We all reach a time when we finally decide to sort through our music and filter out the songs we never really listen to anymore. But, by this time, our music library is so vast, it seems like a daunting task to tackle. Well, procrastinate no more! There are some simple ways to go through your music and delete the ones you don’t want.

The first step is to locate all your music on your Windows 10 device. Unless you have created a separate folder to store your music, the default location will be in the Music folder on your PC. To find it, open your “File Explorer” and look at the left panel. Under ‘This PC’ you should see a folder named “Music”. Alternatively, you can go to your C:/ drive and open your profile, where you will see your PCs “Music” folder. Open the folder containing your music, whether it is the default one or the one which you created.

File Explorer
Open the folder where your Music files are stored

Now, you need to use a media player to go through the music so that you can play your songs while sorting through them. The default music player on Windows 10 is Groove Music. It is very convenient to use, but you can also use another media player like Windows Media Player.

Delete Songs using Groove Music

Groove lets you delete a song while it’s playing so you can swift through your music files and delete the songs you don’t want on your PC anymore. Music files deleted from Groove will permanently delete from your PC as well, not only the Groove Music library.

To get started, select a song you would like to play from your music library. Right click on the song to get the drop-down menu. Choose “Open with” to get a list of media players that can be used to play music on your PC. Then finally select “Groove Music” from the available options.

Right-click on a song in your Music library and open it with Groove Music player

This will open Groove Music and start playing the song. Now, you may see that all your songs from the folder have been imported into Groove music automatically. If this is not the case, don’t worry, you can manually link your music folder to Groove.

To do this, go to Groove Music Settings, which is at the bottom left portion of the window. Click on “Music on this PC” button at the top of the screen. From here, locate and add your music folder to Groove Music. A great feature of Groove is that you can link multiple folders from multiple locations. This means that all the music on your PC can be viewed in one place.

Add all your Music folders to Groove Music so you can manage them all from one app

Now, you can begin going through your music files. Play any song by double clicking on it. OR if you’re using a keyboard to quickly swift through your songs, click Enter to play a song. If you don’t want it, press the Menu key on your keyboard and select “Delete” from the context menu to permanently delete it from your PC. You can also right-click and select “Delete” on a song using a mice. The song will continue playing for a few seconds and then the next song in the list will play.

Deleting a song in Groove Music player

This can get quite tedious after a while, especially if you have hundreds or thousands of songs. To make it a little faster, you can delete multiple songs together. Select the ones you want to delete by checking the square boxes on the left of a song title. Then, delete them together by clicking the ‘Delete’ button at the bottom right of the window. Once you delete a song using Groove, the song gets deleted from the music folder on your PC as well.

Deleting multiple songs together in Groove Music player

Delete Music using Windows Media Player

Windows Media Player (WMP) can be used in much the same way as Groove Music by linking your music folder to it. But, there is a faster way to do it without doing so. It may sound counter-intuitive, but it is faster to switch back and forth between WMP and your folder, directly deleting your music from the folder itself, and using WMP just to play the music. This should work with any media player, but it would have to be your default music player.

To check your default player or change it, select a song from your music folder and right-click on it. Select ‘Properties’ on the bottom of the list. Here, you can see which application is used to open MP3 files on your PC. Change it to Windows Media Player if it isn’t already set.

Now, you can start sorting through your music. Double-click or press Enter on your keyboard to play a song. This should open a small window of WMP. Rearrange your screen such that you can see both, the music folder as well as the WMP side by side. This is so that none of them are hidden from view while switching back and forth. It should look something like this.

Playing Music files inn Windows Media Player and deleting them from a folder directly

What makes this way quick is that there is no need to use a mouse at all. Once you play the first song, you will switch to the WMP. Press Alt + Tab to switch back to your music folder. If you want to delete the song, just press Delete on your keyboard. If you want to move to the next song, press the down arrow and hit Enter when you’re on it. This will play the song in WMP. Press Alt+Tab and repeat the process. Use your left hand for the Alt+Tab, and right hand to move through the music, play and delete songs. Once you get into a rhythm, you will skim through the music in no time.