Win 10 and Bloatware is killing me...HELP!

So I'm running Win 10 and I watch and manage my disc space very carefully. Recently I compressed the entire drive including Win 10 and picked up an additional 8 gig in space. I use the machine for FSX and light web surfing. I use Marzilla but no music or movies. So now after two weeks that 8 gig has become 4 gig. No new programs added. No downloads. No nothing. Can someone tell me what is going on? I ran through all the tools for weeding out files Disc/properties/files purge/etc. Somehow something is gobbling up space. Why do I think it is Win 10?

Thanks

You should just buy a larger hard drive and not worry about such trivial things seeing that storage is so inexpensive these days. And no it is not Win 10.

As with any OS, and indeed other non OS programs, Win 10 does a lot of things that create temp files. For example, each time Windows Update (WU) runs and downloads updates it will temporarily store the update files before running them. Once the updates are installed the temp files should automatically be deleted but sometimes this doesn't happen.

 

Other common culprits for 'stealing' space is internet cookies, automatically generated reports created by programs and, especially the OS, when they encounter problems.

 

Another possibility is that the space is being used by System Restore points - these are essential files that allow you to recover from a issue with the OS. Again, these are normally created by the OS when updates are made to the OS (via WU) or when essential system files are changed/updated by a third party app.

 

A few things you can do that may help.....

 

1. Download and run a utility tool such as CCleaner - this will find all sorts of redundant temp files. Once installed run on a regular basis.

 

2. Read up on what System Restore points (SRP) are and how they work. Older SRPs can often be safely deleted. There are some 3rd party SRP tools available (such as Restore Point Creator found at https://www.toms-world.org/blog/restore_point_creator ) that make it easy to create/delete SRPs

 

3. This option depends on how you obtained the Win 10 OS media -

 

A. Original via download

B. Original on DVD

C. Pre-installed on the PC when you brought it (often described as OEM)

D. Upgraded from another OS version

 

If A. or B. then there is little or nothing to do that will free up space BUT carrying out the Rescue/Recovery actions detailed below may save you having to do a full re-install of the OS if a major problem occurs......

 

If C. create a set of recovery AND rescue disks (if you have not already done so) using the options available on the OS Update and Security page or by following any instructions provided with the PC. This will achieve two things - 1. Provide a media set which can be used to re-install the OS if necessary (basically a copy of the OS as provided if brought digitally or on DVD) and 2. Provide a media set that may help you recover from a major issue without re-installing the OS.

 

Google is your friend here. There are plenty of guides available on how to create the disk sets and once you have the recovery/rescue sets you may be able to recover a sizeable chunk of disk space that is being used by these elements, especially WRT to the OS.

 

If D. check the names of the folders that reside on the disk. There maybe a folder containing a backup copy of the old OS - look for something named like WindowsOld or Windows.Old - you may have to change the viewing settings to allow the showing of hidden folders/files. If found, and your current Win 10 install is working fine, you can either simply delete the folder or, better still, backup a copy of the folder onto DVD/USB Drive or external HDD before deletion.

 

Finally, as Jim pointed out, you could always get a bigger drive, either as a direct replacement for the current one or as a second drive.

Thank you so much for such a detailed answer with so many options. I'll go research this stuff and report back.

Brian you hit the nail right on the head. Nosing around I discovered a hidey hole where apps were storing update files, presumably after they were used. Deleting them recovered my missing 4 gig. So I short cut that file and will check it from time to time and toss out the junk.

Thanks again,

Rick

Hi Rick,

 

Glad to have been of help.

 

If you do as I suggested and get an cleaning utility, it should pick up the files. There are a variety of such tools available in both freeware and payware versions and they often do a better job than the basic cleanup tools provided with the OS. Some will only clean out internet related junk, whilst others will do a lot more including looking for redundant files like you found, finding invalid/missing Registry entries/keys, system/error reports files, etc.

Get a program like CCCleaner or my preferred program JetClean. You can use them to clean up all those pesky files and keep your machine running better. Yes, I could do it all manually but why when I can have 1 interface to do everything I need at once. :)

 

http://www.bluesprig.com/jetclean.html

Disk Compression is an old technology, it was popular when 120 MB hard drives where the norm.

I'll give you an example on how it works.

You have three pieces of data ex. hat cat bat. They all share the same characters a t . The program assigns a character such as # for the characters a t. This results in less space required to save the data. The down side is that when the computer has to access that data it has to uncompress the data resulting in an extra instruction for the CPU to perform. This results in the computer running slower. The above example would actually be in binary format. It would be better as stated to get a larger drive.