Sometimes we get curious about our data and files that lie on our hard drives. In other cases, we just want to free some additional memory space in our hard drive to store something more relevant in our Windows machine. The best possible way to create some storage space is to find the files or folders that have occupied the most amount of memory in the system and remove them if they’re no longer required or relevant to your needs. In this post, we are looking at various methods that will help you find the biggest folder or file in Windows.
How To Find The Biggest Folder Or File In Windows?
The question that arises here is how to find the most extensive file or folder in our Windows PC. There’s nothing for you to worry about, and it is not rocket science. Windows provides us numerous ways by which you can find and access large files or folders in your system. The only job you have to do here is to find that particular file or folder so that you can take necessary action on it. Various third-party apps let you do the same, and then you can decide what to do with those files.
- Using File Explorer
- Using Command Prompt
- Using Largest File Finder
- Using Treesize Free
These work with every account; all you need is enough permission to download and install the third-party apps. It will work on all versions of Windows including Windows 10 and Windows 11.
1] Using File Explorer
File Explorer plays a very significant role in managing the files. It offers a lot of useful features that let you organize your data and files, sort them according to your preferred choices and find desired files on your system. The most crucial element of File Explorer that is worth mentioning here is that it lets you find files of specific sizes on your PC. By using this particular feature, you can locate those big files and get rid of them if necessary.
There are some specific steps and things that you must follow to get the desired results. First, enable the hidden files option. This will allow File Explorer to look at hidden files as well with the addition of the rest of the files. But you should know that hidden files are hidden for a reason as they are very sensitive in nature. Most of the hidden files are comprised of system apps and OS data, so you must be very cautious while dealing with those. After doing that, you can follow the following steps mentioned below in the same order.
- Click on the Start menu, and type Show Hidden, and select Show Hidden Files and Folders.
- Click on the View tab on the dialogue box, and you’ll see multiple options there.
- Select the option that says Show hidden files, folders, and drives. Click Ok.
- Open File Explorer, and select the Sort option from the top bar.
- In the Sort Menu, select the Total Size and Descending option from the menu which will arrange the files in the order of their size, starting from the biggest files first.
If you want to quickly hide and unhide, then go to File Explorer > View > Show > Hidden Items.
2] Search For Large Files Using Windows Terminal
If you’re little on the knowledgeable side, then you can use the Command Prompt utility to find the largest files and folders in your system. It is one of the simplest ways by which you can perform this action. You can retrieve a list of all the file sizes that you’ve specified and export them in the form of a text file. Here’s how you can find those large files using Command Prompt.
- Use Win + X to open Power Menu, and then select Windows Terminal (Admin)
- When the Command Prompt utility is open, type this command
forfiles /S /M * /C "cmd /c if @fsize GEQ 1073741824 echo @path > largefiles.txt"
- After typing this command, hit the Enter key. It will retrieve all the files that are bigger than 1GB. You can even modify and edit the file sizes to retrieve files of different sizes.
- You can open the largefiles.txt file, and it will consist of all the large files and folders that exist in your system.
3] Using WinDirStat
As mentioned earlier, there are numerous other ways to find the largest files and folders on your Windows PC besides using File Explorer and Windows Terminal. There are third-party apps also to make your job easier.
WinDirStat is open-source software that is available for free. It is one of the oldest software that can create a classy-looking graph to figure out the largest file. You can click on each of the elements in the graph and know the file name, open it directly and even delete it.
Once you launch the software, it will prompt you to select the drive which you want to scan, and then it’s time to wait. A progress bar and amount of RAM used for scanning are displayed at the bottom.
4] Using Treesize Free
Treesize Free is another third-party app that lets you sort out the largest file or folder in your system without complicated steps. It has been around from the very beginning and is a trustworthy platform. It only requires a download and simple installation, and then it is good to go and provide promised services.
Download and install the app on your computer system. Launch the app and run it with admin rights allowed. It is necessary to run it with admin rights because otherwise, it won’t be able to scan the folders.
After launching the app, it will scan your storage and then present the results in a tree-like structure. Those are actually your large folders and files that are present in your system, mentioned with the space they occupy in your memory. Double click on the folders to see the subfolders and their sizes to get the complete information about it. You can also sort the directories, as doing that will keep the preference of showing the largest file on the top of the list for better understanding.
Why Do We Need To Know About The Largest File Or Folder In Our System?
As we know, our system has limited storage and memory space. We always want some free space to store something new. A certain degree of free space is also required to run things smoother on your system. This is why at the very least, we must have an idea of what is in our memory, it is essential or not. If it is not important or valuable to you, then get rid of them. More the space, the better the system runs without any hiccups.
How To Free Up More Space?
Apart from these tools, you can use the Windows Storage Space to find and remove large files. The built-in software can detect how much each of the common folders occupies the space including files downloaded for Windows Update.
- Open Windows Settings (Win + I) and select Storage.
- Click on the Storage Sense and locate the Run Storage Sense now button
- Click on it, and it will remove files based on the configuration.
The Storage section is also an excellent place to find out what is occupying the space on your Windows PC.
Here, we have mentioned and discussed the easiest and mainstream ways by which you can find and access the largest files or folders in your system, and it totally depends on you which method you are most comfortable with. After all, their outcomes will be the same as each other. Then it is your job to choose what to do with those files or folders.
Having an idea of what is on your computer is always a good thing and will help you make decisions. But be careful while dealing with sensitive files. I hope this article was helpful to you—best of luck with your future adventures.
