Easy way to clear space on your PC or Mac

March 26, 2021

By Kim Komando

An exciting new program just came out to optimize your business and you want to get it. Or, perhaps you decided to finally see what all the fuss is about with Fortnite, so you try to download it to your computer. But when you hit download, you get an error message. Your computer storage is full.

Nothing is more frustrating than hitting a brick wall when installing something of importance to your computer. While you can purchase external memory, we’ve all seen those flashy 1TB hard drives for sale; they aren’t exactly cheap. Luckily, there are other ways to open space on your computer without investing in extra equipment. Tap or click here for 5 tips to back up your data like a pro.

You can easily clear space on your PC or Mac in just a few seconds. It’s not complicated, and with a few simple clicks of your mouse, you can be on your way to installing new software. Your computer might even run a bit faster afterward.

Empty your trashcan first

Everyone forgets to take out the trash on the way to work. It’s even worse when you forget on garbage day. Well, your computer has a trash can and unless you empty it, the files are still on your computer.

This can be a game-changer for some people, depending on what you’ve deleted. This works and is fairly similar, give or take a graphic, for PC and Mac.

• Head to the trashcan icon on your home screen and right-click it.
• Select empty trashcan.
• This will permanently remove deleted files from your computer.

Clear out downloaded files

The download folder on your computer is meant to be temporary. Yet very rarely do we clear this out as we should. This is reminiscent of the mustard and ketchup bottle that’s still in your fridge from last Memorial Day. It needs to go, but you forget. Tap or click here for steps to clear the downloads folder on any device.

You can clear your cache folder to free up space as well. Aim to delete your temporary downloads and cache file at least once a month. Tap or click here to find out how to clear the cache on your computer.

Uninstall applications you don’t use

As a culture, we download a lot of useless stuff onto our computers and smartphones we don’t need. Candy Crush, anybody? You can see which applications take up the most space and easily uninstall them to make room for new software updates and other fun programs.

On Mac

• Click the Apple icon on the top left of the computer screen.
• Select about this mac.
• Choose the storage option in the middle of the pop-up box.
• Select manage on the right-hand portion of the pop-up box.
• From here, you can see everything that is taking up space and how much.
• Review Apple’s recommendation for making space.
• Make a selection, applications for example, on the left-hand part of the screen.
• Click the file you want to get rid of and press delete on the bottom right hand corner.

On Windows

• Type Control Panel in the search box on the lower left side of your screen and hit enter.
• Open the Control Panel app.
• Under Programs, select Uninstall a program.
• Look through the list of programs to find the ones you are no longer using.
• Select the program you want to remove.
• Click Uninstall.
• Repeat these steps for each program you want to uninstall.

If you find yourself without storage space on your computer, don’t let it stop you in your tracks. You can easily clear space on your PC or Mac and continue downloading in just a few seconds.

Is your computer running slow? Try these six tips to speed up your computer in no time.