Microsoft released Windows 11 on October 5, 2021. You can now get and install it. To install the latest version of Windows, your device must meet the base system and hardware requirements for Windows 11.

The storage requirements for Windows 11 are separate from what Microsoft requires to install Windows 11. Windows 11 needs 64 GB of storage. The Microsoft Windows 11 requirements page warns that “additional storage may be required to download updates.”

How much disk space does Windows 11 require?

How big is Windows 11? Does this mean that the size of Windows 11 is 64 GB? The answer is no. This minimum disk space requirement is to ensure better performance of Windows 11.

Scenario 1: You've installed Windows 11 directly (a clean installation)

A clean install will put only Windows 11 on your device and delete all files, settings, and apps from your computer. This means the disk space that Windows 11 takes up will be the most accurate. To check the size of Windows 11, do the following:

Step 1: Click on the "Start" menu and then go to "Settings."

Step 2. Go to System > Storage > Show More Categories to view the disk usage. The details are as follows:

Windows 11 Size - Overview

Option Size
System and reserved 20.2 GB
Apps and features 3.67 GB
Temporary files 26.5 MB
Other 4.44 MB
OneDrive 4.00 KB

Total size is approximately 24.21 GB.

To check your system information, you can click on "System & Reserved" to see the details.

Windows 11 Size - System Reserved

Option Size
System files 11.4GB
Reserved storage 7.25GB
Virtual memory 1.50GB

You can also click "Apps & Features" to see what apps are installed on your computer and how big they are.

Windows 11 Size - Apps

The size of Windows 11 can vary depending on the computer. While there's no exact number for how many GB Windows 11 is, a clean installation on the C drive generally takes up around 27 GB of space.

Scenario 2: You've upgraded to Windows 11

If you're upgrading from Windows 10 or an earlier version of Windows, the size of Windows 11 might be different. The size of Windows 11 can vary. Go to Start > Settings > System > Storage > Show more categories to see how much disk space is being used:

Windows 11 Upgrade Size - Overview

    - System and reserved: 36.0 GB - Apps and features: 22.5 GB - Temporary files: 4.11 GB - Other: 2.63 GB

"System and reserved"

Windows 11 system size

    • System files: 32.7 GB
    • Virtual memory: 258 MB
    • System Restore: 2.94 GB

How much space does Windows 11 (upgradable from Windows 10 for free here) need? The total size is over 64 GB. The size of Windows 11 is not a fixed number and may vary depending on the computer.

How to Free Up Disk Space on Windows 11

What is taking up disk space on Windows 11? And how can you speed up Windows 11 effectively? You'll learn at least five ways to free up disk space in this guide.

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5 Ways to Free Up Disk Space on Windows 11?

It's always important to ensure your disk doesn't run out of space. Follow these solutions to free up disk space on Windows 11.

Free Up Space on Windows 11

How to Recover Lost/Deleted Files in Windows 11

If you have lost files due to deletion, formatting, virus attack, system upgrade, or system crash, you can easily recover them with the help of the Data Recovery Wizard tool. As long as the files have not been overwritten by new data, you can utilize data recovery software for restoration.

    • Data recovery in simple steps from Windows 11/10/8/7.
    • Repair MP4 files, JPG/JPEG, PNG, BMP photos, and Word/Excel documents.
    • Recover data from external/internal hard drives, SSDs, USB flash drives, SD cards, and more.

Download and install the data recovery software to retrieve lost data from Windows 11.

Note: To ensure a higher rate of data recovery success, do not install the data recovery tool on the original disk where you lost your files. Instead, install it on another disk.

Step 1. Launch the Data Recovery Wizard tool on your Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8, or Windows 7 computer. Select the disk partition or storage location where you lost your data and click "Scan."

Select the drive to scan on Windows

Step 2: The recovery software will start scanning the disk to find all lost and deleted files. Once the scan is complete, click on “Filter” > “By Type” to specify the type of lost file that you wish to recover.

Select the type of data you want to recover Select the type of data you want to recover

Step 3. Preview and recover lost Windows files. You can double-click to preview the scanned files. Then, select the target data and hit the “Recover” button to save them to another secure location on your computer or an external storage device.

Recover Lost Data from Windows 10

Conclusions

If you upgrade directly from Windows 10 to Windows 11, the download size is approximately 3.5 GB. Also, you need to ensure that you have at least 64 GB of free space. If you're installing Windows 11 using an .ISO file, make sure you have at least 25 GB of free space. Additionally, if your Windows 11 is running slow, you can free up space to speed it up. In case of data loss issues during this process, run data recovery software to restore permanently deleted files in Windows 11.