Random Thoughts Thread

[G. David Felt]

17 hours ago, trinacriabob said:

Windows 11 ...

Ok, the laptop was upgraded from Windows 10.   There were a couple of power offs and restarts.  Once I got onto the Microsoft Installation Assistant, it went smoothly. Interfaces and dialogue boxes are a little more user friendly.

Here's the deal.  I had about 45 GB free before I started the upgrade.  I understand that Windows 11 takes up about the same amount of space as 10.  I've seen posts where people complain that it has taken up a larger amount of disk space than they had before.  The answer comes back that the system drive is temporarily "borrowing" this surplus of space and we'll be giving it back over time.  Is this plausible?  Duplicate files?  How long to get the extra GBs freed up?

Thanks.

Yes, that is true that Windows upgrade uses the space to make all the changes, but it should release it fairly soon. You can go in and do some house cleaning:

Free Up Space on the Current Drive

Open File Explorer, right-click the 😄 drive, and select Properties.

Click Disk Cleanup and select files to delete, such as temporary files and old system updates. Click OK to proceed.

Open Command Prompt as an administrator and run powercfg.exe -h off to disable hibernation and free up space.

Move large files or folders (e.g., Documents, Downloads, Pictures) to another drive: Right-click the folder, select Properties, go to the Location tab, and click Move.

Uninstall unnecessary apps via Settings > Apps > Installed apps.

Also check out this as this covers what most other articles also state about cleaning up and freeing up space after a Win11 upgrade.

How to reclaim space after upgrading Windows 11 to newer version