PC World - USA (2020-09)

SEPTEMBER 2020 PCWorld 93

space. If you’re a fan of reboots of classic

games like Flight Simulator, you need to know

that they can take up to 150GB of storage (go.

pcworld.com/15st), just by their lonesome.

Here’s how to take back some of that space.

HOW TO USE WINDOWS

10’S STORAGE SETTINGS

In the Windows 10 Settings menu, go to

Settings > System > Storage. At the top,

you’ll see a toggle to turn

Storage Sense off and on.

We’ll touch on that later.

In the middle of the

screen, you’ll see your

local hard disk (or disks)

with an easy-to-read menu

explaining how the

storage is divvied up

within your PC. Note how

the subtext points you to

the task at hand: “Uninstall

unused or undesired apps &

features,” “Remove unused

cloud-backed content,” and

so on. Each category tells you

how much of your PC’s

storage is tied up with apps,

videos, and so on.

Apps traditionally gobble

up the most space on a PC.

You may find that a “small”

game that you downloaded

actually takes up a few

gigabytes that you want back. Click the Apps

menu, which will lead you to a page where

Windows will show you the apps stored on

your PC. Reorganize the list by file size to see

which apps consume the most space, then

click the app and select Uninstall to get rid of

it. Note that some Windows native apps, such

as Photos, won’t be uninstallable.

The Temporary Files and OneDrive

subheadings are typically the mother lode of

You can use Windows 10’s traditional File Explorer to find massive
files that you want to delete, but if you do so, you’ll spend way too
much time on the task.

This is Windows 10’s Storage page, within the Settings menu.