioned CCleaner, I can suggest you use a wonderful program for cleaning garbage and all sorts of “forgotten” miscellaneous things.
During its operation, the operating system creates a lot of temporary data that is stored on disk (usually drive C) in the form of files and registry entries. These can be files from update packages, archivers, shadow copies, content downloaded from the Internet, etc. They behave in a similar way third party programs, for example, browsers that cache website data. Some temporary files are deleted automatically after a certain time, others remain on the disk until they are forcibly deleted.
If the user does not regularly maintain and clean up the C drive, the free space on it becomes less and less, to the point that the disk eventually ends up filled to capacity with temporary files, which precludes further writing of any data to it. reduces its performance. There are two ways out of this situation - either increase the size of the system partition at the expense of the user volume, or perform a comprehensive cleanup of it, which is more preferable. Let's see how to free up space on your local C drive in Windows 7/10.
What can you delete if the disk is full?
The system volume contains many important files that ensure normal Windows operation, so deep cleaning should be approached with the utmost care. What can you delete from the C drive to free up space and not disrupt the system? All its contents can be divided into three groups. The first includes files that can be deleted without any fear. The second consists of files, the deletion of which, although it will not harm the system, can still cause certain problems under some circumstances. The third group includes files that cannot be deleted, as this can make programs and the system inoperable. You can clean up drive C without negative consequences by deleting:
- Cart Contents.
- Library catalogues.
- Folders and Downloaded Program Files in the Windows directory.
- Cache of browsers and some third-party programs.
- Icon sketches.
- Logs and memory dumps for system errors.
- Old Chkdsk utility files.
- Bug reports.
- Files created by the Windows debugger.
With some caution, you can delete shadow copies () created during the installation of updates and stored in backups, files from previous system installations (Windows.old folder), unnecessary components and applications, folders of uninstalled programs in the ProgramData, Program Files and Roaming directories, MSOCache folder Microsoft Office. If you do not use Quick Start, you can delete the file hiberfil.sys in the root of drive C, having previously disabled these functions in the settings. It is acceptable, but not recommended, to delete the swap file pagefile.sys. Other files and folders on drive C cannot be deleted so as not to disrupt the operation of the system.
Cleaning junk and temporary files using Windows
First, let's look at how to clear drive C of unnecessary files in Windows 7/10 using the operating system itself. Windows has a built-in utility for these purposes. cleanmgr.exe, which can be launched either through the properties of the partition being cleaned or through the “Run” dialog box. After the utility scans the disk for outdated files, check the boxes on the “Disk Cleanup” tab and click “OK.”
If you click the “Clean up system files” button, reports, device driver packages, error dumps and, additionally, restore points, with the exception of the most recent one, will become available for deletion.
For a deeper and more thorough cleaning of drive C from garbage, you can use the built-in console utilities Dism And vssadmin. The first allows you to delete temporary data from the WinSxS folder, including backups created before installing Windows updates. To do this, use the following commands executed in the CMD console running as administrator:
- DISM.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup
- DISM.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /SPSuperseded
- vssadmin delete shadows /all /quiet
The first command does the same thing as the cleanmgr.exe utility, only more thoroughly.
The second deletes all backup update packages from the WinSxS folder.
The third command can delete all restore points, including the last one.
However, you should use these tools with caution, since after executing the indicated commands, you will no longer be able to roll back the system to a working state or a previous version.
Note: Before cleaning the WinSxS folder, it is recommended to set its true size, thereby making sure that it really needs cleaning. To do this you need to do command line team Dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /AnalyzeComponentStore and compare the actual size of the component store with the size indicator in the Explorer properties.
After Windows updates up to more new version a folder appears at the root of drive C Windows.old, which can take up significant disk space.
The contents of this directory are represented by copies system files previous installation Windows versions. If you are determined not to return to old version system, the Windows.old folder can be deleted. This is done again either using cleanmgr.exe or using the command line. In the first case, you need to find and mark the “Previous” item on the “Advanced” tab. Windows installations", in the second - execute in the console running as administrator cmd command rd /s /q c:/windows.old.
You can get a little extra space on the C drive by removing unused components, the same ones that are accessible through the classic Add/Remove Programs applet.
The standard Dism utility is also used here. To select and uninstall unused Windows component, run the following two commands in the CMD console running with elevated rights:
- DISM.exe /Online /English /Get-Features /Format:Table
- DISM.exe /Online /Disable-Feature /featurename:NAME /Remove
The first command displays a list of all components in the system, the second deletes the selected element. IN in this example its name must be substituted for the NAME line element.
Manual removal of programs and files
Except for universal ones Windows applications 8.1 and 10, almost all desktop programs are installed in the folder Program Files. If a program is no longer needed, it should be deleted so that it does not take up disk space, but this must be done either using a standard uninstaller or using special third-party programs. However, after uninstalling applications, folders with configuration files may remain on the disk, the weight of which can reach several hundred megabytes. Such data must be deleted manually.
Let's say you have removed Microsoft Office or Skype from your computer and you also want to get rid of all their remaining “tails” on the C drive. To do this, carefully check the Program Files and ProgramData directories in the root of drive C, as well as the folders C:/Users/Username/AppData. If the folder name matches the name remote application, it can be deleted.
The AppData folder is a little more complicated. This hidden directory contains three subfolders: Local, LocalLow and Roaming. The first stores files created during the operation of various programs. You cannot clear it entirely, as this will most likely lead to the loss of saved application settings, however, half-empty folders of uninstalled programs can be completely safely deleted. You can also safely clear the contents of the folder located in it Temp.
The same applies to the LocalLow and Roaming folders; it is permissible to delete from them only those directories that belonged to previously uninstalled applications.
Note: By clearing the contents of the Local, LocalLow and Roaming folders, you lose user settings and data saved in their cache. For example, after deleting its folders in your user profile, you will lose your current messenger settings and part of your message history.
As for deleting universal applications, they are uninstalled regular means the system itself or the CCleaner program, which will be discussed below. You can also transfer some universal applications from drive C to drive D, if they support this feature.
Transferring desktop programs to another volume is also possible; for these purposes there is special utility SteamMover, which you can download from the developer’s website www.traynier.com/software/steammover.
Using CCleaner
Many novice users are interested in how to delete unnecessary files from drive C using third-party programs, as well as which of these programs are more effective and safe in this regard. These can be recommended CCleaner– simple, fast, convenient, and most importantly safe disk cleaner and Windows registry. This program allows you to delete temporary data from the Internet and Windows itself, the contents of the thumbnail cache and DNS, Index.dat files, memory dumps, fragments of chkdsk files, various system logs, outdated prefetch files and a lot of other unimportant data.
With CCleaner you can clean up invalid entries system registry, optimize, enable, disable or remove browser extensions, analyze content hard drives, search for duplicates and, of course, uninstall unnecessary applications, including universal ones.
CCleaner's interface is very simple, so understanding its simple functionality will not be difficult even for a novice user.
Considering, however, that the main purpose of CCleaner is still cleaning, all its additional tools have limited functionality. If your C drive is full of unknown things, and you want to find out what exactly it is, then for these purposes it is better to use specific utilities, for example, Scanner, JdiskReport or their analogues, showing more accurate information about the file structure of the media with the ability to navigate through subdirectories.
Other ways to free up space on drive C
Clearing the Driver Store
The steps described above are usually enough to free up enough space on the system volume, but what if drive C is still full? What else can you do to get additional space? One option is to clear the contents of the folder FileRepository located at C:/Windows/System32/DriverStore.
This directory contains copies of device drivers that have ever been connected to the computer, and can also store outdated versions drivers. Before deleting driver packages from the FileRepository folder, it is highly advisable to create a complete list of them and find only outdated versions in it, leaving the rest untouched. It also wouldn't hurt to create a complete copy of all drivers installed on the system. To list the DriverStore drivers in a file, run the following command in an elevated command prompt:
pnputil.exe /e > C:/drivers.log
Compare the driver versions in the list and remove only the outdated ones.
To remove the selected driver, immediately run the command in the console pnputil.exe /d oem№.inf, where № is the name of the driver in the list.
If an error appears in the console when uninstalling a driver, it means the driver is being used by the system. There is no need to touch such a component.
As an alternative to the command line, you can use free utility Driver Store Explorer, just designed to remove old unused device drivers.
Disabling hibernation
Thanks to the hibernation mode, the user can quickly return to work in running applications; on the other hand, its use requires the allocation of significant space on the system disk, slightly less than or equal to the amount of RAM. If having free space on your hard drive is a priority for you, you can disable hibernation mode by deleting the hiberfil.sys container file.
Launch the CMD console as an administrator and run the command in it powercfg -h off. Hibernation will be disabled and the bulky hiberfil.sys file will be removed.
Note: The hibernation file can be compressed by a maximum of two times with the command powercfg hibernate size 50.
Disabling the page file
In addition to other hidden system objects, there is also a file in the root of drive C that can be deleted under certain conditions. This is the swap file pagefile.sys. This file plays the role of a RAM buffer, and if an application does not have enough RAM to operate, its data is temporarily written to . Accordingly, if there is no swap file, a heavy application will slow down greatly or simply freeze while waiting for faster RAM to become available. Therefore, disabling and deleting the paging file is not recommended unless the computer has a very large amount of RAM.
If your PC has more than 10 GB of memory or you do not intend to run resource-intensive applications, you can try carefully disabling swap. To do this, open Advanced system settings and on the “Advanced” tab in the “Performance” block, click the “Options” button.
This will open another window. Switch to the “Advanced” tab, and then click the Change button in the “Virtual Memory” block.
Uncheck the “Automatically select paging file size” checkbox, turn on the “No paging file” radio button, save the settings and reboot. The pagefile.sys file will be deleted.
Removing the MSOcache folder
For users who have installed Microsoft package Office, in the root of the system volume there is hidden folder MSOcache, the weight of which can reach several gigabytes.
This folder is a cache of the office suite and contains files that may be needed for recovery Microsoft work Office in case of damage. The MSOcache folder is not involved in launching Microsoft Office or working with documents, so it can be deleted in a standard way. Just keep in mind that if Microsoft Office is damaged for some reason, you will have to restore the package installation disk with its distribution.
Compressing the contents of a system volume
You can free up some free space on drive C without deleting anything from it at all. Instead, all system files can be compressed. To do this, just open the properties of drive C, on the “General” tab, check the box “Shrink this drive to save space” and click “OK”.
To compress system files in Windows 10, you can use the function Compact OS by running one of two commands in the CMD console running as administrator:
- compact /CompactOs:query
- compact /CompactOs:always
The second command performs the same actions as the first, but in forced mode. It is used if you really want to shrink the system volume, and the first command rejects the operation, considering it inappropriate. The compression is completely reversible and to return file system to normal state, just execute the reverse command compact /CompactOs:never.
In addition to NTFS compression, LZX compression is available in Windows 10, but it has a number of disadvantages, which is why it is not widely used. LZX compression is applicable to read-only files and directories, but an entire system volume cannot be compressed with its help due to the risk of creating an unbootable system.
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