Reduce temporary internet file space

Navigate to the location of the external storage device you connected, then select Paste. Instead of saving all your new files to the default drive, you can save some of them to a different drive that has more free space. Open Storage settings. For each content type, select a drive from the drop-down menu.

If the drive you want to use isn't listed there, make sure it's connected to your PC. You can save space by turning on OneDrive Files On-Demand, which stores a smaller placeholder file on your hard drive instead of the full-size file that's stored in your OneDrive account in the cloud.

You'll be able to get to your OneDrive files from your PC without having to use up hard-drive space downloading full-size versions of them all. Sometimes a virus or other malware can consume significant hard-drive space by corrupting your system files. If you suspect your PC is infected with malware, use an antivirus program like Windows Defender to run a virus scan and cleanup. If this doesn't fix the problem, you might need to reset your PC. This is also recommended if your attempts to free up drive space trigger particular error codes that you need help resolving.

The following questions concern low disk space and Windows Update specifically. Learn more about Windows Update. When you select Fix issues , you'll be informed about how much additional space is needed.

Learn how to free up space to install Windows updates. The total free disk space your device requires to complete an update varies. Learn about the difference between a feature update and a quality update. You need disk space to download the update, download new versions of any optional features and languages that are currently installed, and to apply the update.

Additional space is temporarily required to support removal of the update typically for 10 days. This space can be reclaimed after the update is completed. Note: For devices with reserved storage, an update will first use the reserved storage space before using other disk space. For more info, see How reserved storage works in Windows.

The space required to complete a feature update depends on two factors: which update path is followed and the size of optional content and other updates that apply to your PC when the feature update is installed. Windows follows three different feature update paths, depending on the amount of disk space currently available. Windows automatically tries to complete more of the update process in the background while you use your PC.

This significantly reduces the time your PC will be offline or unusable during the update, although it might temporarily use more disk space to complete the update. Learn more about our efforts to reduce offline time during updates English only at this time. For PCs with limited free space but still enough to complete the update automatically. Windows will automatically optimize for reducing the amount of free disk space required to install the update.

This will result in a longer offline install time. For PCs that don't have enough space to automatically install the update. Windows will prompt you to free up disk space or use external storage to temporarily extend the storage on your PC. Across each of these update paths, the total amount of free disk space required will vary, depending on the optional content installed and other updates that apply to your PC. For example:. Optional features. Many optional features available for Windows are pre-installed or acquired on demand by the system, or manually by you.

Languages installed. Windows is localized into many languages. Although many people only use one language at a time, some people switch between two or more languages. Open Language settings During each update, all language resources and any associated typing, text-to-speech, speech-to-text, and handwriting recognition resources must be updated. The content for each language can range from about MB to more than MB.

Driver updates. OEMs and other hardware partners sometimes publish new graphics, networking, audio, and other drivers in conjunction with the new OS update. The size of these drivers can vary significantly, depending on your PC and on which drivers have been updated.

OS quality updates. During a feature update, Windows tries to download and automatically install the latest quality update so that your PC is fully up to date when you start using it. Shortly after the feature update is released, the quality update for that feature update could be as small as a few hundred MB, but as more quality and security changes are implemented, the quality update can increase in size to 1 GB or more.

To save even more space, check the "Delete all offline content" option in the next window that appears. You may also limit the number of Temporary Internet Files that Windows stores by clicking the Settings button. The following window will appear:. Move the slider to the left to reduce the amount of space Windows will use for storing Temporary Internet Files. You may also move the slider to the right to increase the amount of disk space used for storing Temporary Internet Files.

The more space you choose, the more files will be cached by Internet Explorer. This means pages you visit frequently may load faster because the images and other referenced files are already saved on your hard disk. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent.

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