Enable or Disable Windows 11 Reserved Storage Easily

This post shows students and new users steps to turn on or off reserved Storage or disk space when using Windows 11. Reserved Storage is a feature in Windows 11 that sets aside a portion of the system disk as a reserve for use by temporary files, caches, and other files.

Windows reserves this portion of the disk to keep the space usage on your computer more predictable and stable, ensuring critical OS functions always have access to disk space.

Windows 11 automatically clears the reserve storage when the main disk runs out of free space for Windows updates and other processes.

The default size of Reserved Storage is around 7 GB. However, the size may vary based on the size of the disk space, processes, number of apps installed, etc. In most cases, you will not want to delete the reserved storage space, but it’s important to Windows.

If you need to delete the reserved storage space, well, you can do it. However, it’s not recommended. Or if there’s no reserved storage on the System, you can use the steps below to recreate one.

To get started with turning on or off reserved storage space in Windows 11, follow the steps below:

How to turn off reserved storage space in Windows 11

As mentioned above, Windows creates reserved storage space to keep your computer’s space usage more predictable and stable, ensuring critical OS functions always have access to disk space.

However, the user can delete this reserved Storage, although not recommended.

To view your computer’s reserved Storage, go to the Start menu ==> Settings ==> System ==> Storage ==> Advanced storage settings ==> Storage used on other drives.

Then click on the Local Disk (C:).

Next, select System & Reserved. On that window, you should see your computer Reserved Storage.

Now, to disable the reserved Storage, click on Start the search for Command Prompt. Right-click the Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.

When the Command Prompt app opens, run the commands below to turn off Windows 11 reserved storage.

DISM /Online /Set-ReservedStorageState /State:Disabled

The reserved Storage should take a few minutes to disappear from the settings pane.

The below image shows Windows 11 without reserved Storage

How to enable reserved Storage in Windows 11

If you change your mind about deleting Windows reserved storage, you can simply run the commands below to re-create the reserved Storage.

Again, open the Command Prompt as administrator, then run the commands below.

DISM /Online /Set-ReservedStorageState /State:Enabled

The reserved Storage should be recreated.

That’s it!

Conclusion:

• Reserved Storage in Windows 11 helps maintain predictable disk space usage and ensures critical system functions have necessary resources.
• Deleting Reserved Storage is generally not recommended, as it can impact system performance and update capabilities.
• Users can easily enable or disable Reserved Storage using the Command Prompt with administrative privileges.
• Monitoring the Reserved Storage can help manage disk space effectively, especially in systems with limited storage capacity.
• Consider keeping Reserved Storage activated to optimize overall system stability and performance.