How to empty laptop memory? Teaching how to increase free laptop space

Running out of free storage space is one of the common problems that can come to laptops over time and cause problems for users. Usually, increasing this space by replacing or adding a new HDD or SSD to the device is costly and may require reinstalling the operating system and software. If this question has been raised for you “How to clear laptop memory” Stay with us in the future to find easy and quick solutions to solve the said problem.

How to empty laptop memory?

Normally, deleting redundant, duplicate and unnecessary files is one of the best ways to increase storage space on a laptop. Of course, with the correct configuration of the device settings and some other software changes, you can achieve the desired result, which is mentioned below.

---

• How to fix 100% hard disk usage problem in Windows?
• Free up computer hard disk space by deleting these Windows files and folders

---

1. Use the feature Storage Sense In Windows

In response to the question “how to free up laptop memory”, Microsoft has provided a special tool for users of its operating system that can automatically free up space. This feature, which is presented under the name of Storage Sense, is only available in Windows 10 or later It is available and unfortunately the owners of older versions of Windows cannot use it.

Although Storage Sense is a relatively new feature; But it doesn’t do anything new and only makes the users’ trouble less. As a result, if you are using old Windows like 7, you will be able to do these tasks manually or go to the use of external software. To activate the mentioned feature in Windows 10 and 11, you can do the following:

• Click on the Windows (Start) icon in the corner of the screen and then select the Settings option with the gear icon.
• On the settings page, refer to the System section and then select the Storage option from the left panel.
• At the bottom of the Storage Sense title, click on Configure Storage Sense or run it now.

• Now you need to configure the Storage Sense feature settings. For this purpose, make sure that the first option named Delete temporary files is ticked. The second option includes the remaining days of the deleted files in the Recycle Bin, and the third option will be related to the deletion of unused downloaded files.
• Finally, click the Clean Now button at the bottom of the screen to permanently delete the extra files on the device.

The method mentioned above is used to manually implement the Storage Sense feature. However, if you are constantly facing the problem of filling up the laptop storage space, you can try to set the said feature automatically.

• To start again, go to the Windows settings section and enter the System section. Next, select Storage from the left panel and click on Configure Storage Sense or run it now.
• After applying the desired configuration according to the guide mentioned in the previous section, set the key located at the bottom of the Storage Sense title to the active mode (similar to the image below).

• Below the Run Storage Sense heading is a drop-down menu where you can select the period for repeating the cleanup process. The During low free disk space option will clean only when you encounter a lack of space on the device. However, three other options including every day and every week and every month have been considered.

2. Delete contents Recycle Bin

Windows does not automatically delete files and folders placed in the Recycle Bin. Most of the deleted items in the device are transferred to this section and it can occupy a significant space of the internal memory over time. To empty the trash can in Windows, you can proceed as follows:

• Open the Start menu by clicking on the Windows logo in the corner of the screen, and then type Recycle Bin in the search bar. Next, click on the first option with the trash can icon.
• If you could not enter the Recycle Bin with the previous method, you can open the file explorer and type the mentioned phrase by pressing the combination key Win + E and click Enter. Also, the trash can is usually placed on the desktop and you can open it easily.
• After entering the trash bin, click on the Recycle Bin Tools tab on the top bar of the page and select the Empty Recycle Bin option. If the trash can icon is on the desktop, you can see the same option to empty it by right-clicking on it.

• If a window appears to confirm the deletion of Recycle Bin contents, click Yes. After performing the mentioned steps, if the Windows trash can is completely full, about 10% of the storage space will be freed.

3. Settings changes Recycle Bin

Another common answer to the question “how to free up laptop memory?” Changing settings related to Recycle Bin. By default, the Windows Recycle Bin can occupy up to 10% of the device’s internal storage space. After reaching the allowed volume ceiling, the system will automatically delete old files and folders. But users can also change this value manually so that the deleted files are deleted sooner. For this purpose, follow the following path:

• In the desktop environment, right-click on the Recycle Bin and then select Properties from the opened menu.

• If you have several partitions on the laptop, you must select the trash bin corresponding to the desired partition in the Recycle Bin Properties window. Usually, drive C, which is the location of Windows, faces the problem of lack of space; As a result, we choose it.
• At the bottom of Settings for selected location, select Custom size and in front of Maximum size (MB), enter the desired value in megabytes for the space occupied by the trash can.
• If you select the Don’t move files to the Recycle Bin option, the files will not be moved to the recycle bin after being deleted and will not take up space anymore. Of course, note that in this case, you will not be able to restore the deleted files easily.

• To save the changes made, first click on the Apply button at the bottom of the window and then select the OK option.

4. Use the tool Disk Cleanup In Windows

One of the other methods that users can go to when the question “how to free up laptop memory” is raised is to use the built-in Disk Cleanup feature in Windows. This tool is mostly used to delete temporary and unnecessary files in Windows, and how to use it is as follows:

• Open the start menu by clicking on the Windows logo in the corner of the screen and type Disk Cleanup in the search bar. Then click on the first option among the search results.

• Among the selectable drives, select the C drive, which is usually the location of the system files, and click OK. To continue, click on Clean up system files option (similar to the image below).
• Now select drive C again from the Drives menu and press OK. Next, choose the items you want to delete in the Files to delete box. Various files, including temporary files related to web browsing, files in different languages, previous updates, etc., can be selected in this section.

• Finally, press the OK key. Click the Delete Files button to delete the selected items.
• You can also click on the Cleanup system files option again in the Disk Cleanup window and then select the Cleanup option from the More Options section under the heading System Restore and Shadow Copies. Press the Delete key again at the bottom.

5. Remove extra programs and games

Deleting software that you don’t use can be another good solution when faced with the question of “how to free up laptop memory”.

• To delete the programs and games installed on the device, you can refer to the settings section and then click on the Apps option. Next, enter the Apps & features section to see a list of items available on the laptop.
• If you select the Size option from the Sort By menu, you can see the programs and games in the order of the volume occupied by them.
• To delete a software, just click on it and then click the Uninstall button twice.

• An alternative way to remove software installed on the device is to refer to the Control Panel. You can access it by searching the name of this section in the start menu.
• After entering the control panel, click on the Uninstall a program option to display a list of programs and games. The volume occupied by each software is written in the Size column.
• You can start the removal process by double-clicking on each item.

6. Disable mode Hibernation

Hibernation mode is one of the popular options of Windows users, which saves system information in memory before turning off the device so that it can quickly access them when it is turned on again and restore the previous state. The same issue causes data to accumulate in the hiberfil.sys file, and in some cases it can take up several gigabytes of laptop storage space. Fortunately, by deactivating this feature according to the following steps, the said space can be freed again.

• Open the Windows start menu and type Command Prompt or cmd in it. Then right-click on the first option and select Run as administrator from the displayed items.
• In the Command Prompt window, type the following command and then press the Enter key.

powercfg /hibernate off

• Now you will no longer be able to use the Hibernation feature on the device, but instead the space allocated to it will also be freed up. To reactivate this feature, just replace the word “off” with “on” in the above command.

7. Delete Windows temporary files

As we mentioned in the previous sections, Windows internal tools such as Disk Cleanup or Storage Sense can delete many things including temporary system files. However, an easier way to delete temporary files in Windows 10 and 11 which can be accessed from the following path.

• Go to Windows Settings and then go to System. Click on the Storage option from the left panel and then select the Temporary files option.
• Now you can see the amount of space occupied by the device memory by temporary files. Also, by scrolling down, you will be able to see more details, which includes the size of any type of file, such as downloads or Windows updates.

• To remove the favorite items, tick each one and finally click on the Remove files button at the top of the page.

Frequently asked questions of users