For the sound you could use a separate Bluetooth speaker which is way louder. If you can connect wirelessly to a smart TV (press Win+P and select Connect to wireless display), then the sound is also transferred and you hear louder from the TV. Before you try to connect you have to enable screen-mirroring on the TV (it is usually one of the smart apps).
To Compact Windows to get less hard disk space, see this tutorial: Compress or Uncompress Windows 10 with Compact OS
Ah, Bluetooth, the great killer of batteriesI can see no advantage to using Bluetooth speakers with a device that has a headphone/audio out jack that I could plug speakers into.
I didn't expect it to be very loud when I bought it and I don't really need it to be loud. It just annoys me that the speakers point away from me instead of at me so that it is louder to other people in the room than to me.
Anyway, back to what's important:
Last week it said 6.98GB free of 28.0GB
Today it said 4.39GB free. That's nuts - the only thing of any size that I've knowingly added to the C drive is the maps and that's less than 500GB
Disk Cleanup cleared up 0.33 GB (4.72 GB free)
I'm running compact /compactos:always now. I'll report back when it is done.
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OK, it now says there is 7.99 GB free. That's more than I've seen in a long time but I'll bet it won't be enough for the nedt big update.
Its too bad I can't install a bigger drive.
You must also compress all the files in the disk. To do that, right-click on C:, select Properties and then check the box to compress the files. When asked select to also compress subfolders and files (everything), not just the root folder. It will take a while but to should gain a couple of GB, maybe more.
I also discovered that it was saving apps to the C drive instead of E drive so I set it properly and moved the apps and while I was in the app list I pruned a few of the useless apps that come with Windows, freeing up another couple of GB on C.
After compacting C drive I now I have 8.9 GB free, more than twice as much as I had yesterday. I'll have to keep an eye on this to see if it creeps downward over time....
You could even move your Downloads, Videos, Pictures etc folders in the SD card. Create the new folders, move all your data there and then right-click on the original folders and select Properties->Location->Move. Also remember every time you install a new application to select custom installation and change the installation folder to the SD card. This is possible for desktop applications only. To change the path for Windows universal apps (Windows Store) you must change the default path, do not know how.
Of course if you ever remove the SD card you will lose access to all these applications and data you moved. I would only remove the SD card to replace it with a higher capacity (if compatible with the tablet). I would clone the old SD card on the new and expand the partition to take all available space. But I would only do that if the old card is near full.
32GB is the highest capacity the specs say is compatible so that's what I installed.
I don't use the Downloads folder, preferring to send downloads to the desktop where I will use them and then either delete them or put them away properly when finished (I never download much to the SW1 anyway).
The only media (pics, videos &c) on it are a couple of old radio shows I downloaded to listen to while away from home, which will delete after listening. Any files I want to keep are saved to my network drive and only copied to the tablet if I expect to need them while not connected to my network.
And I do have it set to save all apps, documents, media files &c except maps to the card.
In other words, about all there is on the C drive is the OS.
The reason I don't save the maps to the card is that it has a bad habit of losing contact with the card until I remove and re-install it. That happened once while I was trying to help someone navigate in traffic in an unfamiliar place and it decided not to find the maps stored on it. I almost lost the tiny TF card when it flew out of the slot (I understand why card slots are spring loaded but does the spring have to be so strong?) and decided then & there that in future the maps would be stores on the drive that was permanently attached.
OK, I just posted these instructions to help others with small hard disk space that might not know their options to increase the free space. For devices supporting both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows and have up to 4GB RAM I would even install 32-bit to have a smaller footprint (take less space on disk), but this would affect performance a little. If you have access to another computer, you could also install any applications to the other computer and then connect with Remote Desktop or TeamViewer or AnyDesk to use them when needed. A good idea is using portable applications that do not require local installation and can be run from a USB Flash drive or from the network, just copy them to a shared folder on the other computer and access them through the network. Using online applications is another option, no need for another computer, just internet access. You could also save large files to a cloud so you don't have to copy them locally.
Do you have any idea if it is possible to copy a Windows Store app from one computer to another? One of the apps I use a lot (The Weather Network) is no longer available for installation on Windows devices so I can't install it on the SW1 but it is still working perfectly on all of my other Windows computers.
I have started a separate thread for that issue, 122 views so far but no replies
Is it possible to copy a Windows store app from another computer?
Assuming you connected to your Microsoft account to download the app, it should be available under My apps in the other computer, once you connect with the same account. It is not required to convert your local Windows account to Microsoft account. Windows Store gives you the option to connect only to download an app, and not convert the local account. If you downloaded the app by avoiding to connect to a Microsoft Account, then obviously you should download the app again (if available) at the new computer from Windows Store. You can also backup your apps (see tutorials) but I am not sure if you can restore to a different computer, haven't done it, didn't need to.
The app shows in my list at the MS Store and tries to download endlessly. The store's page for it says that it is currently not available and when I contacted the app's provider they said they are not planning to provide it for Windows in the future.
That means that unless there is a way to copy it from another computer I can't have it on the one I take with me when travelling.
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