Windows 10 Storage Space Available: How Much Storage Does Windows 10 Take Up when you get a new PC? Many people always keep this in mind when purchasing a Laptop or PC with 1TB or Less, especially Windows 10 version. Your Computer should have enough storage space available, even minus the Windows System space taken so you have more than enough to store your personal files, media, and documents. Windows 10 is known for taking so much storage space, and RAM, and getting your processor heated up, that’s because of its features and graphics, so you will want to know how much space Windows 10 takes up and how much free storage is left for you.
Not only that, we will see how you can clean up your C Drive to get more Storage Space on Windows 10, doing this also speeds up your computer, new computers should be fast, but over time, it gets slow and you might want to frequently do this. Windows 10 can take up different storage space on different PC because some new Computers might come with preinstalled Software, depending on the brand, so this can take some storage space compared to other brands, but let’s get a rough idea of how many you are left with.
Every Windows 10 Major Updates, the size gets larger and larger, this is because of the newly added features occupying storage space, leaving you with fewer ones. Windows update usually falls around 3.6GB and up, the previous update is also saved so if you need to revert to the old version, it is easier, there are valid reasons for this, you might have hardware or software issues after a Windows update, so it will be wise to revert to the previous version till there is a fix on the Windows 10 update.
This Windows update file doesn’t take so much space and is not too important if you have no issues with your current update, so that is why there is an option called “Windows Update Cleanup“, it allows you to delete it. Also, it is recommended you check the specifications of the computer you want to get because installing Windows 10 on a PC that didn’t meet Windows 10 requirements means you will have issues like storage space problems and low RAM. Windows 10 takes up these to run properly and function, so you should want to know the requirements of Windows 10.
How Much Space Does Windows 10 Take Up
– Here are the minimum requirements for Windows 10 PC provided by Microsoft:
- CPU: 1GHz or faster processor like SoC
- Memory: 1GB (for 32-bit) or 2GB (for 64-bit)
- Hard disk space: 16GB (for 32-bit system) or 20GB (for 64-bit system)
- GPU: DirectX 9 or later versions with WDDM 1.0 driver
- Display: 800 x 600
- Official Minimum Disk Space for Windows 10: 16GB (for 32-bit), 20GB (for 64-bit).
- Official Recommended Disk Space for Windows 10: 20GB or more (for 32-bit), 40GB or more (for 64-bit).
How Much Storage Space does Windows 10 System Update Take up?
Windows 10 Takes Up 10GB of free space. Now, this is different on other computers, but you should prepare that before installing a new Windows 10 Update. After some time Microsoft will roll out some Security updates that improve Windows defender, this update sometimes takes up to 300MB of storage space. Windows can also upload some bug fixes update which makes some computer crash or have clashed with other programs, these updates could take a few MB, like 500MB – 600MB, but major updates are more than that, these major Window updates take up 3GB and more, so you will need to make sure you have enough space.
Windows 10 Temporary Files Cleanup
These Temporary Files consume your PC storage space, it can be seen when you go through your Windows Settings and then storage settings. You will see them according –
1. Downloads
This is the first option you will see when you open Temporary files on your Windows PC. This part is disabled/unticked by default, you should not touch this part as warned by Microsoft because it contains all your personal files and folders downloaded by you. These contain files you downloaded online, it can also include Zip Files, Programs, Games, or Videos, depending on if you set the storage path on the download folder. A new computer should not have any files that occupy this folder except you got a used one, this option will really be beneficial.
2. Windows Update Cleanup
According to Microsoft Windows, this section says “Windows keeps copies of all installed updates from Windows Update, even after installing newer versions of updates. Windows Update cleanup deletes or compresses older versions of updates that are no longer needed and take up space. (You might need to restart your computer.)”.
Back to how to get more space on your computer, this option is the best to get more storage space added to your PC. You can clean up this Windows 10 Update file since it is a copy of the previous version. If you are sure you no longer need to revert to the previous version and that the one you updated is stable, there is no reason to leave the files when you need additional space urgently.
3. Thumbnails
Windows keeps a copy of all of your pictures, video, and document thumbnails so they can be displayed quickly when you open a folder. If you delete these thumbnails, they will be automatically recreated as needed. This does not mean deleting them will remove all icons of your pictures or documents, rather deleting them will make the pictures load slower for the first time, but it will be recreated as you open more photos or videos, so it is a temporary removal that can be of great help for urgent usage of storage space.
4. Windows upgrade log files
Windows upgrade log files contain information that can help identify and troubleshoot problems that occur during a Windows installation, upgrade, or service. Deleting these files can make it difficult to troubleshoot installation issues.
Windows 10 take up much storage space here, but these files are very important and it is protective of your system. These log files can help you identify issues you faced after a windows update, they are no longer needed after an update, but Windows warns deleting them can make it hard for Windows to troubleshoot installation issues, this log file makes it easier for Windows to locate which files are conflicting with another program and then delete or fix the file.
5. DirectX Shader Cache
These are files created by the graphics system which is used to speed up applications (Apps) load time and also improve responsiveness. There is no major issue with deleting this, but after deleting these files, Apps will take 2-3 seconds more than the usual time your Apps opened previously. But after opening an application, these DirectX Shader Cache files will be re-generated as needed. It does not take up so much storage space on Windows 10, it takes around 100MB, depending on the number of Apps you have. This file can be deleted for more Windows 10 space on your PC.
6. Recycle Bin
At least, you should know what this folder contains, Recycle Bin contains all your deleted files. Many people make the mistake of deleting Media such as Videos, Pictures, or Games and Programs without deleting the files from the Bin. These files are not permanently removed until you empty the Recycle Bin, so in a sense, they still take the amount of disk space the program or file you deleted took on the C Drive.
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There is no harm in deleting files from this path, get rid of all files so you can boost your system, get more space and improve performance. But if you deleted a file and know you need it back, don’t delete this from Temporary Files.
7. Temporary Files
Apps can store temporary information in specific folders. These can be cleaned up manually if the app does not do it automatically. These files do not occupy much storage space because they do not last long on the system. Temporary files are stored by applications, they are used to store important information about changes to the app, games use this often, so if you have games that need these files, do not delete them, if you don’t need the files, you can, it increases the speed of your PC.
There are other files such as Windows Defender Antivirus which are critical files used by Windows, Delivery Optimization Files, Windows error reports and feedback diagnostics, and Temp Internet Files. These files don’t take much storage space, maximum is 20MB. So you can delete them as they don’t affect your PC. You should focus on cleaning up Windows Update Files, Thumbnails, and Upgrade log files, these are the ones that take up your Windows 10 storage space, in total, it is around 5GB.
Conclusion: Sometimes you might have installed apps that you no longer need, they can occupy so much space, so you need to uninstall them if they are too large and you no longer need them again. These should help you know how much space Windows 10 Take Up on a New Computer and how to clean them up. Realize these stats differ and don’t represent all Windows PC, but you’ve got a rough idea of what you should be expecting Windows 10 to take up on your computer.
