How to Find the Largest Files on Windows 10 easily?

There are times when your computer may not work properly or slow down because you don't have enough disk space. In this case it is advisable to find the larger files on the disk and move them to another storage device or delete them to free up disk space. 

• Related article: Perform a Disk Cleanup to free up space.

Manually locating large files on disk can take a lot of time and effort. To avoid this, you can follow the below simple steps that can help you find the large files on your system easily and effortlessly.

Step 1. Find out the size of commonly used folders.
First of all check the size of the folders that you usually store files in on your computer. (e.g. Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Videos, etc.)

To check the size of a folder:

1. Open File Explorer and explore the contents of "C:\Users\Username" folder.
2. Right-click on each of the above mentioned folders and choose Properties.
3. Look in the 'Size' tab to find the size of the folder.

Step 2. Find out the larger files of a folder.
Now proceed and find the largest files contained in a folder, performing the following actions:

1. Open the folder and from the View menu check Hidden items.

2. Click again the View menu, click Sort by and select Size & Descending.

3. This would list all the files in the disk in descending order in size.

Since the above procedure may not help you and is very time consuming because you have to open each folder and subfolder separately to see the size of each file, below we will show you some easier methods to find the large files on the whole hard disk (in all folders and subfolders).

How to easily find out which are the largest files on the disk or on the entire Windows computer.

• Method 1: Search for Large Files using Explorer.
• Method 2: Find Larger Files with Largest Files Finder app.
• Method 3. View Largest files with File Size Tree app.
• Method 4. Find Large files from Command Prompt.

Method 1: Search for the Larger Files using File Explorer.

Using the file explorer you can quickly find the Large files on your system as follows:

1. Open File Explorer and select the This PC from the left-hand side to find the larger files on entire computer, or double-click at any disk drive to locate the largest files on it.

2. From the top menu, click on View tab and…

a. Select the Hidden items (if not already selected).

b. Select Group by and choose Size & Descending.

3. Click on Search box and type on the following (in bold letters) and press Enter:

• size:gigantic     to find all files larger than 4GB
• size:huge          to find files all files from 1-4 GB
• size:large          to find files with size 128MB – 1GB

* Note: After the end of the search, you can easily select the size of the files you wish to find, in the Search Tools options > Size.

4. When the search is complete, you will be able to see the largest files on your disk in descending order.

Method 2: Find Large Files with Largest Files Finder application.

The Largest File Finder is a free popular application that will directly find out the Top 100 large files on your PC and claims that it can scan a 200 GB Disk in 60 seconds.

1. Download the Largest File Finder application from their official website to avoid any risk. The application is just 650KB in size so that you can quickly download and install it on your PC.

2. This will allow you to list all the large files, along with their File name, folder location, file size, and also the modified file date.

Method 3: Find Larger Files on Windows with TreeSize Free Application.

Another popular application to view the largest files on Windows is the TreeSize Free.

1. Download the TreeSize Free application by clicking on the Free Download button.

2. Select TreeSizeFreeSetup.exe from the dropdown menu and click on Download.

3. After the download is finished, double-click on the "TreeSizeFreeSetup.exe" and proceed to install the application on your PC.

4. Open the TreeSize Free application and, if you want, select Restart as administrator to access folders that need administrator rights to be scanned.

5. TreeSize free will find and show you which folders on your disk take up the largest size on the disk..

6. Just open each folder to identify which are the largest files on it.

Method 4: Find Largest Files using Command Prompt.

If you are a fan of commands, you can use the command line to search and find large files on your disk.

1. Simultaneously press the Win + R keys to open the run command box.
2. Type cmd and press CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER keys to open Command Prompt as Administrator.

2. Now navigate to the folder (or disk), where you want to search for large files. *

* e.g. if you want to search for largest files in disk C, type:

• cd\

3. Now give the bellow command and press Enter: *

• forfiles /S /M * /C "cmd /c if @fsize GEQ <size_in_bytes> echo @path"

* Notes:
1. GEQ is a comparison parameter which denotes ‘greater than or equal to’. Alternatively, you can use GTR which denotes "greater than".
2. Where <size_in_bytes> is the size of files that you want to search for, in bytes.  (1KB=1024 bytes, 1MB=1024 Kilobytes, 1GB=1024MB)

Example 1: If you want to generate a list containing the names of files greater or equal to 1GB (1000MB = 1024 x 1024  x1024 = 1073741824 bytes), and to export this list to a TXT file (e.g. largefiles.txt) on drive C:, give this command:

• forfiles /S /M * /C "cmd /c if @fsize GEQ 1073741824 echo @path" > largefiles.txt

Example 2: To find all files larger than 100MB (100x1024x1204=104857600 bytes), type:

• forfiles /S /M * /C "cmd /c if @fsize GTR 104857600 echo @path" > largefiles.txt

These are some of the easiest methods to find large files on your Windows PC. It’s always good practice to delete large files for more storage and better performance.

So next time, if you are running out of space on your computer, use any of the methods listed above to identify and delete the large files.

That's it! Let me know if this guide has helped you by leaving your comment about your experience. Please like and share this guide to help others.

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