How to optimize hard drive storage in Windows 11 by deleting files you don’t use and without third-party tools

You may have encountered storage problems on your computer at some point. In the least opportune situation you have had to clean up. A process that you can automate in Windows 11 making use of an option such as the “Storage Sensor” and its various functions.

Also available in Windows 10, “Storage sensor” (Windows Storage Sense), is a tool that works with local storage and that allows you to automatically free up space by causing the files that we do not use to be deleted after a certain time. A tool that can be configured by following these steps.

Automate disk cleanup

The first thing we have to do to configure the “Storage sensor” is to enter “Setting” and on the left side of the screen select “System” among the options we find.

Once in “System” we have to search “Storage” In the central window, an option that appears in the final area of ​​the list and click on it.

We will then see different options. In the first place, a series of sections with the storage used in our equipment with different capacity bars and under them several options in “Storage management” of which we are only interested “Storage sensor”.

On “Storage sensor” The first thing we will do is activate the checkbox “Cleaning temporary files”, a function that makes Windows do the dirty work by eliminating temporary files that are stored with daily use and that gradually take up more space.

We will then see a series of options, each one individually configurable:

• “Run Storage Sensor”
• “Delete files from the recycle bin if they have more than:”
• “Delete files from Downloads folder if they haven’t been open for more than:”
• “OneDrive”

Each of these options can be configured individually. In the case of “Storage sensor” It can be configured to clean for days, weeks, months or only if there is little storage capacity.

The “Files from Recycle Bin” they can be configured to empty automatically after periods of 1, 14, 30 or 60 days. The deadline that is already set is 30 days.

Automation can also reach files in the folder “Downloads”, with the same deadlines that we have previously set in the “Recycle Bin” (1,14, 30 or 60 days).

Finally we can also do Windows to automatically manage the storage used on your computer and that it is already stored in the cloud in OneDrive in order to free up space that we already have occupied.

With all these steps, the “Storage sensor” takes care of ensuring that there is no space on our PC occupied by files that we do not use regularly without us having to intervene in the process.

(function () {window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName (‘head’)[0]; if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) {var instagramScript = document.createElement (‘script’); instagramScript.src = “https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild (instagramScript); }}) ();

–
The news

How to optimize hard drive storage in Windows 11 by deleting files you don’t use and without third-party tools

was originally published in

Engadget Windows

by Jose Antonio Carmona.