Tech Tip: 3 ways to free up disk space on Windows • Blisstech Solutions

Running low on disk space can make your computer run slowly and can cause other problems such as being unable to run applications, install important updates and in some cases cause your computer to crash.

This tech tip will show you three ways that you can free up disk space on your Windows computer, that will prevent or delay the need to upgrade your hard disk.

Transcript

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Blisstech Solutions, Tuesday Tech Tips, and today you get three in one. We’re going to show you 3 tips on how to free up the disk space on your windows computer.

So, if you’ve got a Windows computer, you might find that it’s running slowly. Or you might have had a notification to say that you’re running low on disk space and these three tips will help you quickly free up some valuable space on your disk.

So, the first one is a utility called “Disk Clean-up“. So, if I go to the search and just type “disk”, it appears at the top of my list and I’m going to run this as an administrator because that will allow us to get more access to some of the system files that Windows leaves behind and can be cleaned up.

So, that can take a bit of time to run that and that part was sped up to condense the amount of time down, but we can see here it’s scanned our system and we’ve got quite a lot of files here that we could clean up.

It will automatically go into the locations like Recycle Bin, temporary files and Windows Update files. When you download Windows Updates, it will keep those on your disk unless you choose to clean them up

Clicking OK will free up quite a bit of disk space for us.

The next one is a tool that I like to use called TreeSize that you can download this from the Internet and is free. Again, we run it in admin mode we get access to more of the files where our space is being used and it handily sorts it based upon the most amount of space used.

We can see here under users can see all the different users on the system and how much space they’re using and if I just drill down, I can see I got 146Mb in Downloads and a Teams install file that I can delete.

So you can go through and look at the folders that are using the most amount of space on your disk and it will help you give you an idea of what you can remove.

For the final tip, I’m just going to double click on the little OneDrive icon down here. If you’re using OneDrive and “Files on Demand” it will download files to your computer as you access them and the files you create just stay on your computer.

If you want to free up some space, see these little icons here? So that little icon there means that it exists on the computer and this one means it’s in the cloud. So, if I right click on the Desktop folder for example and select “Free up Space” it will remove the actual file from the disk and just create a pointer to it in the cloud so that it frees up that valuable disk space

You could also do the same thing with your company folders as well. So, if you’re working with Teams and you’ve got company folders downloaded to your computer, if you right click and select “Free up space” that will instruct OneDrive to remove the files from your computer and download them from the cloud when you need them, freeing up some space.

So, 3 tips there that will help you free up the space on your disk drive. I hope you found it useful.

If you need help with your IT issues, please get in touch.

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Weak passwords are one of the biggest security risks to your business.
Why?
Because cyber criminals are getting smarter than ever before. If they manage to crack just one password, they could gain access to your sensitive business data, financial information, or even gain control of your entire system.
Cyber criminals use automated tools to guess passwords, allowing them to try out millions of combinations in seconds. So, if you’re using something like “Password123” or “CompanyName2025”, you’re practically handing them the keys to your business.
A compromised password can lead to big issues, such as:
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• Identity theft
• Reputation damage
But how do you create strong passwords without driving yourself (and your team) mad?
Think of your password like a secret recipe, where only you should know the ingredients. It should:
• Be at least 14 characters long (the longer, the better)
• Include a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters
• Contain a few numbers and symbols (like @, $, %, or &)
• Not contain any common words or easily guessable information (like birthdays, names, or the word “password”)
Instead of using a single word, you could try a passphrase – a short, random sentence that only you would understand. For example, instead of “Sailing2025”, try something like “Coffee&CloudsAreGreat9!”. This is much harder to crack, yet still easy to remember.
You should also steer clear of these common mistakes:
• Using personal info (your name, birthday, business name, etc.)
• Reusing the same passwords across multiple accounts
• Using simple sequences (“123456” or “abcdef”)
• Storing passwords in an easily accessible place (like a sticky note on your desk)
If remembering unique passwords for every account sounds impossible, there is another option: Password managers. These generate strong passwords, store them securely and autofill them for you.
With a password manager, you only need to remember one strong master password for the manager app itself. The rest are encrypted and stored safely, reducing the risk of data breaches.
Even the strongest password isn’t foolproof, which is why multi-factor authentication (MFA) is also important. MFA requires a second form of verification, like a one-time code sent to your phone or generated from an authentication app.
If you have employees accessing your business systems, it’s a good idea to have a password policy in place to explain your rules and why they’re important. This should include:
• Unique passwords for each system and account
• Regular security training on password best practices
• Business-wide use of MFA for critical systems
• Scanning for compromised passwords regularly
By making password security a priority, you can reduce the chances of a cyber attack creating a nightmare for your business.
And if you need help making your business more secure, get in touch.

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