Microsoft is working on a new feature for Windows 10 that will ensure seamless Windows Updates. The upcoming update for Windows 10, version 19H1, will introduce a new feature called Reserved Storage.

Windows will essentially reserve at least 7GB of storage for things like temporary files, apps, caches, and Windows Updates. The idea behind the feature is to make sure your device keeps functioning more “reliably”. It will put aside 7GB of storage from your device for temporary files to make sure your regular, free space does not get impacted.

This will help make sure Windows Updates are carried out seamlessly. As updates use a bunch of temporary files, Windows will first use the reserved storage and then use your actual free space if needed. This will make sure you don’t have to free up any of your “own” disk space as Windows will try to make the best use of the reserved storage.

The feature works by reserving 7GB from your main drive, say C: so Windows will report that the amount of free space available has gone down by 7GB once the feature is available. The amount of free space available to regular applications will, therefore, decline by 7GB, but “servicing” will be able to use the 7GB for things like Windows Update.

The amount of storage that is used by Windows 10 depends on things like how many optional features you have enabled, or how many languages you have installed on your device. Microsoft says the feature will initially use 7GB for the reserved storage, though that may change in the future. You will be able to check how much storage is reserved by Windows 10 from the Settings app, however.

Although the addition of the new feature sounds like a good idea, it may not work too well for low-end devices where storage is limited to 32GB or 64GB. These devices already don’t have a ton of space available, so reducing that even further by 7GB could really make life hard for users who have a device that only has 32GB or 64GB of storage.

I feel like there should be an option to reduce the amount of reserve storage that is available to Windows.

Tagged with Windows 10, Windows Updates