How To Automate Storage Control In Windows 10

Storage Control

Every week I go through a backup sequence that involves, obviously, backing up my computer. What may not be so obvious is that I also make a point of eliminating a lot of dormant cruft that builds up over time. Namely, temporary files that Windows likes to leave laying around. Also, there is that enormous amount of stuff in the Recycle Bin. I don’t want to back up those things; they are both unneeded and disk-filling dead weight. I like things clean.

One of the tools I use to keep my disks clean is the software included in Windows 10 itself– the Disk Cleanup Tool. I am sure DCT readers are well-familiar with this utility and it is therefore not necessary for me to explain it to you.

If, perchance, you are not familiar with this basic utility, of course DCT has already enlightened you with this article:

How To Regain Hard Drive Space – New Windows Disk Cleanup Features

What many of you may not know is that Windows 10 itself now has a new method of controlling gross file obesity. It is called Storage Sense and I am here to tell you about it.

Geeks vs Normal Folk

It is a given that so-called Geeks love to tinker. They want to change little things here and there to better suit their needs/wants. Tinkering is our life. It makes us what we are.

Normal people, on the other hand, merely want things to work and don’t much care how they work. Period. (For those people, article written, it is. ~ Yodish)

Storage Sense

Storage Sense is a mechanism introduced in the Creators Update for Windows 10. By enabling this, the “normal” people among you will be able to basically set it and forget it. Lovely.

Setting It

To enable Storage Sense, do the following:

• Use the WinKey + I Hotkey to open the Settings App
• Click on System
• Click on Storage
• Toggle the Storage Sense option to either On or Off

Configure It

Click on the link: Change how we free up space

That should bring up this window:

Granted, as with all new features in Windows of late, the options are limited:

• You can choose to delete Temporary Files, or not
• You can choose to delete 30+ day old files within the Recycle Bin, or not
• Oh, you can also choose to delete those files right now, or not

Not a whole lot of control, but I guess it’s better than nothing. Binary thinking. Sorry, but I’m a Geek and these choices do nothing to salve my need for absolute dictatorship over my computer– Microsoft’s White-hats be damned!  If you are a “Normal Person” though,  this may be enough to keep you happy.

Forget It

Normal People can somehow manage to set things and forget about them. This is something I could never acclimate myself to. However, if you are able to abide the torment of doing so, more power to you. Perhaps you don’t feel any sense of torment? How confusing…

Once you have these settings in place, you may forget about it. Windows will happily keep your massive file bloat at bay, in a most minimal manner. Once again, this is an example of a half-baked attempt on Microsoft’s part to rectify what has become a commonplace problem within the operating system. This should have been addressed decades ago. There is an old adage: “Intel giveth, and Microsoft taketh away.”

Think about that for a millisecond… or two…

Final Thoughts

Many of you have already decided that “setting and forgetting” is a great concept and the only way to go. This may be true for the vast majority, I don’t know. Myself? I cannot swallow the idea that one more service needs to be running in the background, chewing up CPU time-slices 24/7, in order to accomplish a single thing that I can do once a week.

Repetition is one of the things at which computers excel, but using that specialty beyond its useful purpose becomes shallow-minded.

Each to his own, I guess,

Richard

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