Microsoft is laying the groundwork for a big release of Windows 10 later this year, and today it shared some more details on how it plans to free up more storage space on computers that run the new operating system.
Advanced compression reclaims disk space in Windows 10
In a blog post entitled “How Windows 10 achieves its compact footprint”, the company said that Windows 10 will employ a new compression scheme that saves up to 1.5 GB of storage on 32-bit machines and 2.6 GB on 64-bit machines. According to the software giant, Windows now uses smart compression techniques to avoid a performance hit on your machine. When you upgrade to Windows 10, the computer will assess its own performance and then determines how much compression to use, based on its capabilities.
Furthermore, Microsoft has also improved its Windows recovery tools in order to use much less space – as they no longer require a separate recovery image on disk to restore Windows to its pristine state, which means a saving of up to 12 GB (depending on the manufacturer).
This is what Microsoft had to say regarding the potential disk space savings:
One important factor is the amount of memory (RAM) a device has. The amount of RAM a device has determines how often it retrieves system files from storage. Another important factor is how quickly a device’s CPUs can run the decompression algorithm when retrieving system files. By considering these and other important factors, Windows is able to assess if a device can use compression without reducing human-perceivable responsiveness.
Since a diversity of Windows devices exist, Windows 10 performs this suitability assessment in the upgrade path. If compressed system files will give you storage capacity back without compromising your device’s responsiveness, then upgrade will automatically compress Windows 10. For new Windows 10 devices, manufacturers perform the suitability assessment and enable system compression appropriately.
So it seems that if you need to free up a couple of GB on your computer, Windows 10 might just save the day…
SOURCE: Windows Blog
Larry Banks is a keen follower of technology and finance. He has worked for a variety of online publications, writing about a diverse range of topics including mobile networks, patents, and Internet video delivery technologies.