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Installing Windows 10's October Update Could Result In A Nightmare, Here's How To Avoid It

This article is more than 5 years old.

Credit: Concord90/Pixabay

Microsoft issues Windows 10 updates frequently, much to the chagrin of those who don’t enjoy being interrupted with a request to reboot and install another one. There’s a big one coming in October but this one is different in two ways. First, it’s one of Windows 10’s twice yearly mega-upgrades that bring a host of new features and take a long time to install. Second, Microsoft warns that it could fail and crash your computer with the company giving no advice about what to do if this happens.

The problem is storage space. If you run the update and don’t have enough empty space on your hard drive, Windows could fail to initialize and crash your system. How much storage space do you need? Microsoft isn’t saying. The mega-update for Windows 10 last Spring needed 16GB of empty space for 32-bit systems and 20GB for 64-bit.

Why is this even a problem? Can’t the update check for available disk space and warn the user to make room if there isn’t enough? It could, but it doesn’t. Rather than help Windows 10 users install the update safely, Microsoft is relying on you reading articles like this beforehand and solving the problem yourself.

Credit: Kevin Murnane

Here’s what you can do to make sure the October update doesn’t crash your system. First, check to see how much space is available on your computer. From the Windows key on the keyboard or icon on the tray select Settings>System>Storage. Decide if you want to free up more space using the requirements for the Spring update as a guide (16GB for 32-bit and 20 GB for 64-bit).

Emptying the recycle bin, and deleting temporary and download files are the most effective ways to free up space on your hard drive. However, you should give it some thought before trashing all these files. You might still need some recently downloaded or recycled files, and some temporary files may be used by the programs and apps you run.

Windows’ Storage Sense tool can delete these unwanted files for you and it gives you some control over what is deleted and what is saved. You can set Storage Sense to run automatically but you can also configure and run it whenever you want.

Credit: Kevin Murnane

Storage Sense can be found and controlled from the Settings>System>Storage page. Configure it by toggling “Delete temporary files my apps aren’t using” on or off, and selecting how long you want files to remain in the recycle bin and download folder before they are deleted. Click the “Clean Now” button and check to see if enough space has been freed up to safely install the October 10 update.

If you still need more space, you can delete programs or apps you no longer use, or move files to an external storage device like a USB drive or cloud storage like Microsoft’s OneDrive or Google Drive. Photo, music and video files are good candidates because they’re often large.

Credit: Google

Microsoft’s decision to push out a major upgrade without warning the user if they don’t have enough free space to safely install it is unconscionable and outrageous. You would think the company had learned its lesson about arrogant disregard for the needs and desires of its customers after the epic fail of the Xbox One launch. Apparently not. Microsoft’s left you hanging in the wind so check to see how much storage space you have available and make space if you need it. You might also consider eliminating this kind of hassle from your life by switching to a Chromebook.

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