n the next major release of Windows 10, Microsoft will reserve 7GB of your device’s storage to resolve a Windows 10 bug thrown up by Windows Update not checking whether a PC has enough storage space before launching after big updates.

As Microsoft warned ahead of the Windows 10 October 2018 Update, systems that don’t have enough space to install Microsoft’s ‘quality updates’ or new versions of the OS will seean error message explaining there is insufficient storage space. 

That happens because Windows doesn’t check if a device has enough space before initializing. Microsoft’s current solution is for users to manually delete unnecessary temporary files and temporarily move important files like photos and videos to external storage devices to make enough space for the update. 

This problem is more acute for devices with little storage capacity, such as many of the cheap 32GB flash-drive PCs on the market today.   

n Windows 10 19H1, or version 1903 when it’s released this year, Microsoft is introducing ‘reserved storage’, which will keep around 7GB of disk space — but possibly more — available purely so that updates can be installed smoothly. 

Reserved storage won’t be unused though. It’ll be a dumping ground for temporary files that users would have to remove anyway if they’ve got insufficient space at the time of an update. Temporary files are automatically placed in reserved storage. 

It also automates the procedures that currently require users to manually resolve errors caused by Windows not checking for available space.

The temporary files in reserved storage will not consume free user space and will be less likely to do so as temporary files increase in number, so long as the reserve isn’t full, according to Microsoft.

There will be some intelligent management of reserved storage and free user disk space thanks to the already released Windows 10 Storage Sense storage-management utility.