As using Windows Temporary files accumulate on the disk system programs, contents of the recycle bin, old OS recovery images and other data. You can delete them.

Click in Explorer right click mouse over the system drive (usually drive C) and select “Properties” → “Disk Cleanup”. In the next window, mark the items that take up the most space, click OK and confirm deletion.

To erase even more temporary files, including update data and outdated restore points, click Disk Cleanup again and click Clean up system files. Mark the largest objects in the list that appears and delete them. Then go to the Advanced tab, click Clean up under System Restore and Shadow Copies and confirm deletion.

It is especially useful to perform such cleaning after updates, since a large backup copy of the previous one may remain on the computer. Windows versions.

Browsers and other installed programs fill the system with temporary files over time. Sometimes this data can take up a significant amount of storage space. But you can quickly get rid of such garbage using free utilities like .

There may be large files on your computer that you do not need and are just wasting disk space. Searching for them manually is a thankless task. Moreover, there are programs that analyze the disk and display a list of all folders and files on the computer, ordered by size. Use one of them to find and remove unnecessary objects.

Over the years of using a computer, duplicates usually accumulate on it: accidentally copied pictures, songs downloaded several times, and other objects. You don't need these copies, and together they can take up significant storage space. To avoid searching for them yourself, use one of these to find and remove duplicate files.

Windows 10 comes with a built-in Compact OS utility that can make your system smaller. This happens by removing unnecessary OS elements and compressing the remaining data. This way you can free up to 6 GB on local disk, where Windows is installed (usually drive C). If you're interested, do it just in case. backups important data and use it.

Nowadays power modern computers, one might say, has reached its limit, since they can perform tasks of any complexity (from simple calculations on a calculator to creating complex graphic images).

But, sooner or later, the user feels that the machine has become slower and the system response time has increased.

What can you delete from drive C to free up space on Windows 7?

Installed programs

Of course, the largest segment of memory on the disk is occupied by all kinds of programs that the user installed and after a while stopped using them, forgetting about them.

To view their list, click: Start - Control Panel - Uninstall Programs. This command menu also allows you to completely delete your selected files.

It is important to know: as practice shows, in this way, you can clear several gigabytes of disk memory at a time.

Emptying the Trash

The recycle bin is temporary storage deleted files. A separate memory segment in the computer is allocated for it, which can become clogged over time. To delete all files from this storage you need to: Select the appropriate icon – Right-click on it – Select context menu"Empty trash".

It is important to know: files larger than 10 Gigabytes are immediately deleted, bypassing the recycle bin (they cannot be restored later).

Downloads folder

On your computer you can watch movies, play games and do many other operations that require installation additional programs and if you are used to downloading them all through torrent trackers, then in the Downloads folder there will be a lot of unnecessary files that take up precious space in the system.

As a rule, you can find this pack in the following path: My Computer – Left Dock Bar – Download Folder. When you open it, you will probably find a lot of files, images and music. You can delete them in a few clicks. To do this you need to do the following:

  • select all files;
  • place them in the cart;
  • empty the trash.

It is important to know: but before deleting the contents in the folder, it is recommended that you carefully review all the files, since there is a high probability that you may delete something you need.

To ensure proper operation of all programs in Windows OS there is a Temp pack, where all temporary files are stored after installing programs. For example, it could be additional software for antivirus and the like, but after these programs have been removed, residual files take up disk space.

In order to fix this you need to follow the path: My computer – drive C – Windows – Temp(after deleting all the contents, you must empty the trash can).

It is important to know: the folder may contain files that cannot be deleted. Of course, you can skip them, but if you need complete cleaning systems, they are removed using special utilities (for example, Unlocker), which unlock this feature in one click.

You can clear disk space using the built-in utility. To do this you need to open:

  • my PC;
  • right-click on it and go to properties.

In front of you you will see an additional context menu, where in the General tab there will be a menu item Disk Cleanup.

By selecting this action, the computer will begin to automatically select files that it thinks are unnecessary, and after a few minutes of waiting, it will give you a whole list of files and programs, where you can, by checking a box, delete them.

It is important to know: this method is also relevant for other versions of Microsoft OS.

Paging files are a system file that is used to store individual parts of a program in cases where some data does not fit on the disk due to lack of space. As a rule, the system places small-gigabyte files there.

But swap files have one small catch: they cannot be deleted even with special programs. But, it is possible to transfer them to disk, where there is much more space.

To do this, go to the following path: My Computer – Select required disk RMB – Properties – Additional system parameters – Options – Advanced – Change – indicate the desired disk.

It is important to know: you won’t be able to transfer much from there, since as disk space becomes free, the operating system automatically moves files to the necessary partitions.

Hibernation Mode

Hibernation mode is a special built-in utility that allows you to save everything when you turn off your computer. open source software without losing progress (that is, they work offline).

A similar effect can be achieved by running programs load their cache onto the system disk, clogging it in the process. To disable this mode you need to do the following:

  • Start menu;
  • enter the command line in the search column;
  • A black dialog box opens in front of us, in which we need to enter: powercfg.exe -h off and press Enter.

It is important to know: after restarting the computer, you will find that the space on system disk has become significantly larger.

Additional utilities

To clean up disk space, special software add-ons and utilities are used that are designed to complete removal files and other garbage from the system. The CCleaner utility is quite popular in this segment.

You can download the utility from the official website and install it on your computer and get to work.

Important to know: CCleaner provides full opportunity deleting all files manually or automatically.

Conclusion

This is the entire list of what can be deleted from drive C to free up space on Windows 7. Well, so that the user does not have to waste his time removing unnecessary garbage, it is worth remembering the main rule of an experienced IT specialist - Do not install unnecessary programs and don't forget to delete them!

In this article we will look at various ways cleaning the disk and freeing up space on it in any operating room Windows system XP, 7, 8.1, 10.

1. Where does disk space go?

During the process of computer operation, system updates, installation of programs, visiting websites and other actions, many unnecessary files accumulate on the disk, which are often called garbage or junk. In addition, we often download some files ourselves, and then, when they are no longer needed, we forget about them.

Extra files not only take up disk space, but also reduce system performance. The disk takes longer to search necessary files, and some of them may occupy a place in random access memory and use CPU resources. In addition, viruses often like to live in temporary files.

For stable, fast and reliable operation of your computer, you must keep the disk clean and tidy. Nowadays the problem of lack of space is also relevant. SSD drives, the scope of which is very limited.

In this article we will try to comprehensively solve the problem of lack of disk space. To achieve good results, we recommend that you read the entire article and follow all the tips in the order in which they are presented.

2. Removing unnecessary programs and games

First of all, remove all programs and games that you no longer need. This will not only free up disk space, but will also speed up the system.

Press the “Win+R” key combination, enter “appwiz.cpl” and press “Enter” or use the “Uninstall programs” shortcut from the “ ” section.

In the window that opens, carefully review the list of installed programs and games and remove all that you are unlikely to use in the near future.

To remove a program, right-click on it and select “Delete”.

Do not delete anything whose purpose you do not understand or if you are not sure.

After that, manually find and delete the save folders remote games, as they can take up a lot of space. You can easily find out where the saves of a particular game are by searching on the Internet.

Many Online Games They also save their distributions (installation packages) during updates, which are no longer needed, but at the same time take up a lot of space. For example, game center Mail.Ru saves distributions in the “Distrib” folder, and the “World of Tanks” game in the “Updates” subfolder. Files in such folders can occupy tens of gigabytes and can be safely deleted.

3. Find and delete unnecessary files

It often happens that some old unnecessary files take up a lot of disk space, but we forgot about them and don’t know where they are. In order to find them, I recommend using the “TreeSize Free” utility, which you can download in the “” section.

After launch, the program will scan your disk, determine the sizes of files and folders and sort them by size.

This way you can easily determine which folder contains the files that take up the most space. Delete any files you no longer need. If you think you might still need some of them, burn them to disk. Selecting the disk to scan (C, D, etc.) is done in the “Scan” menu.

4. Transferring user files and folders

If you have a second disk or partition (for example, disk “D”), then first of all transfer to it all files from the desktop and user folders such as “My Documents”, “My Music”, “My Videos”, etc. ., since they are all physically located on the “C” drive.

You can move files manually by creating folders for them on another drive or partition in advance. But it is more correct to change the location of the user’s folders using operating system. Then all new files that you or any programs save on the desktop and in user folders will automatically end up on another disk partition, without causing the system partition to overflow.

4.1. Transfer user folders to Windows 7, 8.1, 10

Go to the folder “C:\Users\Name”.

Right-click on the “My Documents” folder and go to the “Location” tab.

Replace the drive letter with the one where you want to move the folder (for example, "D") and click OK.

Agree to move the files, and then repeat all the steps for the Desktop folder and other user folders.

4.2. Transfer user folders to Windows XP

In Windows XP there is no function to automatically move user folders and we will use special utility"XP Tweaker", which you can download in the "" section.

Install the utility and run it. Then in the left pane, select the “Windows XP” section and go to the “System Folders” tab.

Select the "My Documents" folder with the mouse, change the drive letter to the one where you want to move the folder (for example, "D") and click the "Change" button.

Follow the same steps for the “My Pictures”, “My Music”, “Desktop” folders.

After that, go to the folder “C:\Documents and Settings\Name”.

And manually move the “My Documents” and “Desktop” folders to the new location “D:\Documents and Settings\Name”.

5. Disk cleanup using Windows

All versions of Windows have a Disk Cleanup feature. Using it, you can clean up any partition of the disk (C, D, etc.), but it is most effective for cleaning the system partition (drive “C”), since this is where most temporary files are stored.

Right-click on drive “C” and select “Properties”.

Click the Disk Cleanup button.

Click the "Clean up system files" button (Windows 7, 8.1, 10).

Check all the boxes and you will see how much space will be freed up when deleting temporary files.

The volume of temporary files can reach 5-10 GB. Click the "OK" button and all temporary files will be deleted.

6. Deleting the hibernation file

The hibernation file (hiberfil.sys), which can be close in size to the amount of RAM, is located on the “C” drive and is used for sleep mode. If you do not use this mode, but turn your computer on and off every time in the usual way, then this file can be safely deleted, since it takes up a lot of space.

The system will not allow you to manually delete this file, and even if you do this using a special utility for deleting files, the system will create it again. Therefore, to correctly delete the hibernation file, you need to disable sleep mode.

Launch Command Prompt as administrator and run the following command:

Powercfg -h off

After this, the system itself will delete this file and will no longer create it.

If you don’t know how to work with the command line or don’t want to bother, you can download batch file"Deleting a hibernation file" in the "" section.

All you have to do is right-click on it and run it as Administrator (except for Windows XP).

7. Disable or change the page file size

The paging file (pagefile.sys), which can be one and a half times the size of RAM, is located on drive “C” and is used by many programs to compensate for the lack of RAM.

If you have a fairly large amount of RAM and a small “C” drive (for example, an SSD), many enthusiasts advise disabling the page file.

In the window that opens, go to the “Advanced” tab and in the “Performance” section, click the “Options” button.

In Performance Options, go to the Advanced tab and click the Change button.

Uncheck “Automatically select paging file size”, check the “No paging file” checkbox and click “OK”.

After restarting the computer, the paging file will be deleted and a lot of space will be freed up on the C drive.

But keep in mind that the system’s operation is tightly tied to the page file, and some programs may not even have enough 8 GB of RAM. Therefore, out of memory errors may begin to appear.

You can try completely disabling the paging file if you have 16 GB or more of RAM, but I still would not recommend doing this.

Hard drive A-Data Ultimate SU650 120GB

8. Disabling System Restore

The recovery service makes backups system files and stores them in a special hidden folder, which can take up a lot of disk space. At the same time, the built-in recovery tool does not always work correctly, and viruses like to hide in the backup folder.

Press the “Win+R” key combination, enter “sysdm.cpl” and press “Enter” or use the “System Properties” shortcut from the “ ” section.

In the window that opens, go to the “System Protection” tab, select the “C” drive and click the “Configure” button.

Check the “Disable system protection” checkbox and click “OK”.

After this, all backup copies of system files will be deleted and additional disk space will be freed up. This way you can free up 5-10 GB of valuable space on drive “C”.

9. Disabling the Recycle Bin

You can disable the Recycle Bin on drive “C” so that it does not take up space on it. To do this, right-click on the trash can icon and select “Properties”.

Set the “C” drive to “Destroy files immediately after deletion” and click “OK.”

After this, if you delete large files from folders with game distributions or any other, they will not end up in the trash and will not take up space on the “C” drive.

10. Cleaning up your backup storage

To clean the backup storage of system files in Windows 8, 8.1, 10, I recommend command line Run the following command as Administrator.

Dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup

For this purpose, you can also download the “Cleaning backup storage” command file in the “” section and execute it as Administrator.

11. Deleting temporary folders

You can painlessly delete temporary folders left after installing some drivers and programs:

C:\AMD C:\ATI C:\CONFIG.MSI C:\Intel C:\MSOCache C:\NVIDIA C:\SWSetup

12. Automatic disk cleaning and acceleration

There are special utilities to automatically clean the disk from temporary files. One of the best that I recommend is .

It can be set to clear temporary files every time you boot your computer, which will help maintain free space on your C drive and also give you a little extra protection since temporary folders are a favorite place for viruses.

But you need to configure it correctly, otherwise this utility will not clean up what you need, but leave what you need to remove. Since the utility’s settings are quite extensive and it has many additional useful functions, I decided to talk about it separately in the next article.

13. Links

Hard drive A-Data Ultimate SU650 240GB
Hard drive Transcend StoreJet 25M3 1 TB
HDD Western Digital Caviar Blue WD10EZEX 1TB

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 is the system drive and, as a rule, 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. To remove an unnecessary program, select it in the list and click “remove”.

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. Increase the size of the system partition yourself using Windows 7 you can follow these instructions.

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 backup copies, files of 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:

  1. DISM.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup
  2. DISM.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /SPSuperseded
  3. 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 run the command on the command line 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 of the installation system files previous version Windows. 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:

  1. DISM.exe /Online /English /Get-Features /Format:Table
  2. 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 deleted from Microsoft computer Office or Skype and you also want to get rid of all their “tails” remaining 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 work process 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 V 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.