How to Open Disk Management in Windows 10 & 11

Disk Management is a tool used in Windows to, well, manage your disks. You can use Disk Management to partition and format hard drives, change drive letters, and much more. In this article, we'll teach you 7 quick and easy ways to open Disk Management on your Windows PC. Read on to learn more!

Ways to Open Disk Management

The fastest and easiest way to open Disk Management is by right-clicking the Windows menu in your taskbar and choosing Disk Management. Otherwise, you can open it with the taskbar search bar, Control Panel, Run, the command line, Task Manager, or a custom shortcut.

Section 1 of 8:

Using the Power User Menu

For Windows 11 users, this will be near the middle of your taskbar. For Windows 10 users, this option is in the bottom-left corner of the screen. #*You can also open the Power User menu by pressing Windows key + X.
It's in the top section of the menu. Once you click this option, Disk Management will open.^{[1]
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Section 2 of 8:

Using the Taskbar Search Bar

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Type disk management in the taskbar search bar. For Windows 11 users, this will be near the middle of your taskbar. For Windows 10 users, this option is near the bottom-left corner of the screen.
- If you don't see the search bar, press the Windows key first.
Once you search for Disk Management, it will appear in the Start menu. Click it to open the program.

Section 3 of 8:

Using the Control Panel

To do this, search "control panel" in the taskbar search bar, then click Control Panel in the Start menu that pops up.
It's the first option in Control Panel, and it has an icon of a shield and a pie chart.
If you're on Windows 10, you'll see Administrative Tools instead.
This option is near the top of the window, and it has an icon of a computer with a toolbox in front of it.^{[2]
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Under the "Storage" header, you'll see the option for Disk Management.^{[3]
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Section 4 of 8:

Using the Run Dialog

This will open the Run dialog.
This will run the command to open Disk Management, and the program will open as soon as you press the ↵ Enter button.

Section 5 of 8:

Using the Command Line

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Open a command line interface. You can open Windows PowerShell or Command Prompt (cmd), whichever you prefer.
- Type the name of the command line into the taskbar search bar to look for it, then click on it in the Start menu to open it.
- You can also right-click on the Windows icon in your taskbar and click Terminal on Windows 11, or Command Prompt or Windows PowerShell on Windows 10.
This will run the command to open Disk Management, and the program will open as soon as you press the ↵ Enter button.

Section 6 of 8:

Using Task Manager

This will open the Task Manager. You can also press Ctrl+Alt+Del and click Task Manager, or you can right-click on the taskbar and choose Task Manager.
This button is at the top of the window, across from the header that says "Processes."
This will instruct Task Manager to open a new Disk Management task, and the program will open as soon as you press the ↵ Enter button.

Section 7 of 8:

Creating a Shortcut

If you open Disk Management often and want a simple way to open it without needing to do anything other than click, you can create a custom shortcut to open it for you.
This will open a pop-out contextual menu.
It's near the top of the menu, below the Folder option.
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Type diskmgmt.msc in the field. Under the label "Type the location of the item," you'll see a text field. This is where you'll enter "diskmgmt.msc."
- Click Next to move to the next page of the wizard.
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Give the shortcut a name. By default, it'll be named "diskmgmt.msc." However, you can change the name to whatever you want. We recommend naming it something simple and easy to remember, like "Disk Management."
- Click Finish to create the shortcut.
If you ever want to delete this shortcut, just right-click it and choose Delete. Otherwise, you can drag and drop it wherever you'd like on your desktop.

Section 8 of 8:

Disk Management Tips

Disk Management can be used to complete a variety of tasks on your Windows computer. Here are some wikiHow articles to read to learn more:
- Create a hard drive partition.
- Remove a hard drive partition.
- Expand or shrink an existing hard drive partition.
- Create a thumb drive partition.
- Reallocate unused disk space.
- Reformat a secondary drive.
- Format a new M.2 SSD.
- Format your entire PC.