With the release of the latest Windows Insider Build 18298, Microsoft has made some changes to how Windows 10 manages disk space. And this new feature is being called Reserved Storage. Through reserved storage, some disk space will be set aside to be used by updates, apps, temporary files, and system caches. The aim is to improve the day-to-day function of your PC by ensuring critical OS functions always have access to disk space. Without reserved storage, if a user almost fills up her or his storage, several Windows and application scenarios become unreliable. Windows and application scenarios may not work as expected if they need free space to function. With reserved storage, updates, apps, temporary files, and caches are less likely to take away from valuable free space and should continue to operate as expected.
Reserved storage will be introduced automatically on devices that come with version 1903 pre-installed or those where 1903 was clean installed. You don’t need to set anything up—this process will automatically run in the background.
How Reserved Storage works?
When apps and system processes create temporary files, these files will automatically be placed into reserved storage. These temporary files won’t consume free user space when they are created and will be less likely to do so as temporary files increase in number, provided that the reserve isn’t full. Since disk space has been set aside for this purpose, your device will function more reliably. Storage sense will automatically remove unneeded temporary files, but if for some reason your reserve area fills up Windows will continue to operate as expected while temporarily consuming some disk space outside of the reserve if it is temporarily full.
During an update, the temporary OS files which are not needed in the reserved storage will be deleted and so the update will use the full reserve area. This will enable most PCs to download and install an update without having to free up any of your disk space, even when you have minimal free disk space. If the update requires more space than reserved, it will automatically use other available free space. And even that is not enough then Windows will prompt you through steps to temporarily extend your hard disk with external storage, such as with a USB stick or will prompt the user how to free up disk space.
How much Storage space will be reserved?
Its being anticipated that with the next major Windows release (19H1), the Reserved Storage will start from 7GB, though amount of reserved space will vary over time based on how you use your device. Microsoft may adjust the size of reserved storage in the future based on diagnostic data or feedback.The reserved storage cannot be removed from the OS, but you may be able to reduce the amount of space reserved by removing unused optional features and languages.
How to reduce the Reserved Storage space?Following two factors influence how reserved storage changes size on your device:
Optional features: When an optional feature is installed, Windows will increase the amount of reserved storage to ensure there is space to maintain this feature on your device when updates are installed. You can reduce the amount of space required for reserved storage on your device by uninstalling optional features you are not using.
Installed languages: When additional languages are installed, Windows will increase the amount of reserved storage to ensure there is space to maintain these languages. You can reduce the amount of space required for reserved storage on your device by uninstalling languages you aren’t using.
As said earlier, Reserved Storage will be introduced automatically on devices that come with version 1903 pre-installed or those where 1903 was clean installed.
To check the reserved storage size or to see if its there,
Click the Start Windows icon > Settings > System > Storage . Click Show more categories > System & reserved.
Look at the Reserved storage size; the value should be non-zero.
- Open Registry Editor.
- Select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ReserveManager
- Right click ShippedWithReserves to modify and update the value to “1”
- After you upgrade the device to the next available build, you will be using reserved storage!
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