Windows 10: Deleting files does not increase disk space

I wanted to reinstall a game on my laptop and couldn't because I did not have enough free space on the drive.I responded by trying to delete a slew of old saved games, which were backed up to my OneDrive despite my never having set them to be backed up #@$@#$ which resulted in error 0x8007016A. I fixed that. However, now I can delete as many files as I want and there is no additional free space on my hard drive. I've done the common sense things like checking that there isn't anything in the recycle bin, and rebooting.So, how do I force Windows to recognize that files have been deleted and

:)

 

low disk space

Here are a few obvious options:

1. Delete unneeded things.
2. Increase your partition size.
3. Replace the disk with a larger one.

 

Disk space.

Could be the Windows Update Stores files, .old files, shadow copies, etc.

Try running Windows disk clean up with the "Clean up System Files" option.

Delete files using Disk Cleanup <-- Be sure to check out the section at the bottom "To clean up all files on the computer".

How do I remove the Windows.old folder?

The 10 Best Free Tools to Analyze Hard Drive Space on Your Windows PC

 

Deleted Windows.old, not enough disk space freed

1. Did you empty the recycle bin ? If not, empty it.
2. Delete the contents under: C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download
   Those are downloaded Windows Updates files and already installed.
3. Open Admin command, copy and paste the line below then run:
   Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup
   This should remove all the no longer used by component store. Will take a while to run.