How to Free Up Space in Windows 8

Are you sick of being prompted for low storage space? Do you always find your computer in a freezing state? Most people recommend that you increase your memory, but you don't have the funds to buy another storage device. As such, you might want to reduce the unnecessary files and programs in your computer. Below are the steps that you could do to efficiently clean up your drive.

1. Before anything else, know where you stand.

You have to determine first if your hard drive's free space is in dire position. To find out the free space in your computer, do the following steps:

- Go to Settings. To do that, point your mouse to the lower-right corner of the desktop then move it up to click Settings. You can also simply swipe your screen from right to left in order to access it.

- Click or tap Change PC settings. Select PC and devices, and then go to Disk space.

- In the Free up space on this PC, you will see the total size of your disk and the remaining free space it has.

Note that you have to install the latest update to Windows 8.1 so that you can see Disk Space. Usually, the automatic updates option is turned on.

Therefore, all updates will be downloaded once you are connected to the internet.

However, if you turned off that option, you should do the update manually. Go to Change PC settings as instructed above, and then follow these steps:

- Under the Change PC settings, select Update and Recovery.

- Click or tap Windows Update, then press Check now.

- All updates will be listed under the View details. Click the update that you want, then press Install.

- Do not forget to turn on your internet connection so that your computer can download the update. After finishing the installation, restart your computer to effect the changes.

2. Run Disk Clean Up.

The fastest way to weed out the unneeded files in your pc is through Disk Clean Up. It analyzes the content of your hard disk and determines possible files that may be deleted in your system. For instance, it removes temporary files such as internet cache and cookies. It also wipes out the contents of the recycle bin.

The Disk Clean Up also sees possible user content that can be deleted. It lists all the large files (files which are greater than 100 MB) and media files such as videos, pictures, and music. You may want to transfer these files to an external storage device particularly if you don't access it regularly.

How do you run Disk Clean Up? Here are the steps:

- Go to Settings.

- Click Control Panel then select Administrative Tools.

- Afterwards, double-click the Disk Clean Up. A dialog box will pop up.

- Select the drive/s to be cleaned up.

- Select Clean up system files in the Description section. Also, select the specific file types that you want to remove.

- Click OK. If you are prompted with an admin password, enter it.

- Another dialog box will appear. Press Delete files to confirm action.

It may take several minutes for the process to be finished, depending on how large the files are. Hopefully, after the cleanup a significant space should have been freed from your hard drive. However, if it still remains to be in the red, you may want to try the next step.

3. Uninstall applications.

If decreasing your files simply didn't make a difference, why not remove some of the programs in your computer altogether? You can remove entertainment programs such as games, especially ones you do not play anymore. If you already have a dedicated browser, you can delete all the other browsers that you don't use. To delete some of your programs, refer to the following directions:

- Go to Search. To access Search, swipe the screen to the right or hover the mouse on the lower right corner.

- In the Search box, type Programs and Features then click enter.

- The Programs and Features dialog box will list all the currently installed programs in your system. You may sort these programs according to their file size.

- Click the program you want to uninstall.

- Press Uninstall to remove the program.

- Certain programs will prompt you to supply the administrator password before it can be removed. Simply type the password in the field then click OK.

By simply following these instructions, you can maximize the performance of your system with a leaner drive. Therefore, you don't have to consult a technician just to fix your troubled computer.