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1) Activate Memory Sense
To eliminate unnecessary files from Windows without user intervention we can configure the Memory sensor a built-in feature in Windows 11 and Windows 10 that automatically clears junk files, update files, and temporary files created by apps and the system.
To activate Sense memory in Windows 11 press WIN + I on the keyboard, go to the menu System click on the menu Storage, and activate the switch next to the entry Memory sensor; to configure this function, press on its name and choose when to clean (we advise you to set Every month), whether to automatically empty the Windows Recycle Bin and whether to delete files from the Download folder after a certain period of time.
To activate the Memory sensor of Windows 10 we always press WIN + I on the keyboard, open the path Settings -> System > Storageclick on the menu Configure Storage Sensor to proceed with activating automatic cleaning.
We talked about this function in the guide on how to keep free space in windows by activating “Memory Sense”.
2) Delete the updated files
System update files accumulate on Windows 11 and Windows 10: these files take up a lot of space (especially those necessary for version changes) and are also accompanied by old system recovery files which remain available for at least 10 days (in case we want to go back).
If we don’t want to go back, it is better to delete them immediately by taking us to the path Settings -> System -> Storage -> Temporary Filesticking the items Cleaning up Windows Update e Windows update log file and pressing up on Remove files.
To learn more, we can read our guide on how to go back to the previous version of windows 11 (Downgrade).
3) Clean the updated files from prompt
Another effective method to carry it out cleaning up Windows Update files plans to open the command prompt with administrator permissions (we search for a prompt from the Start menu and use the right button on the app) and proceed with the cleaning from the terminal.
To proceed, therefore, make sure to open the command prompt with administrative permissions and launch the following command:
Cleanmgr /sageset:65535
After selecting the previous installation files and pressing OK, we type the command:
Cleanmgr /sagerun:65535
In this way, we will be sure that we have really deleted all the temporary files of Windows.
4) Use Disk Cleanup
In addition to the Memory Sensor, we can find out what can be eliminated from Windows to free up space using the Disk Cleanup app, present in many versions of Windows and capable of performing a complete and effective cleaning in every area of the computer.
To open the app we look in the Start menu Cleaning disk, press on System files to unlock all the entries, and select the ones we want to delete; at the end, we press OK and wait for the end of the cleaning to recover the space.
We can elaborate on the use of Disk Cleanup in our guide to carrying out Windows full disk cleanup of useless files.
Conclusions
Without using third-party cleaning programs (such as the famous CCleaner) we can find out for ourselves what can be eliminated from Windows to free up space, using all the tools provided by Windows.
Memory Sense is very effective and can clean the disk by itself according to our needs, while the prompt and Disk Cleanup commands allow us to free up space with traditional methods.
To learn more we can read our guides on how to free up space on OneDrive come on how to free up space in windows 11.