how to reduce windows systems space

my ssd drive is taken up with over 74.1 gb of Windows Systems files with an additional 4.7gb of virtual memory and 2.4 of hibernation files. this is on a disk of 102gb. how can i reduce the Windows Systems files so i can use more of my memory and update windows

davidpreston said:

my ssd drive is taken up with over 74.1 gb of Windows Systems files with an additional 4.7gb of virtual memory and 2.4 of hibernation files.

Welcome to Ten Forums David.


Where are you looking to get those sizes? Try looking in 'Settings > System > Storage' and click on the 'Show more categories' you'll find there.



Then click on 'System & reserved'. It will tell you the true size of your System files, around 15-20GB is typical. If there is anything that could be cleaned up it will show here, such as System restore in this example,





Also check 'Temporary files' where, amongst other things, a windows.old may be shown (and can be deleted).

For more that you could clean up, see this tutorial.

Free Up Drive Space in Windows 10

i've got that far but my windows system files arent 20 gb they are 74.1 gb. and on top of that i have 2.36 g bog files in hibernation.

Start by shutting off Hibernation, use Disk Cleanup to clear out System stuff, including any .old folders. It all depends on what software that you have installed. Microsoft products fall under what the OS considers System related files when it accounts for that number. You can look at a graphic of file usage with Jam Software Treesize. It can be downloaded from majorgeeks .com

davidpreston said:

i've got that far but my windows system files arent 20 gb they are 74.1 gb. .

Can you post a screenshot of where you are seeing that 74.1GB?


Try Disk Clean up. Click its 'Clean up system files' button, in particular make sure 'windows update cleanup' is ticked (if, as I suspect, it appears in the list) then click OK.

With Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, you can use the Command Prompt to clean up the WinSxS folder. Windows uses a system folder called WinSxS to store files that are needed for your Windows installation, as well as backups or updates to those files. It's a space hog, however, taking up several gigabytes of space and growing with each Windows Update you perform. Use the steps below to clean up unnecessary files in that WinSxS folder and reclaim valuable hard drive space.




1. Launch the Command Prompt with admin privileges. You can do this by pressing Window key + X key and click "Command Prompt (Admin)."



2. Execute following command:

Code:

Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup

Using the /ResetBase switch with the /StartComponentCleanup parameter of DISM.exe on a running version of Windows 10 removes all superseded versions of every component in the component store.

From an elevated command prompt, type the following:

Code:

Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase

Warning
All existing service packs and updates cannot be uninstalled after this command is completed. This will not block the uninstallation of future service packs or updates.

You may want to analyse the component store first to see what potential there is for a clean up.

Analyze Component Store (WinSxS folder) in Windows 10


The /Resetbase option is a bit dramatic, removing as it does the ability to uninstall any previous updates. Anyway, in my experience it doesn't clean up much more than just using /StartComponentCleanup on its own.

More on that in Options Two and Three here: Clean Up Component Store (WinSxS folder) in Windows 10

I am using Dism++ lately to do cleanups. As always, making a Backup Copy before is highly advisable.

Hello i did what freebooter suggested. my system files have increased to 74.7 gb from 74.1 gb. what is going on?

There is not much you can do to reduce size of Windows system files you should use Treesize software to find out which files taking too much space.