Deleting entire "program" folders to clear up disc space

I am desperate because I am utterly out of space on my hard drive. In an effort to free up space I have discovered that I have two different folders containing "programs" (I.e., two very big files)
One is titled simply "program files" and the other is titled "program files (x86)" I have no idea what x86 means, and my question is this:
Can I safely delete one of these "program" folders from my hard drive, and if so which?
Obviously, I not very sophisticated technically and I thank you in advance for your help.

Do NOT delete either of those folders, if you do your computer will not work.

Program folder (x86) are files that are installed for 32 bit programs & systems necessary for being able to run 32 bit programs.

The other Program folder you mention are for x64 bit programs, or 64 bit programs that are installed or for the system to operate.

So if you delete any of those folders your computer will crash & you will have to reinstall Windows & you will lose all your installed programs, together with all your personal data.

What you really should do is invest in a bigger hard drive, but as you state you are not very technical, so either ask a technical friend to help you transfer you existing hard drive to a bigger one or ask a reliable local computer shop to transfer it for you, which you will have to pay for.

It's not a hard job transferring to a new hard drive but you need to know what you are doing, or you can lose all your data, so you should have it all backed up before you start.

First do an Extended Disk Cleanup, just copy/paste the red part below into your Run box. This will free up some space.

start > run > %SystemRoot%\System32\Cmd.exe /c Cleanmgr /sageset:65535 & Cleanmgr /sagerun:65535 > check all > enter

Second uninstall programs you no longer need, by going start > run > appwiz.cpl > enter. Then sort by size. Right click and select uninstall whatever you do not want. Use your noggin though so you don't uninstall your motherboard drivers or whatever

Third download Space Sniffer freeware and run it. Its only 1.5MB in size so it will fit on your drive. It will show you a proportionate diagram of all your files so you can figure out what else to delete. If you are not sure if something is safe to delete, ask here first or google "is it safe to delete my xyz folder"

Download SpaceSniffer

As posted earlier, you can safely remove programs and utilities that are no longer needed by Control Panel --> Programs and Features. Later on, you can install and use Revo Uninstaller free or pay-for version, it often does a better job of uninstalling and removing all traces of programs and utilities. Before doing any major Windows surgery, create and use a routine backup process for making full images of your OS partition and your Data partition onto affordable reliable external media.

with all due respect to the helpful advice from johnhoh and rolandjs, to simply ask such a question validates the op confession to computer-illiteracy. I violently support/encourage ranger4's position, especially the first sentence.

Hi Jambontoo,

If you have a laptop and don't use the hibernation feature, you can delete the hiberfil.sys file. This will give you back the same amount of disk space as your memory size.

Example - If you have 8 GB of memory and delete the hiberfil.sys file, you will free up 8 GB of disk space.

Thanks

"...Obviously, I'm not very sophisticated technically and I thank you in advance for your help..." jambontoo
Hey, no problem; I should have included in my earlier post that asking a computer friend to help out with Disk Clean and with uninstalling un-needed programs is aok! Such is more fun doing things together.

It's true that you ought not delete these folders, and that a bigger drive is called for.

But this is just wrong:

Ranger4 said:

Do NOT delete either of those folders, if you do your computer will not work. So if you delete any of those folders your computer will crash & you will have to reinstall Windows & you will lose all your installed programs, together with all your personal data.

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