The Lemon Fool

I have an elderly HP laptop that is used solely for Zoom. After any updates, Windows 10 moans at me about lack of storage. The machine has a main disk which is impossible to upgrade or replace. I have, in the past, reclaimed lost storage by reinstalling Windows 10, but this is a lengthy process.

I have Firefox, Ccleaner and a couple of other things installed on a D drive 'card' so can do any browsing etc from these. I believe removing Edge might free up enough storage to stop the moaning. There seem to be several 'guides' on how to delete Edge on the internet. Has anyone used one they can recommend to use (or avoid)?

tractorian wrote:I have an elderly HP laptop that is used solely for Zoom. After any updates, Windows 10 moans at me about lack of storage. The machine has a main disk which is impossible to upgrade or replace. I have, in the past, reclaimed lost storage by reinstalling Windows 10, but this is a lengthy process.

Quick question: Did it come originally with Windows 10 installed, or was this itself an upgrade?

I ask because I would not have thought a PC with a given OS installed would run out of disc space simply from upgrades to the installed OS version.

Settings/About tells me:

DESKTOP-3EP81FT
Intel Celeron CPU N3050 @ 1.60GHz 1.60 GHz
2.oo GB (1.86 GB usable)
64-bit operating system

Windows 10 Home
"22H2"

I know not what it 'came' with as I reclaimed the machine as my son was about to discard it.

XFool wrote:I ask because I would not have thought a PC with a given OS installed would run out of disc space simply from upgrades to the installed OS version.

maybe not - in itself.

But add documents, pictures, email clients emails etc ... and a PC that hasnt the oppotunity to save similar is potentially of limited use (??)

tractorian wrote:Settings/About tells me:

DESKTOP-3EP81FT
Intel Celeron CPU N3050 @ 1.60GHz 1.60 GHz
2.oo GB (1.86 GB usable)
64-bit operating system

Windows 10 Home
"22H2"

I know not what it 'came' with as I reclaimed the machine as my son was about to discard it.

OK. I was wondering, if the OS version itself had been upgraded, if the old OS, and its updates, was still there saved in a directory somewhere and could now be deleted. Either that or there must be other stuff you can delete - other applications, saved data - as, again, if it were being used with only one application and one OS on board it would not, IMO, be running out of space simply from ongoing OS updates.

Have you tried Disk Clean-up on the C drive (making sure to select 'clean up system files')?

tractorian wrote:Settings/About tells me:

DESKTOP-3EP81FT
Intel Celeron CPU N3050 @ 1.60GHz 1.60 GHz
2.oo GB (1.86 GB usable)
64-bit operating system

Windows 10 Home
"22H2"

I know not what it 'came' with as I reclaimed the machine as my son was about to discard it.

Computers have both "hard disk" and RAM, but you only quote one and not the model of the "laptop".
I'd be tempted to investigate a lighter OS than windows.
We don't know that your laptop is a HP Stream, but it might be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZw80yW6JDI

Zoom isn't automatically installed, but there is a "Software Manager" in the menu, that will install it.

Oh, just found an answer to your original question

Chris Titus's tool, apparently will remove Edge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju_BSNKeP6w

If it is an HP stream I thought they came with W10 S, a cutdown version of W10 home?
I'm amazed it will run full fat W10 with only 2GB of RAM, it must be like treacle...

Probably soldered RAM and 16/32GB of soldered eMMC storage - not impossible to upgrade but economically difficult in that finding a tech who can do solder blob motherboard component swaps reliably without charging an arm and a leg is rocking horse poop territory.

I'd be inclined to stick a skinny linux distro like lubuntu on it as the native OS and run Zoom from that either as the Linux app or as a browser tab instance.

Thank you for all your thoughts.

It is, indeed, an HP Stream, so I will follow up your lead.

Perhaps I should have stated earlier, C: Drive capacity is 27.7Gb. This, together with RAM would suggest a 32Gb device.

Also, I have redirected Downloads, Documents, etc onto the D: Drive, so I think the C: Drive is carrying the very minimum. Also, run Disk Cleaner several times and also been in and out of Windows, Program Files, Program Data and even Users' Appdata\Roaming to try to free up more storage.

How much of the C drive is free space?

The problem when doing W10/11 updates is the amount of swap space it requires.

64GB is the absolute minimum internal storage I would get on any device these days, including smart phones which have ballooned with OS storage needs and swap space for updates.

Code bases are only going one way which is bigger...

tractorian wrote:Perhaps I should have stated earlier, C: Drive capacity is 27.7Gb. This, together with RAM would suggest a 32Gb device.

Also, I have redirected Downloads, Documents, etc onto the D: Drive, so I think the C: Drive is carrying the very minimum. Also, run Disk Cleaner several times and also been in and out of Windows, Program Files, Program Data and even Users' Appdata\Roaming to try to free up more storage.

sounds like you are heading in the correct direction - but gosh that drive is going to be tight for windows these days (cue obligatory suggestion you try mint )

make sure you find the "remove update files" option of disc cleaner (https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/delete-old-windows-update-files/) - as this can often have GB set aside
if the computer is otherwise working you will normally be fine to remove it as it is only required to "roll back" to a previous version

two things that can be really useful for this type of tight job are:
- windirstat https://windirstat.net/
- everything https://www.voidtools.com/downloads/

both are lightweight and cut through the windows sludge to help you find and target large files you might no longer need
-sd