{"id":136761,"date":"2019-04-30T19:46:30","date_gmt":"2019-04-30T19:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/?p=136761"},"modified":"2025-07-01T22:02:52","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T05:02:52","slug":"windows-10-may-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/windows-10-may-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Windows 10 update to require at least 32 GB"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-136770\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2021\/04\/Windows_10_header_qd1knd.jpg\" alt=\"Windows 10 on a red brick wall\" width=\"700\" height=\"394\"><\/p>\n<p>Windows 10 updates have had somewhat of a controversial history. From <a href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/yes-windows-10-is-automatically-downgrading-user-licenses\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">downgrading user licenses<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/do-not-install-the-windows-10-october-update\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">deleting users\u2019 files<\/a> there have been plenty of controversies since Microsoft started forcing us to update our main operating system periodically. Fortunately, Microsoft is aware of the frustration Windows 10 updates can cause and has been working to make them <a href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/windows-10-ai-updates\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">less annoying<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/faster-windows-10-updates\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">work a little quicker<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The software giant, however, is still determined to have Windows 10 as a continuously evolving operating system so updates are here to stay. Not only that, but it looks like they\u2019re getting bigger too.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sc-card-program\">\r\n  <div class=\"sc-card-program__body\">\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-program__row clearfix\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-program__col-logo\">\r\n        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sc-card-program__img\" alt=\"Windows 10\" src=\"https:\/\/images.sftcdn.net\/images\/t_optimized,f_auto\/p\/3238ea9c-96d0-11e6-8b5c-00163ed833e7\/390199485\/windows-10-logo.png\" width=\"100px\" height=\"100px\">\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-program__col-title\">\r\n        <span class=\"sc-card-program__title\">Windows 10<\/span>\r\n        <a class=\"sc-card-program__button sc-card-program-internal\" href=\"https:\/\/windows-10.en.softonic.com\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Download Windows 10<\/a>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-program__col-rating\">\r\n        <svg class=\"rating-score__content\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" version=\"1.1\" x=\"0\" y=\"0\" viewbox=\"0 0 50 50\" enable-background=\"new 0 0 50 50\" xml:space=\"preserve\"><path class=\"rating-score__background rating-score--good\" fill=\"none\" stroke-width=\"6\" stroke-miterlimit=\"10\" d=\"M40 40c8.3-8.3 8.3-21.7 0-30s-21.7-8.3-30 0 -8.3 21.7 0 30\"><\/path><path class=\"rating-score__value rating-score__value--80\" fill=\"none\" stroke-width=\"6\" stroke-dashoffset=\"80\" stroke-miterlimit=\"10\" d=\"M40 40c8.3-8.3 8.3-21.7 0-30s-21.7-8.3-30 0 -8.3 21.7 0 30\"><\/path><text class=\"rating-score__number\" content=\"8\" text-anchor=\"middle\" transform=\"matrix(1 0 0 1 25 31.0837)\" data-auto=\"app-user-score\">8<\/text><\/svg>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-program__row\">\r\n      <span class=\"sc-card-program__description\">The latest and greatest version of Microsoft's operating system.<\/span>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-program__row\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sc-card-program__bigpic\" src=\"\" onerror=\"this.style.display='none'\">\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <a class=\"sc-card-program__link track-link sc-card-program-internal\" href=\"https:\/\/windows-10.en.softonic.com\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n<h2>The Windows 10 May update will require at least 32 GB of hard disk space<\/h2>\n<p>Microsoft has released an <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/windows-hardware\/design\/minimum\/minimum-hardware-requirements-overview#331-storage-device-size\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">advisory note on the minimum hardware requirements for Windows 10<\/a>, including past and upcoming updates to the OS. Unfortunately, there is bad news for anybody who has limited hard drive space on their PC. The minimum requirement for both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the upcoming Windows 10 update has doubled from 16 GB to a massive 32 GB of disk space.<\/p>\n<p>If you add this to the recent news that <a href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/windows-10-could-be-the-reason-youve-no-hard-drive-space-left\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Windows will be reserving 7 GB of disk space for future updates<\/a>, you can see that Microsoft really is starting to put a strain on users\u2019 hard drives.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_136772\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-136772\" style=\"width: 700px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-136772\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2021\/04\/New_Windows_10_update_sizes_qjucu4.jpg\" alt=\"This is how big Windows 10 updates are\" width=\"700\" height=\"262\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-136772\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image via: <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/windows-hardware\/design\/minimum\/minimum-hardware-requirements-overview#331-storage-device-size\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Microsoft<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This problem will likely affect users of older PCs, which have smaller hard drives, but modern devices will also likely be affected by the change. With new <a href=\"http:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/7-reasons-you-should-upgrade-to-an-ssd\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Solid-State Drives<\/a> (SSDs) offering much higher read and write times than traditional hard drives, many PCs and laptops have been sold with smaller SSD drives working as the primary drive. These often start 128 GB, which means the changes to the Windows 10 updates will take up a fair chunk of the primary drives found on many modern machines, too.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, it looks like this change may just be the beginning of the trend, with update sizes likely to increase further going into the future. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thurrott.com\/windows\/windows-10\/205604\/windows-10-version-1903-requires-at-least-32-gb-of-storage?utm_source=feedly&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=windows-10-version-1903-requires-at-least-32-gb-of-storage\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Windows specialist Paul Thurrott<\/a> believes it won\u2019t be long before the requirement doubles again. He said, depending on what you need your PC for, 256 GB could now be a more appropriate minimum primary hard drive size. Thurrott wrote, \u201c\u2026 given the way storage is trending, I\u2019m surprised it took so long to get to 32 GB. And I see a 64 GB minimum happening in the near future.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_136773\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-136773\" style=\"width: 520px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-136773\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2021\/04\/Windows_needs_more_space_to_update_fajtny.jpg\" alt=\"a screenshot of windows update\" width=\"520\" height=\"293\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-136773\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image via: <a href=\"https:\/\/support.microsoft.com\/en-us\/help\/4013876\/windows-10-free-up-space-to-install-latest-feature-update\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Microsoft Support<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The increased minimum will mean that future devices will need to be built with an eye on increased capacity. This is positive news if you\u2019re in the market for a new PC or think you will be soon. If, however, you\u2019re not looking to buy a new computer but only have limited space available on your hard drive, it might be time to start thinking about an upgrade.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/support.microsoft.com\/en-us\/help\/4013876\/windows-10-free-up-space-to-install-latest-feature-update\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">You can find a Microsoft guide on freeing up hard drive space to prepare for the Windows 10 update here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sc-related-articles-white\">\r\n<p class=\"sc-related-articles-white__title\">More about Windows 10<\/p>\r\n  <div class=\"sc-related-articles-white__row\">\r\n    <a title=\"How to start Windows 10 in safe mode \u25ba\" href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/windows-10-safe-mode\">\r\n    <div class=\"sc-related-articles-white__article\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-white__image\">\r\n        <div style=\"background-image:url(https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/01\/windows-10-192.jpg)\"><\/div>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-white__text\">\r\n        <p>How to start Windows 10 in safe mode \u25ba<\/p>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    <a title=\"How to turn on Bluetooth in Windows 10 \u25ba\" href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/bluetooth-windows-10\">\r\n    <div class=\"sc-related-articles-white__article\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-white__image\">\r\n        <div style=\"background-image:url(https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2019\/02\/bluetooth-192.jpg)\"><\/div>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-related-articles-white__text\">\r\n        <p>How to turn on Bluetooth in Windows 10 \u25ba<\/p>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n  <div class=\"sc-related-articles-white__row\">\r\n  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space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9073,"featured_media":136771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[1015],"tags":[2351,1072,1080,1052],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-136761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-app-subdomain-redirectionwindows-10","tag-microsoft","tag-windows","tag-windows-10"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9073"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136761"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":326170,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136761\/revisions\/326170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136761"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=136761"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=136761"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=136761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}