How to Delete Unnecessary Files in Windows 10?

Common types of unnecessary files

Windows, the world's most popular and extensively used operating system, is not without its flaws. One of them is that Windows has a large number of files and directories that you do not need. Some are highly useful for operating the system, while many are unnecessary. Some of those unnecessary files may have sat on your computer for a long time without causing any problems with space. They are, however, stored by your system and take up a lot of space, which might cause your PC to slow down, lag, freeze, or even crash.

Therefore, it’s unavoidable to delete unnecessary files from your Windows PC. However, many users are troubled with what kinds of files can be deleted. Here, we make a list:

• The Temp Folder
• The Hibernation File
• The Recycle Bin
• Downloaded Program Files
• The Windows Old Folder Files
• Windows Update Folder
• Cache files
• Installer files
• Thumbnail
…

Some of these files are stored in the system data folders on the C drive, which is why the C drive space disappears quickly, users are not sure if it’s available to delete them from C drive. So, next, we’ll show you how to clean these unnecessary files from Windows 10.

How do delete unnecessary files on Windows 10 computer?

1. Use Disk Cleanup

Step 1. Type "disk cleanup" in the search box on the taskbar, and select Disk Cleanup from the list of results.

Step 2. Select the drive you want to clean up (like C drive), and then select "OK".

Step 3. Under "Files to delete", select the file you want to get rid of, and click "OK".

You can also click “Clean up system files” to clean useless system files, but please be careful, don’t delete important data.

2. Delete Temp files in File Explorer

The temp folder is a Windows folder that is always full of things that you don't require. Disk Cleanup is nice, but it does not always remove everything from the Temp folder for any reason. It's recommended to manually clear the Temp folder regularly.

3. Clean Hibernation files

The Hibernation File is a big file that will never be used. A computer's hibernation mode is similar to its sleep mode. The main difference is that the operating system saves all of your open work to your hard disk.   The size of your hibernation files will most likely be a few gigabytes or more, depending on the capacity of your hard disk.  That is to say if you have 8GB of RAM, the hiberfil.sys file will take up 8GB of hard drive space; if you have 20GB of RAM, then the hiberfil.sys file may take up 20GB of hard drive space.

If you don't usually utilize hibernation mode, you may quickly disable it using the Command Prompt and reclaim hard disk space equivalent to the amount of RAM you have. But don't remove it since if you do, Windows will rebuild it from scratch.

Step 1. Go to the Start menu, type "cmd" right-click on the results Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.

Step 2. Then type "powercfg.exe / hibernate off" and press Enter.

4. Clean Recycle bin

After you delete a file or folder from your system, they just move to the Recycle Bin. This is a unique location where deleted files are held until they are permanently removed or restored. So, don't forget to check and clear the bin regularly, there might be several gigabytes of outdated data in there.

5. Delete downloaded program Files

Many Windows users are likely to be confused by the Downloaded Program files folder. This folder does not include any apps that you have downloaded. It stores files needed by Internet Explorer's ActiveX controls and Java applets so that you don't have to download them twice if you utilize the same feature on a website.

So, this folder is essentially worthless and is simply eating up space. Furthermore, Java applets are rarely utilized, and ActiveX is an exceedingly antiquated technology with several security issues. You can check this folder right now and if they're large files, you can directly delete them.

6. Clean Windows.Old Folder

After you upgrade from one version of Windows to another, the Windows.old folder will appear in the C drive in case you wish to revert to an earlier Windows version, your system saves a duplicate of all the files that were part of it.

If you're certain you don't need them, remove them under Disk Cleanup > Clean up system files.

Clean junk files via the PC cleaner tool

The above 6 methods are for different files. Users need to follow different paths to find those unnecessary files spared on the disk. Is there any way to find all unnecessary files on the Windows PC at once and clear them all?

To meet your need, here we recommend you AOMEI Partition Assistant for Cleanup, a disk and partition manager for Windows 11/10/8/8.1/7 computers. This tool has 3 three features to help you release free space on the disk:

Clean Junk Files: This feature can scan selected drives and disks to find all unnecessary junk files and let users customize which files will be clean.

Delete Large Files: This feature will also scan your disk, but this is for large files. After scanning the computer, users can tick all unwanted files to remove them, thus, they don’t need to find them from one path to another.

Find Duplicate Files: This is very helpful to easily find and remove duplicate files from your computer or storage devices. In this case, you can maximize your computer space usage.

AOMEI Partition Assistant for Cleanup

Free Up Disk Space To Keep Your PC Running Smoothly and Efficiently

Free Download
Windows PCs and Servers

Here, we’ll show you how to delete large files from your Windows PC.

Step 1. Initiate Delete Large Files. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant for Cleanup. Click the "Delete Large Files" tab.

Step 2. Select a path to scan large files. You can either click "Scan System Drive" to start the scan of your system C: drive. Or, click "Custom Scan" to manually select paths to be scanned. (Here, we take the "Custom Scan" as an example.)

Step 3. After clicking "Custom Scan", all local and external drives on your PC and the common Desktop, Documents, and Downloads paths will be displayed. You can manually select paths to be scanned. Once necessary paths are added, you can click the "Scan Now" button to start the scan process.

Step 4. The scan process might take time. After the scan is complete, all large files found will be listed.

Step 5. You can also check the large files and click the button behind to locate them.

Step 6. Select large files to start deletion. Tick the files you want to delete, and then click the "Clean Now" button to start the deletion.

Step 7. Delete successfully. The deletion might take time. After the process is finished, the selected files will be deleted, and you will get a cleaning completed window displaying how much data you deleted in total. 

Ending

After reading this guide, you must know how to delete unnecessary files in Windows 10 and how to clean junk files for Windows PC and Windows Server 2025/2022/2019/2016/2012(R2).