How to efficiently clean up disk space in windows 11?

If Disk Cleanup and Storage Sense didn’t help much, the space is usually taken by Windows update leftovers, system files, or large hidden folders, not normal user files.

Here are a few effective but safe things to check:

1. Remove old Windows update files

Open Command Prompt as Administrator and run:

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup

This safely removes old Windows Update components and often frees several GB.

2. Check the Windows.old folder

After a major update, Windows may keep a rollback copy.

Look for C:\Windows.old

If you don’t need to roll back, delete it via Disk Cleanup → Clean up system files

3. Check hibernation file size

If you don’t use hibernation:

powercfg -h off

This deletes hiberfil.sys, which can be several GB.