The problem with free space on the system drive C is familiar to many Windows 10 users. Over time, it runs out. It is not surprising, because it is on the C drive that files are downloaded in browsers by default, system updates are installed, and all programs are installed.

In this article, we'll show you how you can free up space on the C drive in windows 10 without uninstalling programs.

What can be removed or moved from the C drive?

The simplest and most effective method to free up about 4 GB is, which almost no one uses anyway. At the root of the C drive, there is a hidden file that is responsible for the operation of hibernation mode. By disabling this mode, you will immediately free up about 4GB.

Hiberfil.sys on drive C

The next step on the path to freeing up space on the system drive is to another local drive. This will free up a few more gigabytes.

The location of the pagefile sys paging file on the hard disk

Removing the previous version of windows along with the windows.old folder

In this article, we will look at various ways to clean up the disk and free up space on it in any operating system Windows XP, 7, 8.1, 10.

1. Where does the disk space go?

In the process of computer operation, system updates, software installation, site visits and other activities, a lot of unnecessary files accumulate on the disk, which are often called garbage or junk. In addition, we often download some files ourselves, and then, when they are no longer needed, we forget about them.

Extra files not only take up disk space, but also slow down system performance. The disk takes longer to search for the files it needs, and some of them can take up memory space and use up processor resources. In addition, viruses often like to sit in temporary files.

For stable, fast and reliable operation of your computer, you must keep the disk clean and tidy. Nowadays, the problem of lack of space on SSD disks is also urgent, the volume of which is very limited.

In this article, we will try to comprehensively solve the problem of insufficient disk space. To achieve high results, we recommend that you read the entire article and follow all the tips in the order in which they are presented.

2. Removing unnecessary programs and games

First of all, remove all programs and games you no longer need. This will not only free up disk space, but also speed up the system.

Press the key combination "Win + R", type "appwiz.cpl" and press "Enter" or use the "Uninstall Programs" shortcut from the "" section.

In the window that opens, carefully review the list of programs, games installed on you and remove all that you are unlikely to use in the near future.

To uninstall a particular program, right-click on it and select "Uninstall".

Do not delete what you do not understand the purpose of or if you are not sure.

After that, manually find and delete the folders with the saved games of the deleted games, as they can take up a lot of space. It is easy to find out where the save of this or that game is by searching on the Internet.

Many online games also save their distributions (installation packages) during updates that are no longer needed, but take up a lot of space. For example, the Mail.Ru game center saves distributions in the Distrib folder, and the World of Tanks game in the Updates subfolder. Files in such folders can take tens of gigabytes and can be removed painlessly.

3. Find and delete unnecessary files

It often happens that some old unnecessary files take up a lot of disk space, but we have forgotten about them and do not know where they are. In order to find them, I recommend using the "TreeSize Free" utility, which you can download in the "" section.

Once launched, the program will scan your disk, determine the sizes of files, folders and sort them by size.

This way, you can easily determine which folder contains the files that take up the most space. Delete any files you no longer need. If you think you may still need any of them, write them to disk. The choice of the drive for scanning (C, D, etc.) is done in the "Scan" menu.

4. Transferring user files and folders

If you have a second drive or partition (for example, drive "D"), then first of all transfer to it all files from the desktop and user folders such as "My Documents", "My Music", "My Videos", etc. ., since they are all physically located on the "C" drive.

You can move files manually by creating folders for them on another disk or partition in advance. But it is more correct to change the location of the user's folders by means of the operating system. Then all new files that you or any programs will save on the desktop and in the user's folders will automatically go to another disk partition without causing the system partition to overflow.

4.1. Transferring user folders in Windows 7, 8.1, 10

Go to the "C: \ Users \ Name" folder.

Right click on the "My Documents" folder and go to the "Location" tab.

Replace the drive letter with the one where you want to move the folder (for example, "D") and click "OK".

Agree to move the files, and then repeat the steps for the Desktop folder and the rest of the user's folders.

4.2. Transferring user folders in Windows XP

In Windows XP there is no function of automatic movement of user folders and we will use a special utility "XP Tweaker", which you can download in the "" section.

Install the utility and run it. Then, in the left pane, select the "Windows XP" section and go to the "System folders" tab.

Select the "My Documents" folder with the mouse, change the drive letter to the one where you want to move the folder (for example, "D") and click the "Change" button.

Follow the same steps for the folders "My Pictures", "My Music", "Desktop".

After that go to the folder "C: \ Documents and Settings \ Name".

And manually move the My Documents and Desktop folders to the new location D: \ Documents and Settings \ Name.

5. Disk cleaning using Windows

All versions of Windows have a Disk Cleanup feature. It can be used to clean up any disk partition (C, D, etc.), but it is most effective for cleaning the system partition (drive "C"), since it is on it that most temporary files are stored.

Right-click on the C drive and select Properties.

Click the Disk Cleanup button.

Click the "Clean up system files" button (in Windows 7, 8.1, 10).

Check all the boxes and you will see how much space will be freed by deleting temporary files.

The size of temporary files can be up to 5-10 GB. Click the "OK" button and all temporary files will be deleted.

6. Deleting the hibernation file

The hibernation file (hiberfil.sys), which can be close to RAM size, is located on the C drive and is used for sleep mode. If you do not use this mode, and each time you turn on and off the computer in the usual way, then this file can be removed painlessly, since it takes up a lot of space.

The system will not allow you to manually delete this file, and even if you do it using a special utility for deleting files, the system will create it anew. Therefore, for the correct deletion of the hibernation file, you need to disable sleep mode.

Run Command Prompt as Administrator and run the following command:

Powercfg -h off

After that, the system will delete this file by itself and will no longer create it.

If you do not know how to work with the command line or do not want to bother, you can download the command file "Deleting the hibernation file" in the "" section.

You just have to right-click on it and run as Administrator (except for Windows XP).

7. Disable or resize the paging file

The paging file (pagefile.sys), which can be one and a half times the size of the RAM, is located on the C drive and is used by many programs to compensate for the lack of RAM.

With a sufficiently large amount of RAM and a small "C" drive (for example, SSD), many enthusiasts advise disabling the paging file.

In the window that opens, go to the "Advanced" tab and in the "Performance" section, click the "Options" button.

In Performance Options, go to the Advanced tab and click the Change button.

Uncheck the "Automatically select paging file size" checkbox, set the "No paging file" checkbox and click "OK".

After restarting the computer, the paging file will be deleted and a lot of space will be freed up on the "C" drive.

But keep in mind that the work of the system is tightly tied to the paging file, and some programs may not even have enough 8 GB of RAM. Therefore, out of memory errors may start to appear.

You can try to completely disable the paging file if you have 16 GB or more of RAM, but still I would not recommend doing this.

8. Disable System Restore

The restore service makes backups of system files and stores them in a special hidden folder, which can take up a lot of disk space. At the same time, the built-in recovery tool does not always work correctly, and viruses like to hide in the folder with backups.

Press the key combination "Win + R", type "sysdm.cpl" and press "Enter" or use the shortcut "System Properties" from the "" section.

In the window that opens, go to the "System Protection" tab, select the "C" drive and click the "Configure" button.

Set the "Disable system protection" checkbox and click "OK".

After that, all backup copies of system files will be deleted and additional disk space will be freed up. Thus, you can free up 5-10 GB of valuable space on the "C" drive.

9. Disable the recycle bin

You can disable the Recycle Bin on drive "C" so that it does not take up space on it. To do this, right-click on the trash can icon and select "Properties".

Set the "Shred files immediately after deletion" option for the "C" drive and click "OK".

After that, if you delete large files from the folders with distributions of games or any others, they will not go to the trash and will not take up space on the "C" drive.

10. Clearing the backup storage

To clear the storage of backup copies of system files in Windows 8, 8.1, 10, I recommend running the following command in the command line as an Administrator.

Dism.exe / Online / Cleanup-Image / StartComponentCleanup

For this purpose, you can also download the "Clean up backup storage" batch file in the "" section and run it on behalf of the Administrator.

11. Removing temporary folders

You can painlessly delete temporary folders left after installing some drivers and programs:

C: \ AMD C: \ ATI C: \ CONFIG.MSI C: \ Intel C: \ MSOCache C: \ NVIDIA C: \ SWSetup

12. Automatic cleaning and disk acceleration

There are special utilities for automatic disk cleaning of temporary files. One of the best I recommend is.

It can be configured to clean up temporary files every time the computer boots, which will maintain free space on the "C" drive, as well as provide a little extra protection, since temporary folders are a favorite place for viruses.

But it is necessary to correctly configure it, otherwise this utility will not clean what you need, but will leave what you need to remove. Since the utility's settings are quite extensive and it has many additional useful functions, I decided to talk about it separately in the next article.

13. Links

HDD A-Data Ultimate SU650 240GB
Transcend StoreJet 25M3 1 TB Hard Drive
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD10EZEX 1 TB Hard Drive

Many users are annoyed by the presence of the WinSxS folder because it takes up too much space on the device. Until recently, it was impossible to reduce its size, and any attempt ended in unstable functioning of the computer. A safe "cleanup" method has now been developed and users can find out what can be deleted in the Windows folder. The method is quite simple, every computer owner can cope with it.

Reasons for the large folder size and its constant increase

There is a myth that the folder is simply gigantic, but in reality it is not. The whole point is that its contents are "hard links", and file managers and Explorer simply do not take them into account. Thus, the real weight of the folder is much less than the one described in the properties.

It is necessary to understand that when trying to delete the contents of a folder, certain problems most often arise - a complete loss of performance or the appearance of errors in the operation of the operating system.

During updates, the catalog size is constantly increasing due to the preservation of old versions of the updated files. They can be useful when rolling back to an old version, in case of problems.

What can be deleted when cleaning up a folder in Windows 10?

Before starting a conversation about cleaning up the directory, you need to warn: you should never delete it!

The folder with the system of the 10th version of WinSxS contains files for updating, for use in work, and those that return the system to its original position, restore it.

To safely clean a folder of only backups, you need to do the following:

• the command line is launched under the Administrator name
• the corresponding command Dism.exe / online / cleanup-image / AnalyzeComponentStore is entered. After the analysis of the contents of the folder is completed, a message about the cleaning process will appear
• the command Dism.exe / online / cleanup-image / StartComponentCleanup is entered and the Enter button is pressed

This command should not be overused, because if there are no backups in the directory at the end of its cleaning, it can grow even larger in size. The procedure should be carried out when the volume of the folder is more than 7 GB.

Cleaning WinSxS in the seventh version system

Before starting the process, you will have to install the optional update type KB2852386 in order to add the required partition to the corresponding disk cleanup utility.

• go to the center with updates through the control panel or the start menu
• click on the phrase "search for updates" and click on the optional types of updates that appear to find the one you need
• we reboot the device

What files can you safely delete from your computer?

What files specifically clog up our computer, taking up not only disk space, but interfering with the performance of the system, that is, which of them do not allow the user to work as comfortably as possible? Let's take a closer look at the files that system cleaners offer us to get rid of. Do not try to manually delete such files from the computer (for monkey work), special utilities will make it faster and more reliable than you. After all, we are interested in how to do it safely?

Any of us who are in the slightest degree familiar with how a computer works knows that over time (and we can even talk about a specific session), after opening and closing many Windows applications, it accumulates many files unnecessary for its normal operation, which accumulate over time to a size that really slows down the system. We know that it is possible, and sometimes necessary, to get rid of them. Modern computer cleaning programs do this with ease, and we will see what exactly they do, what they work with and what they can remove.

The first answer is the Windows system files. In the system immediately after installing Windows, a folder appears from which the system boots.

You can remove it from the computer, but you will receive an inoperative system under warranty. Such folders and files are located in the C: drive folder in a folder called Windows. If you do not want problems - look there less often. Even deleting one file can crash the operating system.

This is followed by the BIOS settings. We rarely turn to the basic I / O system, and then mainly in order to change the type of load (in case of unforeseen circumstances). It is no longer possible to get into the BIOS after loading Windows. And the issue of flashing the BIOS is not considered here.

Program Files folder... This is where the programs you have installed on your computer are stored. Deleting folders in it does not critically affect the operation of the system itself, however, deleting folders and files in specific subfolders will lead to errors in the operation of specific programs or to their complete inoperability. If one of the programs is not needed, do it using a specialized program for uninstalling applications or, at worst, using the built-in Windows utility called Installation and uninstall programs located in Control panels... You can remove the remaining shortcuts and links from your computer by dragging them to the trash can, but if you use special uninstallers, you will not have such a problem either.

Hidden files... In normal Windows settings, these files are not visible. Let them remain so. If you want to take a look at them, customize their display using the menu

Service – Folder properties- tab View

Check the box Show hidden files and folders, Apply and OK (for XP).

In Windows 7, the chain leading to Settings is slightly different, but also found in the Folder Options:

Start - Control Panel - Appearance and Personalization - Folder Options

Start - Control Panel - All Control Panel Items - Folder Options

Such files are created by the system and programs, and serve for the normal operation of applications. Among them you can find quite a few temporary files that must be deleted at the end of the session. But many simply make it easier to restart programs, save their individual settings, etc. For what exactly each hidden folder is responsible, it is impossible to explain within the framework of one article. Therefore, be careful with these folders and files.

We found out which files and folders cannot be deleted from the computer. Now let's consider what you can and sometimes need to delete.

• The first is everything that is created by you personally. Word processing documents, photos, music and video files. Everything that you have decided, you no longer need. Neither their appearance nor deletion of them affects the boot (with rare exceptions) Windows in any way. You can remove them from the computer by selecting and pressing the DEL key, or by simply dragging and dropping them into the trash (well, it's not for me to teach you).
• Temporary files. Every time, performing some action, the system creates a temporary file. It is also needed to accompany the main process of the program, where the current information about the file being processed is stored. After finishing working with the application, the temporary file becomes unnecessary and it can be deleted in theory. But the system tends to store and accumulate such files, because the program settings order it to do this, and the system itself habitually stores them for the subsequent easy launch of the program or viewing the report on the launch, operation and closure of the program. If everything is in order and the program is working normally, the user does not need such files. The largest folders with temporary files are named Temp(from English temporary - temporary). This is the most common extension (.temp) of a temporary file, which can be located in hidden or regular program folders.
• In addition to specific folders and files that remain unnecessary and unused in the system, during the long existence of Windows, certain changes (and sometimes damage due to constant use) also undergo the system's brain - the registry. Here you already need certain skills to work with it and at least basic knowledge about which branch and bush is responsible for what. Often, the removal of programs is accompanied by manual registry correction in terms of finding and removing traces of certain programs, especially in the case when the program to be removed has deeply penetrated the registry in its functionality. This applies primarily to antiviruses and a suite of office applications. Here it is strongly recommended to completely abandon the built-in Windows utility for uninstalling programs, since by default it does not deeply clean the system, leaving numerous traces of the presence of an already deleted program in the system. Refer to special programs for safe removal or special utilities to remove a specific program (for example, a specific antivirus uninstall tool).

What do you need to remember?

When updating the Windows operating system, installing and modifying programs, a lot of information is saved "in reserve". Accumulating, it takes up a lot of disk space, and also slows down the computer. To optimize your OS, you need to periodically clean up your system folders and files. But this should be done carefully, careless actions can disrupt the performance of the system. We will tell you how to properly clean Windows from garbage.

Windows 7 system folders requiring cleaning

The Windows 7 system creates a complex structure of folders stored on all disks of a computer and necessary for its services and the operation of user programs. Usually, deleting the entire system folders is not allowed. However, some of the files stored in them have already lost their relevance. To find and delete such files, special tools are used, included in the OS, or developed in addition to its capabilities. The following describes the steps to be taken during cleaning mainly in relation to the home basic version of Windows 7. However, in other versions, the differences are mostly in the translation of the names of sections and system tools into Russian.

File Explorer usually hides system folders. To see them, select "Start" "Control Panel" and then "Folder Options". If you do not see the All Control Panel Items tab, change the viewing method: instead of Categories, select large or small icons.

On the "View" tab in the list of additional parameters, put an end to the very last item "Show hidden files, folders and drives".

When cleaning, pay attention to the size of the folders. There is no point in wasting time cleaning small folders. To understand which folders are taking up the most space, download WinDirStat. Please note that this program sometimes distorts the size of folders, taking into account several times the files to which hard links (hard links) from different folders are installed. This is due to the peculiarity of the NTFS file system, in which the contents of folders are determined by links, which do not necessarily point to a unique file.

Do not rush to delete information if in doubt. And be sure to consider the possibility of rollback: before you change anything, make sure that archiving is enabled. To do this, in the "Control Panel" select "System and its maintenance" ("System and Security") or immediately "Backup and Restore".

If archiving is not configured, click "Configure backup" and then follow the instructions of the system.

Unnecessary information, which it is advisable to delete from time to time, is saved mainly in the following folders and files:

• Temp;
• Temporary internet files;
• Winsxs;
• System volume information;
• Appdata;
• System32;
• Pagefile.sys;
• Assembly;
• Installer;
• Driverstore;
• Download

Windows 7 has a generic cleaner for most folders. To run it, open a command prompt as administrator. This can be done by right-clicking on an empty space on the desktop while holding down the Shift key and selecting "Open command window" in the menu that opens. Then type cleanmgr, press Enter, select the C: drive and wait for the cleaner to determine what can be removed from it.

Pay attention to the two numbers: at the top it is written how much the program can free up on the selected disk (in the example 0.99 GB), and under the window listing the storage locations - how much it will free when the choice is made (903 MB). After reviewing the proposals, select first of all those places where the garbage is the most. Then press the "Clean up system files" button.

Repeat the cleaning process on all disks on your computer.

How to clean your computer of unnecessary files and junk

While the all-in-one cleaner described above is very convenient and fairly safe, sometimes it just isn't enough.

Temp folders

The OS creates several Temp folders. Public is located in the Windows folder, personal is located in the user profile in AppData-> Local. If several profiles have been created on the computer, you will have to go to the OS under the appropriate name to clean each one. In order not to search in the profile for a long time, press Win + R and type% temp% in the line that opens. Don't forget that the Temp folders themselves cannot be deleted!

Temp contains work files used when executing and updating programs. Once the work is complete, the files are no longer needed, but often they are not deleted. They can be removed manually by simply selecting all the files in the folder using the Ctrl + A buttons, right-clicking on any of them and selecting the "Delete" item.

Perhaps, this will not delete some files, the system will say that they are already in use. Check the box "Run ... for all objects" and click "Skip".

Do this for the c: \ Windows \ temp folder and each personal folder.

Temporary internet files

This is where information from web pages is saved to speed up your work with the Internet. When you enter a site that you have already visited, the browser does not read everything that is there, but only the changes that have occurred since the previous visit. This is useful, so usually the temporary Internet file folders are not cleaned. Moreover, you can set the "Used disk space" parameter for them. If the specified size is exceeded, the old information will be deleted automatically.

If you still need to clear these files, open the "Network and Internet" section in the "Control Panel".

Select "Internet Options" ("Internet Options").

On the General tab, you can set parameters, including the size of the Temporary internet files folder. There is also a "Delete" button to clear it.

If several profiles have been created on the computer, then there will be several folders for temporary Internet files. This operation will have to be repeated for each Internet user.

Winsxs

The Windows folder contains a repository of old system files that have changed after installing the next OS update. This is Winsxs. Not only can it not be completely removed, but it is strictly forbidden to clean it yourself. Use the cleanmgr all-purpose cleaner described above for cleaning. In the list of garbage places, find the line "Clean up Windows updates", put a tick next to it and start cleaning.

However, such a line may not appear. The fact is that cleaning the Winsxs folder was added only in 2013 by the KB2852386 update. If not, check if you have Service Pack 1. You can verify that it is available by pressing Win + PauseBreak or by right-clicking on the "Computer" line in Explorer and then selecting the "Properties" line.

If you don't have it, download and install Service Pack 1. Reboot your computer. The next step is to install the update itself. It can be found. After that, the update cleanup line should appear.

System volume information

As mentioned above, when working with system folders, backup must be enabled. However, the copies stored in the System volume information also take up a lot of space. In addition, virus developers have chosen the folder. If the problem is only in the size of the folder, limit the space available to it. To do this, go to the system properties - for example, by pressing Win + PauseBreak and on the "System Protection" tab, click "Configure". In the "Disk Space Usage" section, select an acceptable folder size. Here you can delete all backups, including the last one ("Delete" button).

An alternative is the all-in-one cleanmgr cleaner. It deletes all backups except the last one. After launching it, as described above, you need to go to the "Advanced" tab and select "System Restore and Shadow Copy". Then press the "Clear" button and, in response to the following questions, confirm your desire to delete the files.

Removing the System volume information itself is not fatal for Windows 7, but it is not recommended to check this fact. However, you can manually delete files from it, although the developers have done everything to make it difficult. If you have not done so before, enable the "Show hidden files and folders" property, as described at the beginning of this article. Find the folder in the explorer and right-click on its name. In the menu that appears, select the last line - "Properties". On the Security tab, click Continue.

In the list of users who have rights to the folder, you will see the only user - the system. Click on the "Add" button. In order not to guess under what name you are logged in, click the "Advanced" button and then "Search".

By double-clicking on the name in the list of found users, you will add yourself to the list of those who have rights to the folder. But you get minimal permissions. To expand them, select yourself in the list and click on the top line "Full access". In this case, checkmarks will appear in all lines of the list of permissions. Click OK or Apply.

After that, you will receive the rights to all actions in this folder. But proceed with caution so as not to deprive yourself of the opportunity to restore the system in case of problems. After completing the planned work, delete the rights granted to yourself so that viruses do not use them.

Appdata

Appdata folders are located in user profiles and are used to store settings and other personalized data used by various applications. If you installed a program, used it for some time, and then uninstalled it, then unnecessary configuration files will remain in this folder, possibly taking up a significant amount of space. Usually Appdata contains three subfolders.

The main one is Local, it contains the most information. This is where the Temp and Temporary Internet Files folders we looked at above are located. As a reminder, they can be cleaned, but not removed. It is not recommended to touch the Microsoft folder. Removing or clearing the rest will strip you of some of the familiar settings in the respective applications, if you are still using them.

The Roaming folder contains the same kind of settings that can be transferred to another device. If you have installed the application on another computer, then a simple copying of the corresponding folder from Roaming will partially replace the choice of the settings you are used to. There may also be folders corresponding to applications you are not using, you can safely delete them.

The LocalLow folder is small and is used by several programs to store buffered data. It doesn't make much sense to clean it, it will still soon return to about the same size.

System32 (DriveStory)

This folder contains a lot of important information. Drivers of devices that are no longer used may be superfluous. They are located in the DriverStory folder. Do not under any circumstances delete this folder and do not try to clean it manually! There are special utilities for this - standard pnputil.exe or:

If you do not know what bit depth your system has, press Win + PauseBreak again. In the group of information about the system, its type is indicated - 32 or 64 bits.

Before cleaning the folder using the utility, create a backup copy as described above. Next, you need to set the devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices parameter, which is required to display unused devices. To do this, open the system information section again (for example, using the Win + PauseBreak buttons), select the "Advanced system settings" item and click the "Environment Variables" button. In the "Environment Variables for XXX" section (XXX is the user under whose name you are working) click the "New" button. Enter the parameter name devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices and its value is 1.

Then go to the device manager and disable those that you no longer need. Unused devices are grayed out. Be careful not to disable anything you are not sure about.

After downloading from the site http://www.jaswindows.ru/ the utility corresponding to the bitness of your system, unpack it to any folder. Go to this folder and run driver_cleanup.exe as administrator. After scanning DriverStory, the utility will indicate the amount that can be freed. On a Latin keyboard layout, press y to clean up or n if you don't want to.

Pagefile.sys

Pagefile.sys is called the paging file. Strictly speaking, this is not even a file, but disk space reserved for storing information that does not fit in random access memory (RAM). If there is not enough fast memory for all programs and services running at the same time on your computer, the processor transfers some of their information here and, if necessary, reads it from disk as if it were in RAM. This reduces performance, but does not cause fatal failures due to lack of fast memory.

If the Pagefile.sys file is used very heavily, in addition to slowing down performance, the load on the disk also increases. Solid-state drives (SSD) are especially sensitive to frequent overwriting of information. To prevent this from leading to premature failure of the equipment, consider whether it is worth increasing the amount of RAM. You can check the download by pressing the three "magic" buttons Ctrl + Alt + Delete and selecting "Start Task Manager".

Of course, you cannot clean Pagefile.sys, but you can reduce its size in accordance with your capabilities and transfer it to a more free device. To do this, go to the system properties and select "Advanced system settings". Then go to the "Advanced" tab. In the "Performance" section, there is one button "Options". By clicking on it, select the "Advanced" tab again and pay attention to the amount of allocated memory.

By clicking the "Change" button, you will be able to resize or transfer the file in whole or in part to another device.

Assembly

Some users want to clean up the Assembly folder in Windows. Indeed, its volume can be relatively large, but you should not interfere with it. It is created and maintained by the Framework. His service information is located here. The exception is the Temp and Tmp subfolders of temporary files, the contents of which can be manually cleaned (without deleting the folders themselves!), But their size is usually small.

Installer

Windows \ Installer stores installation files for installed programs. They may be required for reinstallation and uninstallation. However, to reinstall the program, it is better to download a new version, and you can also uninstall it using non-system tools, for example, Total Uninstall.

Still, it is not worth completely deleting the contents of this folder without special need. A more reliable option is to move it to a more free device. To do this, it's not enough just to copy the folder, you need to make sure that the rights on the new device match the original ones and set a soft link to a new location (for example, d: \). This is done by the command mklink / j c: \ windows \ installer d: \ installer, which should be typed in the command line launched, as described at the beginning of the article.

Downloads (DownLoad)

These folders, located in each user's profile, contain the data you downloaded from the Internet. They are clearly visible in the explorer and you can always delete from them what you no longer need, or transfer the necessary information to another device. A more radical solution is to transfer these folders themselves to a freer device as described above for the Installer folder.

When deleting unnecessary information from the disk, remember that even with correct actions with system information, problems may arise in case of such random events as power outage, virus intervention, etc. Therefore, be sure to make a backup copy before such actions. The main purpose of cleaning is to eliminate interference with high performance processor, so pay attention mainly to large amounts of data. Good luck with your work!