Windows 10 and 11 both include a storage overview in Settings that breaks down disk usage into categories. While helpful, these categories can be confusing — especially "System and Reserved" and "Other," which often consume far more space than users expect.
How to View Your Storage Breakdown
Open Settings (Win + I) → System → Storage. Windows will scan your drive and display categories including Apps and features, Temporary files, System and reserved, Other, and your personal folders.
Apps and Features
This shows total space consumed by installed applications — both traditional desktop programs and Microsoft Store apps.
Common culprits: Games (30–100 GB each), Visual Studio with workloads (10–50 GB), Microsoft Office (3–10 GB), and Adobe Creative Cloud apps (2–20 GB each).
How to manage: Sort by size in Settings → Apps → Installed apps. Uninstall what you no longer use. For games, use the "Move" option to relocate them to a secondary drive.
Temporary Files
This includes Windows Update Cleanup, upgrade log files, Delivery Optimization Files, thumbnails, browser caches, DirectX Shader Cache, and previous Windows installations (the Windows.old folder, often 10–30 GB).
How to manage: Click "Temporary files" in the storage breakdown, check the categories you want to remove, and click "Remove files." Storage Sense can automate this.
System and Reserved
The most confusing category. It includes:
- System files — Windows itself (15–25 GB)
- Reserved storage — pre-allocated for updates (about 7 GB on Windows 11)
- Virtual memory (pagefile.sys) — swap file (1–16 GB depending on RAM)
- Hibernation file (hiberfil.sys) — 40–75% of RAM size
- System Restore data — rollback snapshots
How to manage: Disable hibernation with powercfg /hibernate off. Adjust pagefile via Advanced System Settings. Reduce System Restore allocation in System Properties.
Other
The catch-all for files Windows cannot classify: AppData contents, ProgramData, user-created folders outside standard libraries, C:\Windows\Installer packages, and developer package caches (npm, pip, NuGet).
How to manage: Windows Settings lacks granular tools for this. Use a dedicated disk analyzer like WizTree, WinDirStat, or TreeSize to identify exactly which folders consume the most space. See our analyzer comparison for recommendations.
Practical Recommendations
- Start with Temporary Files — quickest win if you have not cleaned up recently
- Check Apps and Features — sort by size and uninstall unused apps
- Evaluate hibernation — disabling it frees 6–12 GB instantly
- Use an analyzer for "Other" — built-in tools cannot break this down sufficiently
- Enable Storage Sense — monthly automated cleanup
For a complete walkthrough, see our main guide on freeing up disk space on Windows.