In 2019, Microsoft introduced Reserved Storage in Windows 10. This is a partition occupied by the operating system for the seamless installation of Windows updates, while saving space for temporary files and caches created by the system.
Before this, if you downloaded a Windows update over the internet and had little disk space, you would encounter errors. So Microsoft decided to address the problem with Reserved Storage, which allows the operating system to have about 7GB of space on your system to download updates without errors.
This 7GB of space is included in the System & reserved space that you see in your storage settings, if you have it enabled. Reserved Storage is enabled by default for new computers and clean installs. It's a very useful feature if you update your system regularly, but it can be annoying if you have resource constraints.
So there's a way to quickly disable (or enable) Reserved Storage in Windows 10 and 11.
First, you should check if your computer already has the option enabled. It probably does if it falls into the categories described previously.
Open Command Prompt (CMD) in administrator mode and run the following command to check the status of Reserved Storage:
DISM /Online /Get-ReservedStorageState
As you can see above, the command informs you about the status of Reserved Storage.
If you want to enable Reserved Storage, use the following command:
DISM /Online /Set-ReservedStorageState /State:Enabled
Alternatively, if you want to disable Reserved Storage, use the following command:
Dism /Online /Set-ReservedStorageState /State:Disabled
If you have already downloaded some Windows updates but haven't installed them, you will likely encounter errors when trying to disable Reserved Storage. In this case, you will need to install the updates before disabling Reserved Storage.
This can reclaim up to 7GB on your system. Microsoft says this space commitment varies over time depending on your device, but should be close to 7GB.
It's also important to know that if you're low on space and then try to enable Reserved Storage, Windows will only reserve 2% of your system's capacity, or 3GB. However, the allocation will grow over time to the required size as your system starts to free up space in the future.
Personally, I would suggest (if you have a disk space problem) to buy a disk. It's the safest solution.
Although the press releases will range from very select to rare, I said I'd pass...because sometimes the editors hide.
