One of the most common things many Windows users want to do is find large files quickly and easily. After all, use the computer for long enough and it eventually fills up with a lot of files and some of them will be pretty big. Media files such as movies and TV shows are a big culprit. This causes the hard disk to fill up and show a low disk space warning.
The good thing is that you can find large files in File Explorer with pre-defined search filters. For a more granular search, you can use third-party apps such as WinDirStat. In this article, we’ll show you two methods to find big files on both Windows 10 & 11. Let’s get started.
Find Large Files in File Explorer (Windows 10/11)
Most don’t know this but File Explorer has built-in search filters that make it easy to filter and find files and folders. To filter out large files, you can use the size filter. Here’s how.
1. First, open the File Explorer by pressing the Windows key + E shortcut.
2. Next, go to the folder/drive where you want to find the large files. To search the entire hard disk, select This PC on the sidebar. In my case, I want to find big files in my Downloads folder. So, I opened the Downloads folder.
3. In the File Explorer, you will see a search bar in the top-right corner. In it, use one of the below filter commands to find big files.
- To find files between 1MB – 128MB — size:medium
- Find files between 128MB – 1GB — size:large
- To find files between 1GB – 4GB — size:huge
- Find files larger than 4GB — size:gigantic
4. For more granular filtering, you can also use specific sizes. For example, to find files larger than 5GB, enter the filter command size: >5GB. In the same way, to find files smaller than 1MB, you can type size: <1MB.
Keep in mind that if you are searching the entire hard drive for large files, it can take some time for Windows to filter them. The scan time completely depends on how big your hard disk is, how many files you have, and whether you have enhanced search enabled. So, sit back and wait a bit until the scan is completed.
Use WinDirStat to Find Large Files
If you are looking for a more powerful method to find large files on Windows, WinDirStat is the software you need. WinDirStat is a free, open-source, and lightweight application that lets you find large files and lets you visualize them for better comparison. Here’s how to use it.
1. First, download WinDirStat, double-click on the downloaded file, and follow the on-screen installation wizard to install it.
2. Once installed, open WinDirStat by double-clicking on the desktop shortcut or by searching for it in the Start menu.
3. In the main window, select the Individual Drives option, select the drive of your choice, and click the OK button. To scan the entire hard disk, select the All Local Drives option.
4. As soon as you click the OK button, WinDirStart starts the scan. Depending on the drive size and the number of files, the scan will take some time to complete. So, sit back and wait till the scan is complete.
5. Once the scan is complete, WinDirStat will show the percentage of disk space used for each root folder and supporting visualization at the button.
6. Simply expand the folder tree or click on the visualization to go to the largest file.
7. To locate the file in File Explorer, right-click on the file and select the Explorer Here option. To delete a file select it and press the delete key on the keyboard.
And there you have it! It is that simple to find large files on Windows 10 & 11.
