Reserved Storage is a new feature meant to set aside part of the available storage to use as temporary storage to reduce problems installing updates.
Usually, this new feature will reserve around 7GB of storage for updates, temporary files, system cache, and apps. Then, when a new update is available, Windows 10 will delete the files located in the reserved storage automatically to make room to install the update.
The new feature will come enabled by default on devices that come pre-installed with the April 2019 Update, or after performing a clean installation of the OS, but there’s a workaround to enable Reserved Storage on existing installations. (The changes will take effect in the next upgrade.)
How to disable ‘Reserved Storage’ on Windows 10
To disable the Reserved Storage feature to reclaim disk space, use these steps:The new feature will come enabled by default on devices that come pre-installed with the May 2019 Update, or after performing a clean installation of the operating system, and if this feature isn’t for you because your device has limited space or you don’t like the feature, there’s a workaround to disable it modifying the Registry.
In this guide, you’ll learn the steps to enable or disable Reserved Storage on Windows 10 version 1903, and you’ll learn the steps to see how much space the feature is set aside.
- Open Start.
- Search for regedit, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.
- Browse the following path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ReserveManager
- Double-click the ShippedWithReserves key, and change its value from 1 to 0 to disable/change its value from 0 to 1 to enable.
- Click the OK button.
How to check ‘Reserved Storage’ is disabled on Windows 10
If you want to see if Reserved Storage has been disabled after installing a new version of Windows 10, use these steps:
- Open Settings.
- Click on System.
- Click on Storage.
- Click the Show more categories link.
- Click the System & reserved item.
- The “Reserved Storage” section should not be available to indicate that the feature is disabled.
If you’re still seeing the Reserved Storage section, probably, you didn’t apply the settings correctly or you haven’t upgraded to a newer version after modifying the Registry.