Anyone who has attempted to install Windows 11 on a PC older than four years will know how demanding the OS is on resources. But as it turns out, apart from relying on the Windows Trusted Platform Module 2.0, Windows 11 is also a little bit storage-intensive due to its default apps. In fact, Microsoft’s premier operating system carries with it a retinue of 1.5GB worth of default applications.
A website called Oofhours recently decided to identify exactly what it is that makes Windows 11 and its default apps so storage-intensive. Using the invaluable PowerShell tool, they compiled a list of all of Windows 11’s associated default apps and ranked them according to how much space they use. The exercise revealed that the biggest culprit of storage theft is Microsoft teams, devouring a whopping 91MB of space.
However, the rest of the apps didn’t look nearly as storage-intensive at face value. For instance, the Microsoft Store app was shown to consume only 11kB of space. After additional investigation and digging into the Windows 11 system files, the Oofhours team discovered that there are actually two separate folders that together make up the net storage of the default apps. In the case of the Microsoft Store, the total usage of the app suddenly shot up from 11kB to 37MB. To put it into perspective, that’s just under 3500 times more storage-intensive than originally thought.
When this expanded research methodology was applied to the rest of the default apps, the total storage that Windows 11’s default apps use goes up to 1.6GB. While comparatively, this isn’t such a monumental number in terms of computer storage, it does present a problem for people who don’t use these apps frequently or at all. While some apps are integral, like the Settings app and File Manager, apps like Microsoft Teams, with its 91MB storage drainage, aren’t in use by every single Windows 11 user. So to many users, the majority of these 1.6GB storage drains represent one thing and thing alone; Bloatware.
It’s not all gloom and bloatware over at the Microsoft headquarters, though. Some really exciting things are permanently happening on the Windows 11 front. The latest in a string of recent updates has even introduced new shortcuts within the Windows 11 Task Manager environment!
