You can search for large files Windows 11 by using Windows File Explorer, Command Prompt, or a third-party tool. Then, you can choose to delete these large files to free up more storage space and make your Windows system smooth as before.
Storage space is one of the most important aspects of any computer system. It contains your Windows system, personal files, folders, and other essential documents. If your computer storage is filling up gradually after running a long time, the most intuitive feeling is that you will find your computer performance is getting slower than before and sometimes you may receive a low disk space warning.
A good way to free up your storage space is to search for large files Windows 11, and then manage them well like storing them on your cloud, moving files to a different drive, or even directly deleting them if they are no longer needed.
However, the biggest problem is that many users have troubling in how to find large files on Windows 11 quickly. Take it easy, the below content will perfectly solve the problem. Now, let's get started.
There are different ways to search for large files Windows 10 or 11. This section will introduce you three effective and practical ways: Windows File Explorer, Command Prompt, and a third-party tool. You can employ any one of them based on your need after reading.
File Explorer is an effective and efficient Windows built-in tool to manage and organize your files and folders in Windows 11/10/8/7. So it’s definitely workable for you to find where the files and folders are via File Explorer.
Step 1. Press Windows Key + E on your keyboard to open File Explorer.
Step 2. To find what files you want, you can click This PC to select specific drives like C drive.
Step 3. Click on View at the top of the window menu bar. Go to the Show and click on the Hidden items if not marked. This can let you access all files and folders on your computer.
Step 4. Or you can click on the Search bar at the top right side of the window and type a keyword, and hit Enter to search for large files Windows 11. "Size" is one of the most useful search syntaxes you can use to find out large files on your computer, for instance, you can type "Size:>500MB" to search for files with sizes larger than 500 MB.
Tip: In addition to searching for the file name, you can also enter another one or multiple search syntax to narrow down the search scope, for example, you can type the file name and size together. Eg. pixel size:>500MB.
Command Prompt is another useful way to find the location of large files on your Windows 11 computer. Follow the steps below to see how it works on.
Step 1. Type cmd and select run as administrator to open the Command Prompt window.
Step 2. Now navigate to the folder (or disk), where you want to search for large files like typing cd\ on Command Prompt window to go to C drive.
Step 3. Now give the below command and press Enter:
forfiles /S /C "cmd /c if @fsize GTR (size) echo @path"
▣ GTR denotes "greater than", you can change it with GEQ which denotes "greater than or equal to".
▣ Replace (size) with the size of files that you want to search for, in bytes. (1KB=1024 bytes, 1MB=1024 Kilobytes, 1GB=1024MB)
【Example 1】 If you want to show you all the files larger than 1 GB (1024 x 1024 x1024 = 1073741824 bytes) on the Command Prompt window, please give this command:
forfiles /S /C "cmd /c if @fsize GTR 1073741824 echo @path"
【Example 2】 If you want to export this list to a TXT file, type this command:
forfiles /S /C "cmd /c if @fsize GTR 1073741824 echo @path > FileName.txt"
The text file is automatically created with your given name in the location you set to find the files. It’s available to replace FileName with another name whatever you want and doesn't forget to add the file extension.
As you can see from the description above, it's exhausting to look for large files in Windows 11 manually by using File Explorer and it’s difficult to use the command line in Command Prompt. To save time and energy on Windows search for large files, I highly recommend you use a powerful and practical disk manager named AOMEI Partition Assistant for Cleanup.
It can help you easily and quickly search for large files Windows 11/10/8/7 and Servers. This tool is featured with many useful functions to meet your different needs. For example, if you want to free up space on your hard drive, you can move files to another drive, clean up junk files, or delete large files. No matter which method you will apply, the software is able to calculate the sizes of your folders and tell you where they are located in during the process.
With only a few clicks, you can realize both finding out big files and deleting them at once. Now, download the software and see how to find large files on Windows 11 and delete them at the same time:
Free Up Disk Space To Keep Your PC Running Smoothly and Efficiently
Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant for Cleanup. Click the "Delete Large Files" tab.
Step 2. 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.
The scan process might take time. After the scan is complete, all large files found will be listed.
You can also check the large files and click the button behind to locate them.
Step 4. Tick the files you want to delete, and then click the "Clean Now" button to start the deletion.
Step 5. 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.
If your PC runs slow for a lack of storage space, the best solution should be to delete some large and unnecessary files on your device. But how can you search for large files Windows 11? You can try any of the methods we've covered on this page.
By comparison, AOMEI Partition Assistant for Cleanup should be your first choice. When you want to delete some files, AOMEI software can perfectly help you find them out and then allow you to delete them all at once.
