A Slimmed Down Windows 10 Could Make Cheap Tablets Suck Way Less

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Windows 10 already seems waaay better than Windows 8. Cortana integration, Spartan browser, a Start Menu—yes please. But how about some more storage space on your tiny solid state drive? Yeah, that sounds nice, too.

Bloated software has been an issue for Windows 8 and RT devices—particularly cheap tablets and laptops that come with as little as 32GB to start. Hell, remember when you could buy a 64GB Microsoft Surface that only came with 23GB of usable storage? With Windows 10 it shouldn't be nearly as much of an problem.

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First and foremost, Windows 10 doesn't require a separate recovery image to restore your operating system anymore, and that's huge: the space-saving shrewdness could save you anywhere from 4GB to 12GB of space. That's without giving up the ability to restore your computer, because Microsoft claims Win 10 can do that from your existing runtime files.

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But that's not all. If your CPU and RAM are fast enough to decompress files on the fly, Win 10 will also give you 1.5GB of storage (for 32-bit) or 2.6GB of storage (for 64-bit) by compressing your system files as well. Windows 10 will actually analyze how much RAM is on your machine and give you that space as long as your device won't take a perceivable performance hit.

Windows phones are already pretty space-friendly but will get a bonus 1.5GB or 2.6GB as well.

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So far, Windows 10 seems to be all around good news. Hopefully when it releases later this year, it won't disappoint IRL. [Windows Blog]


Contact the author at darren.orf@gizmodo.com.