[Tip] How to Delete and Disable Reserved Storage in Windows 10?

In this article, we’ll talk about a new feature “Reserved Storage” or “Reserved Disk Space” introduced in newer versions of Windows 10. We’ll discuss what is reserved storage, what are its usage, how to view and check reserved storage, how to manage or reduce reserved storage size, how to enable/disable reserved storage feature and how to delete or remove system storage data in Windows 10. Once you turn off reserved storage in Windows 10, you’ll be able to reclaim and free up disk space occupied by this feature.

What is Reserved Storage or Reserved Disk Space Feature in Windows 10?

Reserved Storage feature automatically reserves some disk space on your hard disk drive to be used by Windows updates, system apps, temporary files and cache. When you install or upgrade to newer Windows 10 versions, Windows automatically creates this Reserved Storage on your hard disk. Usually Reserved Storage occupies approx. 7 GB of space on your hard disk, however the size may vary according to users activities, number of installed updates, apps, etc.

Reserved Storage feature has been introduced so that important system tasks can be performed without worrying about free space available. Reserved Storage space can be used by Windows 10 to temporarily download and install updates. It helps Windows in downloading and installing important updates using the Reserved Storage without having to free up disk space if your hard disk contains less disk space.

Similarly, when system apps and processes need to create temporary files or cache, these files are automatically stored in Reserved Storage. These temporary files and cache will not occupy other free space available on user’s hard disk drive.

Reserved Storage feature ensures that critical and important system functions always have sufficient disk space to store files so that your computer can run smoothly without problems and error messages. It helps in improving system performance, reliability and stability.

In past, without Reserved Storage feature, if a user has filled almost full disk space on hard disk drive, several system tasks and processes used to become unreliable and caused error messages and system crashes.

And don’t worry! If your hard disk is low on space, Windows 10 will automatically clear Reserved Storage space to free up disk space on your hard disk drive so that other processes can use it.

How to View and Check Reserved Storage in Windows 10 Device?

You can view and check how much Reserved Storage is being used by Windows 10 using Settings app.

1. Open Settings app from Start Menu or by pressing WIN+I keys together.

2. Now go to “System -> Storage” section.

PS: Alternatively, You can directly launch this page using “ms-settings:storagesense” command in RUN dialog box as mentioned here.

3. In right-side pane, look for Show more categories link. Click on it.

4. Now click on System & reserved section.

5. It’ll open a new page where Windows shows disk space amount used by system and other processes.

Look for Reserved storage section. It’ll show the exact amount of disk space being used by Reserved Storage feature in your Windows 10 device.

Above screenshot shows that Windows 10 is using 6.80 GB space for Reserved Storage feature in one of our Windows 10 machines.

How to Reduce or Manage Reserved Storage Size in Windows 10?

There are ways to reduce Reserved Storage disk space size in Windows 10. You can force Windows 10 to use less disk space on your hard disk drive for Reserved Storage feature.

Following 2 components can cause huge increase or decrease in Reserved Storage size in any Windows 10 device:

• Optional Features
• Installed Languages

Optional Features: Windows 10 allows users to enable or disable many optional features. When an optional feature is installed, Windows 10 increases the size of Reserved Storage. So you can uninstall and remove unwanted and unnecessary optional features in your Windows 10 device to reduce Reserved Storage size. To uninstall optional features, go to Settings -> Apps -> Apps & Features -> Optional Features page.

Installed Languages: Similar to optional features, when a user installs a new language, Windows 10 automatically increases Reserved Storage size. So you can uninstall and remove unnecessary languages from your Windows 10 device to reduce Reserved Storage size. To uninstall unwanted languages, go to Settings -> Time & Language -> Language page.

How to Enable/Disable Reserved Storage Feature in Windows 10?

Although Reserved Storage feature is very useful and essential for any Windows 10 device, there might be some users who may want to disable or remove this feature to free up more disk space on their hard disk drive.

Microsoft provides an official Registry tweak to enable or disable Reserved Storage feature in Windows 10. Interested users can try it according to their requirements:

1. Press WIN+R keys together to open RUN dialog box. Now type regedit in RUN dialog box and press Enter. It’ll open Registry Editor.

2. Now go to following key:

3. In right-side pane, look for ShippedWithReserves DWORD.

This DWORD instructs Windows 10 whether the Reserved Storage feature is enabled or disabled in the device.

To enable Reserved Storage feature, set ShippedWithReserves value to 1

To disable Reserved Storage feature, set ShippedWithReserves value to 0

Restart your PC to apply changes.

After reboot, you’ll no longer see “Reserved Storage” section under “Settings -> System -> Storage -> System & Reserved” page. The feature will be permanently deactivated in your Windows 10 device. It’ll also delete and free up disk space occupied by reserved storage feature.

UPDATE: In newer Windows 10 versions (version 2004 and later), you can also use DISM commands to disable or enable Reserved Storage feature as mentioned in following tutorial:

[Tip] Disable Reserved Storage Feature in Windows 10

Let us know in comments section, whether it helped you in disabling or turning off Reserved Storage feature in Windows 10.

Also Check:

What is PortableBaseLayer Drive or Partition in Windows 10 Disk Management?