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Two accounts on one PC, and where the space actually goes

Each user gets their own AppData, their own browser profiles and their own Recycle Bin. How to see the whole drive.

5 min read

On a shared PC, Settings shows you what the system counts and gives you no way to see what another account is using. That is a privacy feature and it makes a full drive genuinely hard to diagnose.

Seeing the whole drive

# From an administrator PowerShell
Get-ChildItem C:\Users -Directory -Force -EA SilentlyContinue | ForEach-Object {
  $s = (Get-ChildItem $_.FullName -Recurse -Force -File -EA SilentlyContinue | Measure-Object Length -Sum).Sum
  [PSCustomObject]@{ GB = [math]::Round($s/1GB,2); Profile = $_.Name }
} | Sort-Object GB -Descending

That totals each profile without exposing what is inside, which is usually enough to know whose cleanup is needed.

What each account duplicates

Duplicated per userTypical size
Browser profiles and caches1 to 8 GB each
AppData for every app they use2 to 20 GB
OneDrive local copiesWhatever they sync
The Recycle BinPer user, per drive
Downloads and DesktopHighly variable

Applications themselves are shared, which is the good news. Everything an application writes per user is duplicated.

Profiles nobody uses

The largest thing on a shared PC is usually an account that nobody has signed into for a year: a family member who moved out, or one created during setup and abandoned. Remove it through Settings, Accounts, which removes the profile folder with it, rather than deleting C:\Users\name by hand.

The Public folder

C:\Users\Public is readable and writable by everyone and is the sanctioned place for shared files. It does not deduplicate anything: a file copied from it into two profiles is two files. It is a convenience rather than a space saving.

Practical arrangements

  1. Keep one media library in Public rather than one per person.
  2. Check for accounts nobody uses, which is the single largest win.
  3. Each person empties their own Recycle Bin; yours does not cover theirs.
  4. Give each person the monthly routine rather than doing it for them.

Common questions

How do I see how much space another user is using on Windows?

From an administrator PowerShell, total each folder under C:\Users. It shows sizes per profile without exposing the contents of another person's account.

Do multiple accounts on Windows duplicate storage?

Applications are shared, but everything they write per user is duplicated: browser profiles, AppData, OneDrive copies and per user Recycle Bins.

How do I remove an unused account and its files?

Through Settings, Accounts, which removes the profile folder with the account. Deleting C:\Users\name by hand leaves the account record behind.

Does the Public folder save space?

No. It is a place everyone can read and write, but a file copied out of it into two profiles is two files. It is a convenience rather than a space saving.

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