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Patch reliability is unclear. Unless you have an immediate, pressing need to install a specific patch, don't do it. |
I have a 500gb ssd c drive .. and it 420gb full , but when I look on windows I can only find 50 gb in a 2019 photos folder.. why can I not see what is take up all the room.. so what do I us to see it..
side question.. I looking for my verzion of window.. found I had 1809.. and think it should or has been up dated..
thank you
44zack44
TreeSizeFree will search your disk and list directories in order of space use. Then you can trim as needed.
BTW, 80GB free is plenty for Windows and your SSD.
Woody recommends updating to 1909.
cheers, Paul
I would first run the ‘disk cleanup’ function, and put an X in the ‘cleanup system files’ box, and let ‘er fly. That should get rid of a significant number of needless files.
To go beyond that, you’ll have to change file options to view hidden files: while looking at any folder with files or folders in it, click on the ‘view’ tab up top and at the far right of that tool bar, click ‘options’ then ‘change folder and search options’. Then click the ‘view’ tab. Scroll down to the ‘hidden files and folders’ and put an x in the ‘show hidden files and folders’ choice. Then ‘apply’, followed by the ‘apply to folders’ button at the top of that box. Now you can view hidden files.
I run a very tight ship on my Win 10 computers. So I routinely prowl around to find out what it’s storing on me, etc. Whenever possible, I delete all historical info saved, such as:
historical bookmarks (from Firefox), also Firefox temporary files
C:\users\<your id>\apdata\local\temp (may lose saved passwords when cleared, but so what? – I NEVER save passwords on my computer),
C:\programdata\microsoft\search\data\applications\windows\gatherlogs\systemindex – this folder supposedly keeps track of all search functions you perform…and keeps it forever. Not on my computer! Earlier this week, I checked one of the .gthr files and found the full folder address of my Excel checkbook!! I’ve found file references for numerous other files of photographs I was editing with Photoshop, and the like. In my opinion, this one leaves you open to extensive personal data theft.
C:\Windows\prefetch – This is a ‘short list’ cache of recently accessed files to presumably speed up your computer as time goes on. With an SSD, it unnecessarily writes and reads to my Windows drive (C:). It took a while, but I finally found and disabled the culprit Windows Services item: Sysmain ‘Maintains and improves system performance over time’ It also sucks up a lot of space on drive C:
C:\Windows\Temp – I don’t know how ‘old’ a log entry in here stays around. I’m guessing ‘forever’. I routinely clean it out after shutting down all open windows (apps). If you’re diagnosing system problems, this is where the log files are stored, so keep the more recent ones.
In my book, any folder named ‘temp’ is fair game to be cleaned out (not deleted) whenever I feel like it. And I do…once or twice a week. Maybe the FBI would call this ‘destroying evidence’, but I call it ‘personal security’ and ‘enhanced computer performance’.
Windows 7 had several more areas it squirreled away historical information. I have yet to find their corresponding folders in Win 10 since doing a clean install in December.
Warning: for the uninitiated, do a complete system backup to an external drive before attempting any of this.
how about also checking the C:\Windows\Logs\CBS folder
I sometimes see .log files there that may also take up some space that need to be cleaned out from time to time – delete everything there except for cbs.log
If you already have CCleaner on your PC (a lot of people do), then under Tools there is a “Disk Analyser” which can be used to list files (with their paths) in decreasing file size. (I imagine other “maintenance suites” such as Glary Utilities or Wise Care will have something similar?) If you want a quick check without downloading and installing something new 
Disk space saving tip: If like me you do not use Hibernation, then you can save disk space similar to the size of RAM in your PC by switching it off. To do this open a command prompt “run as administrator” and type “powercfg /h off” and <Enter>. This causes a file called “hiberfil.sys” to be deleted. This file is where Windows copies RAM contents to disk before hibernation, so that it can copy this stuff back to RAM after wake-up. In my PC with 8GB RAM, “CCleaner shows “hiberfil.sys” to be 6.6GB and for me this is wasted disk space. Obviously if you use Hibernation you need to leave it switched on and accept “hiberfil.sys” on your disk.
HTH. Garbo.
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