Method 1: File Explorer's built-in size search
Open File Explorer, click into the address bar or the search box, and type size:gigantic (Windows recognizes size keywords like empty, tiny, small, medium, large, huge, and gigantic, roughly meaning anything over 4 GB for the last one). You can also open the Search tab that appears once you click into the search box and use its Size dropdown instead of memorizing the keyword.
This searches recursively from whatever folder you're in, so run it from C:\ to search the whole drive, or from a user folder to narrow it down. It's fast to set up and needs no extra software.
Its blind spot: it finds individual files, not folder totals. A folder made of ten thousand 2 MB files can be 20 GB, and this search will not flag a single one of them, because no individual file crosses the size threshold. It also skips protected system locations unless you're running Explorer elevated, and results can lag behind what's actually on disk if Windows Search hasn't finished indexing recent changes.
Method 2: PowerShell with Get-ChildItem
For a scriptable, no-install answer, PowerShell can list the largest files under a path directly. This command searches C:\Users and prints the 20 largest files with their size in megabytes:
Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Users -Recurse -File -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Sort-Object Length -Descending | Select-Object -First 20 FullName, @{Name="MB";Expression={[math]::Round($_.Length/1MB,1)}}
-ErrorAction SilentlyContinue matters here — without it, the command stops printing errors for every folder PowerShell can't read (usually system or other-user folders) and clutters the output. Swap C:\Users for any path, including a network share, to point it elsewhere.
This gives you exact, scriptable results and works well in a scheduled task or a remote session where installing software isn't an option. The downside is the same as Explorer's search: it lists files, not folder totals, and a long recursive scan of a whole drive from PowerShell is noticeably slower than a purpose-built scanner, since it isn't optimized for walking millions of directory entries.
Method 3: A folder-tree analyzer
A dedicated disk space analyzer such as TreeSize takes a different approach entirely: instead of listing files that individually exceed a size threshold, it totals every folder's contents and lets you drill down from the drive root to the specific subfolder responsible for the space. That answers the question File Explorer and PowerShell both miss — which folder, not which file, is actually the problem.
It also usually adds a treemap or percentage-of-parent view, so you can spot a folder that's 80% of its parent's size at a glance instead of reading through a sorted list. The tradeoff is that it's a separate download rather than something built into Windows, and a first full scan of a large drive still takes time to walk the whole tree. See how to use TreeSize for the actual steps.
Comparing all three
| Method | Good at | Weak at | Setup needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| File Explorer search | Quick check for a few huge individual files | Folder totals; skips protected locations by default | None |
| PowerShell one-liner | Scriptable results, remote sessions, automation | Folder totals; slow on very large trees | None, but requires typing a command correctly |
| Folder-tree analyzer | Full folder-by-folder breakdown of an entire drive | Requires installing a separate program | Download and install |
For a broader look at how tree analyzers work as a category, see the Windows disk space analyzer guide.
You have a list of large files. Now what?
A list of big files isn't the same as a list of safe-to-delete files. Some of the largest results from any of these methods will be things Windows needs — the hibernation file, a database your accounting software uses, a game's asset pack you play weekly.
- Check the file's location before deleting anything found by size alone. A huge file in
C:\Windowsor inside another program's install folder is very different from one sitting in your Downloads folder. - For cloud-synced folders, confirm whether deleting the local copy also deletes it in the cloud.
- Empty the recycle bin only after you've confirmed you don't need the file, since deleting from an elevated PowerShell session with
-Forcecan skip the recycle bin entirely.
We cover the judgment calls in detail on deleting large files safely.
Questions about finding large files
Why doesn't size:gigantic find my large folder?
That search filter looks only at individual files, not folder totals. A folder made of many smaller files can be enormous overall while every file inside it stays under the size threshold.
Can I run the PowerShell command without administrator rights?
Which method is fastest for a full drive?
Does any of this work over a network share?
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