How to reduce ‘Reserved Storage’ space on Windows 10

Starting with version 1903, Windows 10 introduces “Reserved Storage,” which is a new feature that reserves part of your device storage, which the system can use for updates and prevent problems as a result of no enough space.

Reserved Storage usually will reserve around 7GB of hard drive space for updates, temporary files, system cache, and apps. When a new update is available, Windows 10 will delete the files on the reserved storage automatically allowing updates to install successfully.

Although it’s a useful feature, it also means that your device available will be reduced by the amount of space reserved for updates, which you can’t modify. However, there are a couple of ways to influence the amount of storage that is allocated for Reserved Storage.

In this guide, you’ll learn the steps to reduce the amount disk space used by Reserved Storage on Windows 10 version 1903, May 2019 Update.

How to reduce ‘Reserved Storage’ size using Settings

In the Storage settings, you won’t find any options to control Reserved Storage, but according to Microsoft, uninstalling optional features and language packages can help to reduce the amount of space that Windows 10 needs to reserve for updates.

Uninstalling optional features

To remove optional features on Windows 10, use these steps:

1. Open Settings.

2. Click on Apps.

3. Click on Apps & features.

4. Under the “Apps & features” section, click the Optional features link.

   

5. Select the feature you want to remove.

6. Click the Uninstall button.

   

Once you’ve completed the steps, repeat the steps to remove additional optional features. Just keep in mind that some of the features can’t be uninstalled.

Uninstalling language packages

To remove languages from Windows 10, use these steps:

1. Open Settings.

2. Click on Time & language.

3. Click on Language.

4. Under the “Preferred languages” section, select a language that you don’t use.

5. Click the Remove button.

   

After completing the steps, these actions should trigger a change on Reserved Storage to reduce the required space.

While this feature is available starting with the Windows 10 May 2019 Update, you can still use these steps on version 1809 and older releases to influence the space requirement when you upgrade to the next version of the operating system.

If you’re looking to enable Reserved Storage on Windows 10, use this guide.