All drive-letter file-system drives
The scan is not limited to C:. Any mounted PowerShell FileSystem drive whose root matches a standard drive-letter path is included.
Windows Storage Utility
Largest Files
Largest Files is a free PowerShell utility that scans drive-letter file-system drives on a Windows PC, identifies the 10 largest files outside the Windows system folder, displays them in the console, and saves the results to a local text file.
Overview
What Largest Files scans
The script asks PowerShell for mounted FileSystem drives and keeps drive roots that use standard Windows drive-letter paths such as C:\, D:\, and E:\. It then recursively enumerates files on those drives.
Recursive file search
Each selected drive is searched recursively with Get-ChildItem -Recurse -File so files in nested folders are considered.
Windows folder excluded
Files underneath the current %SystemRoot% path are filtered out. On a typical installation, this excludes files under C:\Windows.
Access errors are skipped
The file enumeration uses -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue, so inaccessible folders or files are skipped rather than stopping the entire scan.
Ranking
How the top 10 are selected
After collecting the visible files from all selected drives, the script sorts them by byte length from largest to smallest and keeps the first 10 results.
Human-readable sizes
A helper function formats each size as bytes, KB, MB, GB, or TB and rounds larger units to two decimal places.
Full path included
Each result contains both the formatted file size and the file's complete path, making it easier to locate large storage consumers.
Size FullName
--------- ---------------------------------------------
24.62 GB D:\Example\LargeVideo.mkv
11.38 GB C:\Users\Example\Downloads\Archive.zip
8.17 GB E:\Backups\DiskImage.vhdx
The sample above is illustrative. Actual results depend entirely on the files that are visible and accessible on the computer being scanned.
Output
Where the results are saved
The same top-10 result objects shown in the console are written to Largest Files.txt in the directory containing the PowerShell script.
File name
The output is always named Largest Files.txt.
Save location
The script uses $PSScriptRoot, so when it is run normally from the extracted package, the text file is saved beside Largest Files.ps1.
Local-only output
The current script contains no upload, API, or web-request code. File paths and sizes remain in the local console and local text file.
ASCII text
The result file is written using ASCII encoding so it can be opened easily in Notepad or another text editor.
How It Works
Running Largest Files
- Download and extract Largest Files.zip.
- Run Run Me.bat.
- The launcher starts PowerShell with
-ExecutionPolicy Bypassand requests administrator elevation through UAC. - The script enumerates mounted drive-letter FileSystem drives.
- Files are recursively collected while the Windows system folder is excluded.
- The file list is sorted from largest to smallest.
- The top 10 files are displayed in the PowerShell window.
- The same results are written to
Largest Files.txtbeside the script. - Press Enter to exit after reviewing the results.
The script warns that the scan can take several minutes. Scan time depends on the number of drives, total number of files, storage speed, and the folders PowerShell can access.
Transparency
What the tool does not do
No file deletion
The current script does not contain Remove-Item or other commands that delete the large files it finds.
No automatic cleanup
It is an inventory tool only. Deciding whether a listed file is safe to remove is left to the user.
No Windows-folder scan
The Windows system directory is deliberately excluded, reducing system-file noise in the results.
No network upload
The scan does not transmit filenames, file paths, or file sizes anywhere.
Screenshot
Tool preview
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Does it scan only my C: drive?
No. It scans mounted PowerShell FileSystem drives that use standard drive-letter roots, so additional drives such as D: or E: can be included.
Does it scan the Windows folder?
No. Files whose paths are underneath the current Windows system root are excluded.
Will it delete the files it finds?
No. The script only reports file size and path information.
Where is the report saved?
As Largest Files.txt in the same folder as the PowerShell script.
Why can the scan take a while?
It recursively walks the accessible files on every selected drive before sorting them, so systems with large drives or many files can take longer.
Why might a file be missing from the list?
Folders that PowerShell cannot access are silently skipped, and files under the Windows system folder are intentionally excluded.