How to Search for Large Files Windows 11/10/8/7 [Stepwise]

Why do you need to search for large files Windows 11?

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.

How do I search for large files in Windows 11?

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.

Method 1. Search for large files Windows 11 using File Explorer

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.

Method 2. Search for large files Windows 11 using Command Prompt

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.

Method 3. Search for large files Windows 11 using a third-party tool

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 Professional.

It can help you easily and quickly search for large files Windows 11/10/8/7. 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:

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional, and then click "Free up" and "Delete Large Files".

Step 2. In the pop-up window, select the partitions that you want to find and delete large files, click "Start Scan" to scan for files larger than 16MB.

Step 3. When the scan is complete, all large files found are listed. Tick the files you want to delete, and then click the "Delete" button.

Note: Files in red are not recommended to delete, you must think twice before you tick them.

Step 4. The next window will ask you to confirm the files you have just ticked for deleting. If it’s correct, click "Delete Now" to begin the deletion process.

Conclusion

If your PC runs slow for the 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 Professional 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. You can even recover lost data if you have accidentally deleted.

In addition, you can use this software to fix some other computer problems like the device is not ready, Windows 11 Disk Management does not show drives, the EFI system partition is RAW, SSD not showing up, etc.