Windows 10 just got a whole lot more space hungry
If you’re already pushing against the upper limits of your PC’s internal hard disk space, you may want to upgrade before letting Windows 10’s May 2019 update loose.
Microsoft has quietly updated the minimum space needed on its Windows system requirements page – an update that was quickly spotted by Pureinfotech. Windows 10 now needs 32GB of storage for both the 32- and 64-bit versions of the operating system. For the former, that’s double the previous requirement, while it’s an extra 12GB for the latter. This applies to Home, Pro and Enterprise versions.
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For most people, this will be nothing more than a curiosity: the chances are you have more than a 32GB SSD in your computer. But if you’re running an older budger laptop or computer, you may find it doesn’t go as far as it used to. And for companies looking to turn out cheap and cheerful discount products, the storage floor just got a little bit higher for computers to offer what Microsoft describes as a “baseline user experience.”
Nothing else seems to have changed. You still need at least a 1GHz processor and 1GB RAM for the 32-bit version, or 2GB for the 64-bit edition. Given that your average smartphone has better specifications than this nowadays, this would be unlikely to trouble even budget PC makers, but it’s reassuring that existing PCs running Windows 10 won’t have anything more intense to deal with – assuming they meet the minimum storage requirements, of course.
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The May update is being distributed to computers now – if you’re facing a mysterious error telling you that your hardware is incompatible, the chances are that you have USB storage or an SD card plugged in.
Does Windows 10’s growing demand for space bother you? Let us know on Twitter: @TrustedReviews.