How to Clean C Drive & Get BACK 150GB+ Space Instantly — 8 SUPER Ways

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 If your Windows C: drive is red and running out of space, use these proven, safe methods. Follow them in order; you can easily reclaim tens to hundreds of GB depending on what’s on your PC.

⚠️ Safety first

  • Don’t delete what you don’t understand.

  • Create a restore point (optional): Start → Create a restore point → Configure → Turn on protection → Create.

Quick Check: See Where Space Is Going

Windows 10/11: Settings → System → Storage → (C:)
Click each category (Apps, Temporary files, OneDrive, etc.) to see big hitters.

1) One-Click Gains: Disk Cleanup & Storage Sense (10–50+ GB)

Windows 11/10 (Storage Sense)

  1. Settings → System → Storage → Temporary files.

  2. Tick: Windows Update Cleanup, Delivery Optimization files, Downloads (if safe), Thumbnails, Temporary files, Recycle Bin.

  3. Click Remove files.

  4. Turn on Storage Sense: Settings → System → Storage → Storage Sense → On.

    • Run it Now and set it to auto-clean (e.g., 14 or 30 days).

Classic Disk Cleanup (deep)

  1. Press Win + R → type cleanmgr /sageset:1 → Enter.

  2. Tick everything you recognize (esp. Windows Update Cleanup, Device driver packages, Temporary Windows installation files). Click OK.

  3. Press Win + R → cleanmgr /sagerun:1 → Enter.

2) Hunt Huge Files Fast (20–150+ GB)

Use File Explorer’s built-in search to spot monsters.

File Explorer search filters

Open *C:* and type:

  • size:gigantic (files >128 MB)

  • size:huge (files 16–128 MB)

  • size:>1GB (exact threshold)

  • Add file types: ext:iso or ext:zip or *.mp4

  • Combine: size:>2GB AND (ext:iso OR ext:zip OR ext:mp4)

Right-click Delete or move to another drive. Check Downloads, Videos, Desktop, and C:\Users<you>\AppData\Local\Temp.

PowerShell (advanced, faster)

  1. Press Win + X → Windows PowerShell (Admin).

  2. List top 50 largest files on C:

    Get-ChildItem C:\ -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue |
  Where-Object { -not $_.PSIsContainer } |
  Sort-Object Length -Descending |
  Select-Object FullName, @{n="GB";e={[math]::Round($_.Length/1GB,2)}} -First 50

  3. Delete only what you recognize (media, old installers, ISOs).

3) Uninstall Heavy Apps & Optional Features (5–60+ GB)

  1. Settings → Apps → Installed apps → Sort by Size → Uninstall what you don’t need (games, editors, old toolchains).

  2. Settings → Apps → Optional features → Remove speech packs, handwriting packs, unused features.

  3. Settings → Apps → Advanced app settings → Where new content is saved → Set New apps (and New documents/music/pictures/videos) to another drive.

4) Clean the WinSxS Component Store (5–20+ GB)

Windows hoards old components in C:\Windows\WinSxS.

  1. Open PowerShell (Admin) and analyze:

    Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /AnalyzeComponentStore

  2. Cleanup & reset base (removes superseded updates):

    Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase

After this, you can’t uninstall past updates—normal and safe for most.

5) Remove Windows.old After a Feature Update (10–30+ GB)

If you recently updated Windows, Windows.old lingers.

  • Settings → System → Storage → Temporary files → Tick Previous Windows installation(s) → Remove files.
    (Or via Disk Cleanup’s “Previous Windows installation(s)”.)

6) Kill Hibernation File & Tame Pagefile (8–40+ GB)

Disable Hibernation (deletes hiberfil.sys)

  1. PowerShell (Admin):

    powercfg /h off

  2. This removes C:\hiberfil.sys (often 6–12+ GB).
    To re-enable later: powercfg /h on.

Pagefile right-size (optional)

  1. Control Panel → System → Advanced system settings → Advanced → Performance (Settings) → Advanced → Virtual memory (Change).

  2. Uncheck Automatically manage → select C: → choose System managed size (recommended) or set a custom size (min ~1× RAM GB, max ~1.5×).

  3. OK → Restart.

7) Move User Folders & Enable Cloud “Online-Only” (10–100+ GB)

Move libraries off C:

  1. Right-click Documents/Pictures/Videos/Downloads in This PC → Properties → Location → Move… → pick a folder on D: (or external).

  2. Windows migrates content and updates default paths.

OneDrive / Google Drive

  • Turn on Files On-Demand / Stream files so large folders are cloud-only.

  • Right-click big folders → Free up space (keeps them online, removes local copy).

8) Trim System Restore & Shadow Copies (5–20+ GB)

  1. Start → Create a restore point → select (C:) → Configure.

  2. Reduce Max Usage to ~3–5% of drive.

  3. Click Delete to remove older restore points (keeps latest settings).

Bonus Sweeps (small but worth it)

  • Empty Recycle Bin (right-click Bin → Empty).

  • Clear browser caches (Chrome/Edge: Ctrl+Shift+Del).

  • Temp folders: Press Win + R → type %TEMP% → Enter → delete visible files; repeat with C:\Windows\Temp.

  • Delivery Optimization: Settings → System → Storage → Temporary files → tick Delivery Optimization files.

(Optional) One-Shot Temp Cleaner Script

Deletes only temp + recycle + update leftovers. Save as C-Clean-Quick.ps1, run in PowerShell (Admin).

# Recycle Bin
Clear-RecycleBin -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

# User + Windows temp
$paths = @("$env:TEMP","C:\Windows\Temp")
foreach ($p in $paths) {
  if (Test-Path $p) {
    Get-ChildItem $p -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Remove-Item -Force -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
  }
}

# Windows Update cache (safe)
net stop wuauserv 2>$null
net stop bits 2>$null
Remove-Item "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download\*" -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
net start wuauserv 2>$null
net start bits 2>$null

After Each Step: Verify Your Wins

  • Settings → System → Storage (or This PC) to check Free space on (C:).

  • Aim to keep 15–25% of C: free so Windows and apps stay snappy.

Typical Results

  • Disk Cleanup + Temp + Delivery Optimization: 5–20 GB

  • Windows.old removal: 10–30 GB

  • WinSxS cleanup (DISM): 5–20 GB

  • Uninstall big apps/games: 10–80+ GB

  • Disabling Hibernation + right-sizing pagefile: 8–25 GB

  • Moving libraries/cloud “online-only”: 20–100+ GB
    Total potential: well over 150 GB on many systems.

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