How to Free Up Hard Drive Space (on Windows 7)

Use Disk Cleanup

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Open Start . Click the colorful Windows logo located in the lower left corner of the screen. A new menu will appear.

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Click the search bar at the bottom of the Start menu.

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Type disk cleanupto find the Disk Cleanup program on your computer. This program is included in all versions of Windows 7.

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Click Disk Cleanup to open the Disk Cleanup window. Usually this option will be near the top of the Start menu.

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Click Clean up system files. It 's at the bottom left of the window above.

If you do not use an administrator account, you will not be able to clean system files. In that case, skip this step and go to the next step.

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Click Yes when asked, allowing Disk Cleanup to reboot with additional options.

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Select the item to delete. Click the check box next to each group of files or items you want to delete from your computer. Do not check any items you want to keep. Some common file groups/items are:

Windows Update —Delete the latest Windows Update files from your computer (existing updates will not be affected).

Downloaded Program Files — Delete unnecessary files of programs on the device.

Temporary Internet Files (Internet Explorer Temporary Memory)— Delete files used as temporary browser memory.

System create Windows Error Reporting (Windows error reporting from the system) — Delete error reporting files.

Recycle Bin — Delete any files stored in the Recycle Bin.

Temporary files — Delete other temporary files that come from programs or web usage.

User file history — Clear browsing history (such as searches on Windows Explorer).

Everything in this menu can be safely deleted. However, deleting items like the Windows Update cache will prevent you from reverting to its previous version.

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Click the OK button located at the bottom of the window.

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Click Delete Files when prompted, allowing Disk Cleanup to begin deleting selected files from your hard drive. This program will close automatically when deletion is complete.

Deletion can take anywhere from a few minutes to up to an hour.

Uninstall programs

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Go to Start . Click the colorful Windows logo located in the lower left corner of the screen. The Start menu will appear.

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Click Control Panel on the right side of the Start menu. The Control Panel window will appear.

If for some reason the Control Panel doesn't appear, you can type it control panelinto the text box at the bottom of the Start menu and then click Control Panel in the search results list.

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Tap the "View by" drop-down box. This box is located in the upper right corner of the Control Panel page. A menu will drop down.

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Click Category . It's in the drop-down menu.

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Click Uninstall a program below the "Programs" heading in the lower left part of the list of options.

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Choose a program. Scroll down until you find the program you want to uninstall and click on the name to select it.

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Click Uninstall . It's at the top of the window.

For some programs, instead of Uninstall, it will be Change / Uninstall .

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Follow the instructions on the screen. You will usually have to confirm that you want to remove the program and follow its uninstaller program's instructions.

In some cases, to completely remove it, you will have to restart your computer.

Some programs will uninstall immediately after you press Uninstall .

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Wait for the uninstallation process to complete. At this point, you can uninstall other programs if necessary.

Marvin Fry

Update 21 June 2024