How to remove Microsoft Outlook app or info? Taking up too much C drive space.

[Casey Cheung]

I started using the built-in Microsoft Outlook (2016?) app that came preinstalled into my Surface Go. I synched my Gmail account emails which went back several years and downloaded over 30,000 old emails including attachments. Now I noticed that my Local Disk C drive only has 35GB free of 117GB. I'm pretty sure my C drive has become much smaller due to the Outlook app with all its old archived emails recently installed. I want to free up all the GB again on my C drive. I can't figure out how to un-install the built-in Outlook app. Any advice please?

Thank you!!

 

[HeyCori]

Here's how to uninstall the built in apps

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-uninstall-remove-restore-built-apps-windows-10

but before doing that, are you sure simply signing out of your account won't remove the data?

 

[Casey Cheung]

Here's how to uninstall the built in apps

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-uninstall-remove-restore-built-apps-windows-10

but before doing that, are you sure simply signing out of your account won't remove the data?

Thank you for your suggestion. I just now tried signing out of Microsoft Outlook but it didn't help. My C drive is still running, I'm guessing from the Outlook email account. Or it could be from the very recent 1903 Windows update which took a couple hours to install?

I just now noticed when I open "This PC" that the C drive shows a large file that I had not seen before. The file name has a long string of numbers and letters, when I click on it, it says "WinZip Registry Optimizer installer". Verified publisher Corel Corporation. File origin Hard drive on this computer. What is this file? Can I delete it? I'm wondering if this showed up after I did the recent 1903 Windows update?

Thanks!

 

[Casey Cheung]

edit: My C drive is still running short of storage space.

 

[Casey Cheung]

Edit: The mysterious Winzip Registry file is 12.9 MB in size.

But I just now noticed another much larger file called "$SysReset" that is 107MB in size. I'm wondering if this file is from a recent backup action I performed? If so, can I just delete it?

 

[gmoore114]

Probably should direct your efforts to removing all the old Gmail files and attachments, aren't they still online?
12.9 and 107 MB files are not large, your free space is 35000 MB

 

[Casey Cheung]

Here's how to uninstall the built in apps

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-uninstall-remove-restore-built-apps-windows-10

but before doing that, are you sure simply signing out of your account won't remove the data?

Thank you for the link to uninstall Outlook. I didn't know there was a backdoor method, haha! No wonder I couldn't find this myself as I looked everywhere!

Does anyone know the answer to this question? What if I purchase the M.S. Office 2019 suite and install this to my Surface Go. Do I need to first un-install the built-in Office 365 suite? Will it cause a problem if I don't first un-install the built-in M.S. Office program and try to install a new version over it? I've read conflicting reports on this.

 

[Casey Cheung]

Probably should direct your efforts to removing all the old Gmail files and attachments, aren't they still online?
12.9 and 107 MB files are not large, your free space is 35000 MB

I deleted a bunch of old Gmail emails which brought my total inbox from 30,000 emails messages to around 6,000. But the problem persists, my C drive still only shows 35GB of free space left even after deleting a ton of old emails. Nothing changed for storage space. I'm perplexed now.

 

[ioaniro]

Have you tried looking in Settings/System/Storage, you should be able to see there who is taking your extra space (click show more categories or something like that).

Alternatively, open File explorer (win_Key+E), select This PC, right click on your C: drive - Properties and then click Disk cleanup.

In Disk cleanup you can select a bunch of things to delete to free up space. Also, you can select to cleanup system files and delete the previous windows installation to free up more space. If you do that you will not be able to revert to the previous install though so if you really want you can make a backup prior to that. However, I don't think you will ever need to revert to the previous install.

My guess the big update you had made a backup copy of your previous install before applying the update and that takes up quite a few.

 

[HeyCori]

Thank you for the link to uninstall Outlook. I didn't know there was a backdoor method, haha! No wonder I couldn't find this myself as I looked everywhere!

Does anyone know the answer to this question? What if I purchase the M.S. Office 2019 suite and install this to my Surface Go. Do I need to first un-install the built-in Office 365 suite? Will it cause a problem if I don't first un-install the built-in M.S. Office program and try to install a new version over it? I've read conflicting reports on this.

I recommend uninstalling Office 365 first. I've seen situations where Windows gets confused between the two and thinks you're applying the activation key for 2019 to the 365 install.

Usually uninstalling from the control panel is enough but MS also has an uninstall tool if you want to nuke it.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4027149/how-to-uninstall-office-automatically

 

[Casey Cheung]

I recommend uninstalling Office 365 first. I've seen situations where Windows gets confused between the two and thinks you're applying the activation key for 2019 to the 365 install.

Usually uninstalling from the control panel is enough but MS also has an uninstall tool if you want to nuke it.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4027149/how-to-uninstall-office-automatically

Wow, thank you so much for the link! I may have to do this in the near future as I'm debating on buying the current M.S. Office 2019 Home & Business. At first I was set on getting the "Business" version for the higher price of $250 because it includes Outlook in the bundle. But now that I've had a taste of using Outlook on my Surface Go, I'm thinking maybe I should forget about using Outlook and get the Home & Student version instead for $150 which doesn't include the Outlook app. I normally only use Gmail via the Chrome browser anyway. I use Outlook at work all the time, so I thought it might be cool to use Outlook for my own personal computer, but now I'm having second thoughts. Hmmmm...

 

[TechFreak1]

@Casey Cheung have you tried running disk clean up?

Are you refering to the built-in mail app that has an icon that looks like an open envelope?

If you are - you can change the sync settings in the mail app via the gear icon next to the tick icon (for to do). Then Manage accounts, click your gmail and then change sync settings from anytime to any of your preferred options which range from 3 days to 3 months.

 

[Casey Cheung]

@Casey Cheung have you tried running disk clean up?

Are you refering to the built-in mail app that has an icon that looks like an open envelope?

If you are - you can change the sync settings in the mail app via the gear icon next to the tick icon (for to do). Then Manage accounts, click your gmail and then change sync settings from anytime to any of your preferred options which range from 3 days to 3 months.

Thanks for the suggestion. No, not the built-in app that looks like an open envelope. I was referring to the built-in Microsoft Office 365 Outlook app.

 

[TechFreak1]

Thanks for the suggestion. No, not the built-in app that looks like an open envelope. I was referring to the built-in Microsoft Office 365 Outlook app.

Ah okay, in that case you should be able to compact the .ost files.

1. Go to control panel
2. On the top right hand corner, type Mail
3. Click on Data files in the Mail Setup - Outlook dialogue box
4. In the data files tab click on "settings" next to the "add" button
5. Click on the advanced tab
6. Click on Outlook Data files
7. Then compact, depending on the size it will take awhile.

 

[Casey Cheung]

I want to thank you all for your very insightful suggestions and technical know-how. You guys are Outlook gurus!

So what ended up happening is that I got a bit frustrated and did a full system factory reset. Totally wiped out everything on my Surface Go and started over again. First thing I noticed is that the Local Disk C drive space is now showing "98.1 GB free of 117GB". So now I know I have exactly 98.1 GB of free storage space after removing all files and doing a full Windows reset.

I realize it was a bit extreme to do a full reset, but that's what I ended up doing. Now I will be a lot more selective about what apps I install and how much storage space is left. I already have a rather large 256 GB Sandisk micro-SD card in the external storage slot for storing a bunch of stuff to keep my C drive light. I got that micro-SD card on sale at Best Buy recently for a cheap $40 price, works well and fast too.

As for Microsoft Outlook, I will not install/activate that app on my Surface Go after the reset, I'll just keep using the Gmail app via Google Chrome instead. Plus maybe the pre-installed email app that looks like an open envelope on the bottom of the taskbar screen.

 

[TechFreak1]

Thanks for the update!

I guess that's one way to resolve the space issue haha.

Hah, nah we just learnt through trial and error plus some of obscure KB articles from Microsoft do have handy tid bits of info.

Also you can selectively sign into the apps and not have to attach an account to the whole O/S if you don't want to do so. When prompted to sign in to the o/s or add to the o/s just choose "this app only" or "microsoft apps only" it's sometimes in blue text font or grey in the dialogue box...

For example:



You can find good deals on msd cards on Amazon, some them are US only... go figure :grincry:.

 

[Casey Cheung]

Well, here's another update. After much contemplation, I ended up purchasing the M.S. Office 2019 Home & Business app through a local Microsoft store. They priced matched Walmart's online price at $209 instead of paying the normal $250. Installing the app went smoothly, did not have to un-install the built-in Office 365 app (maybe because I never activated it?).

Yes, I (gulp) activated the Outlook feature of the Office 2019 bundle to my Surface Go. But this time I learned a lesson! I had to go into the Gmail settings and change the settings from downloading all emails to only a limited number (eg: 2,000 or 5,000, etc). My default setting (unknowingly) was to download all emails since I started using Gmail back around 2005, hence all the many emails taking up a large chunk of storage space on my Surface Go! So I changed the setting to only download up to 2,000 emails via the Gmail app setting. This solved the problem of downloading over 20,000 emails since 2005 which ate up a large chunk of storage space on my Surface Go laptop...duh!?!? LOL!

So now I'm happy to be using M.S. Outlook on my laptop synched to my Gmail account. In the past, I only used Chrome/Gmail web login. My previous version of Microsoft Outlook was ancient at version 2003! So I'm glad to use an up-to-date version now, haha! (Granted though, I've always used a current version at work, just not on my own personal laptop computers). As for being paranoid about security and having minimal information stored on my Surface Go, oh well, I guess that went out the *window* now (pun intended) haha.

 

[HeyCori]

Yay!!! Glad that worked out for you!

 

[Casey Cheung]

Yay!!! Glad that worked out for you!

Yes, thank you! I like having Outlook 2019 on my Surface Go! Don't have to rely on Chrome/Gmail web access now.

Now I'm debating on installing the same M.S. Office 2019 Business version onto my Lenovo Thinkpad. I just don't feel like spending hundreds more for a new purchase license, haha! I'm soooooo not used to making duplicate purchases for the same app on multiple laptops, hence using my ancient M.S. Office 2003 in the past!