The new Windows 10 update called “Redstone 5” which is set to be released in November, will change the way files are managed and cleaned up when freeing up storage space.
Announcing Insider Build 17758, Microsoft said that the Storage Sense feature will automate the task of file management by automatically removing local copies of “older and unused” files. The process is called “dehydration” and will not affect files marked “Always keep on this device.”.
The system will select files based on the date they were last opened. Files that haven't been opened for a long time will be uploaded to OneDrive to free up local storage space.
A pointer will point to the file stored on OneDrive which will replace the original file. When the user needs to access the files uploaded to OneDrive, the data will be seamlessly retrieved from the cloud storage using this pointer.
However, Storage Sense isn't going to upload all your old files that you forgot existed. The "dehydration" will only happen when your computer is running low on storage. So if you have a terabyte of storage, the day of purging may never come.
Storage Sense is already able to remove files, such as system logs and image thumbnails, that are not being used but are taking up memory space. The Storage Sense cleanup process runs periodically or automatically when the system is running low on storage space.
You can try this feature if you're running Insider build 17720 and up. Go to Settings > System > Storage. Click "Change how space is automatically freed up.".
