Windows 10
Earlier this year, Microsoft announced that it would begin using ~7GB of user hard drive space for the application of future updates. The advantage of this system is intended to be that it doesn’t break the update process halfway through by a system running out of space. The disadvantage is that it would eliminate virtually all of the storage available on small systems — and Windows 10’s previous minimum storage requirement was 16GB for a 32-bit installation. That plus 7GB of storage only left 4-5GB of data for programs on a base install.
Microsoft doesn’t explain the change to Windows 10’s minimum storage requirements. However, alongside the introduction of Windows 10 1903 we will find Microsoft’s ‘reserved storage’ quota implemented. This is Microsoft reserving about 7GB of your disk space so that future updates can be delivered and installed smoothly.
It is also worth noting that additional hardware is required to use some applications and features. For instance, graphically intensive applications might require a DirectX 10-compliant video card. Similarly, the operating system’s speech recognition capability can only be used on a PC that is equipped with a microphone. Another example is the Windows Hello feature, which requires special hardware that can be used for biometric authentication.
The issue with Windows 10 and 32GB. A standard Windows 10 installation will take up to 26GB of hard drive space, leaving you with less than 6GB of real space. Installing the Microsoft Office suite (Word, Powerpoint and Excel) along with a real internet browser such as Chrome or Firefox will bring you down to 4.5GB. Our advice. Go for an SSD with a minimum of 128GB like the Micro i7 to account for this.
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