Windows 10 will compress system files to increase user storage

Microsoft really is gunning to reclaim its groupie love that was severed in Windows 10, often delving into some of the more innocuous annoyances of Windows 8, but in the decade where media storage is perhaps at its all time high, Microsoft is looking to eke even more juice from those drives of yours.

Windows 10, as the company explained in a blog post, will be able to compress its system files giving the user more storage for those cat pictures and game fail clips.

This may not sound like much, but considering that an install of Android on smartphones with 8GB eats up around 3GB of that, it’s a step in the right direction, especially for mobile users.

The upcoming OS will employ “employ two separate and independent approaches for achieving a compact footprint,” notes the blog post.

“First, Windows 10 leverages an efficient compression algorithm to compress system files.  Second, recovery enhancements have removed the requirement for a separate recovery image.”

The operating system will aim to compress (and decompress) files in the background if it deems that circumstances are beneficial: for instance, if you’re running a PC with 16GB of RAM and an Intel Core i7, it would be beneficial for the OS to run these tasks in the background, thanks to the numerous processing threads available.

Windows 10 on a dual-core smartphone with just 2GB of RAM might think twice. This also makes smartphones with new octa-core CPU designs seem rather beneficial, especially in the light of Windows 10.

Windows 10 needs to bridge this gap — between the smaller, less-powerful smartphones it will run on and the more powerful self-built gaming PCs of the world. Either way, it seems Microsoft is looking to give the user more storage options where it matters. So carry on downloading those cat pics, okay?

For a more comprehensive explanation of the technology involved, have a look at the blog post here.

Feature image: Uwe Hermann via Flickr