Deleting apps to make some space on a small SSD. Win 10 64 bit

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I have a desktop with a small SSD. I was cleaning it to free up some space. The Setting/System/Storage  shows 38.5 GB of apps and features, but when I look at the detailed contents I don’t come even close to that. How can I see what is making the 38.5 GB?

See attached list of contents.

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meyer99 wrote:

See attached list of contents.

??

Have you tried revo uninstaller FREE:
https://www.revouninstaller.com/revo-uninstaller-free-download/

Of course you can use the extensive DISM commands for each app etc..but, that takes time.

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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meyer99 wrote:

when I look at the detailed contents I don’t come even close to that.

Did you set OS to show hidden files/folders ?

Download and run the free portable WizTree

The app will display ALL folders/files including sleep, Hibernation…

Download and run the free portable 100 Largest Files Finder to see which are largests files on your system..

For uninstalling software including registry entries use the free portable Geekuninstaller

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meyer99

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With WizTree (or just Explorer viewing) I found over 1000 SAS.TMP files (= multi GB back to 2018 that SuperAS Sppt said I could delete) in C:\users\MeAdmin\AppData\Local\Temp…. Maybe you have a similar app situation, although mine keep re-loading & I keep deleting. Alex’s helpful apps should reveal that but I’d look there to be sure.

Big Deletes ….  I always have Macrium bkups ready.

W10 Pro 22H2 / Hm-Stdnt Ofce '16 C2R / Macrium Pd vX / GP=2 + FtrU=Semi-Annual + Feature Defer = 1 + QU = 0

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I like to turn off a couple of Windows features to get space back. Via the Admin Command Prompt:

• Hibernate: powercfg -h off
  Reclaim space equal to system RAM – 32GB on my home desktop, 16GB on my work notebook.
• Reserved storage: DISM /Online /Set-ReservedStorageState /State:Disabled
  This seems to reclaim about 7GB on average, and I’ve had no ill effects for years.

To confirm the increases in free space, I open File Explorer to This PC beforehand, and then Refresh after each change.

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Windows 10 has a built in app/program called Disk Cleanup.  When run as admin, it can clean up “system files” which the first time it is done may free up about 5GB of space.  Doing this I believe makes all currently installed Windows Updates permanent.

The %TEMP% folder I often empty.  If all programs are shut down I think it is fine to do so, but safest would be to have an image backup first, or to move all the contents to something temporary and wait a week to see if there is anything missing, then delete it.

If you value your time at $15 an hour, often you will find that getting a new larger drive is worth it to reduce need for cleanup.  A 2TB SSD drive in the US can be bought for under $150.

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Does the desktop have a larger second drive? If so, you can move the installed files of an app to the second drive and make the system think it is still on the SSD drive with a symlink. Example: App X installed on the SSD drive uses 1 GB for its installed files. Move App X files to another drive and put a symlink of 0 bytes. This frees 1 GB of space on the SSD drive. The App will work just like it did when those files were on the SSD drive.

HTH, Dana:))

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Thank you all. A little bit here and there and I gained back 20GB.

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meyer99 wrote:

Thank you all. A little bit here and there and I gained back 20GB.

You can gain more by “cleaning” WinSXS (the largest Windows OS folder)

Check WinSXS current storage size :
dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /AnalyzeComponentStore

Clean WinSXS :
dism /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup

Run current storage size to see the gain :
dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /AnalyzeComponentStore

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