When getting a new PC, there are several sections and components in which we pay special attention. Here elements as important as the processor or the RAM that the new equipment will mount come into play. But something that we can never fail to take into account at the same time, is the storage space, the disk drives.
When we refer to this specific section, we talk about both the size and the type of disk drives that the PC will make available to us. Perhaps at first this is something almost inconsequential, but as the months and years of use pass, it is when we realize its importance. This is something that is especially evident when we refer to computers based on Windows 10 . And it is that this is an operating system that with the passage of time and versions, increasingly occupies a greater amount of disk space.
But not only is that, but at the same time, when using Microsoft‘s own software, we must add both pre-installed applications and programs that we install ourselves over time. That is when at a certain moment we can realize that we ran out of space on the computer . This represents a clear problem, as you can imagine, for which we have several solutions.
We always have the possibility of acquiring new units in the form of hard disks to install in the equipment, or change the existing ones, but that is not the most comfortable.
Free up disk space from Windows itself
We tell you this because we can always use other less radical alternative solutions, even if they are temporary. On the one hand we can always uninstall those programs that we do not use, as well as delete large files that we do not need to keep, such as certain videos . In the same way we can also make the operating system itself free up space by itself automatically. We do this from Windows File Explorer.
We access this from the Win + E key combination, so we are located on the disk drive from which we want to free up space. Then we click with the right mouse button and select the Properties option.
In the window that appears, we can already see a button that says Free up space. Well, from here we will have the possibility to select, or not, a series of sections of Windows that will help us in getting rid of unnecessary files and folders. Among these we find sections such as temporary Internet files , system temporary files, file history, etc.
But these are also not the only methods that we have in this same sense. It is for all this that in these same lines we are going to talk about a useful command that will surely help you free up space on the corresponding disk drives.
Use the Compact command to free up space on Windows
Seeing what has been seen, in these same lines we are going to talk about a hidden Windows function for all this that we are talking about, that is, to free up space. Actually it is the Compact OS tool, a function of Microsoft itself that allows to compress the binary files of the operating system. It is worth mentioning that this is something that does not affect in the least the data stored by the user on the computer’s disks . Thus, sometimes this will help us save some megabytes or even gigabytes of space. It is also important to know that this is a function that we will not notice in regards to the rest of the PC’s operation.
At the same time it must be taken into account that this is a function that by default is disabled in Windows 10, so we have to start it ourselves. This is something we achieve through the system command line, that is, through the Windows CMD .
How to check if Compact is already running
But before activating this function that we are talking about, we can check first hand if it is already activated, or not. So we open a CMD window and execute the command compact.exe / q in it.
Next on the screen we will see a summary appear that refers to the compression ratio that is being used at that time. At this point we should know that in the event that the aforementioned ratio is 1.0 or close to it, it is most likely that Compact OS is disabled. This is the moment when we can start it in order to save disk space. Therefore, below we will show you how to achieve it.
How to enable and disable the Compact OS feature in Windows
The first thing we must do to activate this function that we have told you about, is to reopen the Windows Command Prompt . This, again, we do through the CMD command of the operating system, as we did previously. It is recommended that we do this, running with administrator permissions to avoid failures. Once we are in the command prompt window, we run the command compact.exe / CompactOS: always.
Say that at that moment the program will start the compression process as such, that is, to compress the binary files of the operating system itself. This is something that does not take place instantaneously, but can take several minutes, so we will have to wait patiently for it to finish. With the first command mentioned above, we can now see that the compression ratio has changed, specifically we will see that it has increased.
Also, in the event that we want to deactivate this function that we have mentioned, we will only have to use the command compact.exe / CompactOS: never. What it does is return everything compressed to its original state.
Use CompactGUI to save gigabytes more comfortably
Of course, at the same time we can think that not everyone is comfortable using and executing commands from the Windows command prompt. This is something that is especially evident in first-time users on these issues. That is why in order to use this function that we have talked about, but in a more visual way, we can use CompactGUI.
This is an application that you can access from this link , and basically what it proposes to us is a graphical user interface to make use of the function as we have seen. The main difference of all this is that from here it will not be necessary to type commands to use the compression function of Windows . All this we carry out through the usual application windows, and buttons.