Alan G

Use something like https://windirstat.net/
 
This is a nice tool to see where most of the space is being used.
 
Hard so say. Temporary files from something, like browser cache etc. You should be able to get rid of them with Disk Cleanup from Windows.

Download WizTree so you can analyze your drive and see what is taking up so much space.  You can use the free version for this.  I think you have far bigger issues than the few files you have identified.  It looks like you have a second drive on your PC.  Do you store all your data on that drive?  If not, you should.

For me it is what applications are critical and what OS runs them.  Adobe Creative Cloud is not available for Linux and that rules it our right up top.  I don't want to be fooling around with a dual boot machine.  The post-retirement consulting and Board work that I do requires Office apps:  Ouitlook, Word and Excel.  Yes, there are probably work arounds with those but it's not easy.  I've upgraded to Windows 11 and all three PC at home are linked to a Microsoft account.  I host my website on Azure which is pretty much free.  I've used Microsoft OS from back in the MS-DOS days and have had barely any issues with any new iteration.  I actually like some of the AI features that are being rolled out.  I find they help out a lot with technical editing which is important to me.  I've been using Edge for the past six months and have pretty much stopped using Firefox.
 
You can take all of this with a grain of salt as I've been a Microsoft shareholder for 30 years now.

Look up sysprep and audit mode in google. Basically sysprep lets you have the system go back to the initial setup menu. Audit mode lets you install drivers and programs before making an account.

Excuse me?

Unplug all the drives other than the one you want to install Windows on. Install Windows. Reinstall those other drives. 

Yes, you need to download those motherboard utilities and drivers.  Get them from the source, not Windows.
 
 

I'd use WizTree to see all the files on the drive. Also probably just get a new drive and do a clean install of windows, though I understand if that's not in your budget

I have 3 PCs at home and I use NovaBACKUP to do both backups to a local drive and Amazon Web Service.  It also does a monthly disk image just in case there is an OS drive failure (never had to use this feature 😁),  It's pretty cost effective.  There are a bunch of free applications that can do pretty much the same thing if you look and compare features.

Have you tried to go into disk partition, it could be that the drive is not allocated and then you just need to allocate the storage for the drive

That's why you should link your license to a Microsoft account. Hardware doesn't matter after that point. I'm also still using my 18€ Windows 7 license which I upgraded to 10 and 11 during the free upgrade periods.

More than likely windows installed the bootloader on the second drive, just reinstall windows with only the drive you need plugged in

I mean it's a risk, and I won't do that without a stable boot backup drive

I seem to remember there being some troubleshooting steps available for when the activation code doesn't work. Do the steps.
Your code is for one machine. You should have deactivated it before reactivating it. Now Microsoft thinks you use it for 2 systems (or more).

Thats fair sometimes it does. I am the unlucky fellow that has to deal with 1000+ win 10 devices that have local admin and I think it's like a 40% success ratio. So yeah not good at all.

Slow based on what?
I've been on 11 since day one and have no issues.

If your new drive is a Samsung, they have a free cloning utility that is just click and clone.  No configuration is necessary.  I used it a couple of months ago to clone my OS that was on a SSD to a Samsung NVME.  I think Crucial also have a free tool.

Yes, this was the same with all three of our PCs.  Go to Windows Update and it should be there.

I believe it is being pushed out through Windows update soon, there was a news article about it a few days back and both of my 22H2 PCs have it available for download in the "Check for updates" section.

Never update from Windows. It's best to just update from the bios itself.

oh, it'll totally uninstall edge, and brick anything that depends on edge existing.
 
it's like those "tiny windows" idiots that insist on completely disabling windows update, only to realise that windows update is actually the way windows gets hardware drivers these days...

Or you could use the clear CMOS jumper pins that don't require you to remove that.... Would advise looking in the manual before complaining about missing features.
 

I've seen lots of reports of issues with four DDR5 RAM sticks.  I don't know if this relates to your issue at all.  You might want to just use two sticks and see if that changes things.  Last year there was a firmware issue with Samsung M2 drives but if you recently purchased the drive, it should have been fixed.  I bought a Samsung Pro M2 drive five months ago from Microcenter and the firmware was already updated.

I've seen lots of reports of issues with four DDR5 RAM sticks.  I don't know if this relates to your issue at all.  You might want to just use two sticks and see if that changes things.  Last year there was a firmware issue with Samsung M2 drives but if you recently purchased the drive, it should have been fixed.  I bought a Samsung Pro M2 drive five months ago from Microcenter and the firmware was already updated.

If you have a lot of RAM it's completely unnecessary to disable swap since it'll barely be used. If you don't... well you'll probably need it, so...