What just happened? It seems Microsoft's had a change of mind and updated a support document that now states a minimum of 32GB storage requirement only applies to OEMs manufacturing new PCs. The new disk space requirement was previously applied to anyone looking to install or upgrade to the latest version of Windows.
Back in April, Microsoft
bumped the storage requirement for updating to its latest version of Windows 10. While it didn't cause an uproar that usually accompanies a Windows update, likely because upgrading to spacious and fast SSD storage is cheaper than ever, there remain many Windows devices out in the wild with in-built storage of less than 32GB.
It looks like those devices can continue to receive OS updates for the foreseeable future. First reported by
Windows Latest, Microsoft has
added a note in a new article which applies to the Windows 10 May 2019 update that clarifies the minimum storage requirement for new and existing PCs.
"New disk space requirement for Windows 10, version 1903 applies only to OEMs for the manufacture of new PCs. This new requirement does not apply to existing devices. PCs that don’t meet new device disk space requirements will continue to receive updates and the 1903 update will require about the same amount of free disk space as previous updates."
For those wondering, the amount of disk space required for PCs for previous versions of Windows is 16GB for 32-bit and 20GB for 64-bit systems.
This new announcement means that you won't be seeing any new Windows devices ship with less than 32GB of storage and that installing or updating to the Windows 10 version 1903 is still possible on your existing PC if for some reason (other than non upgradability) it's still choking on 16 or 20 gigs of storage.
