Yesterday Microsoft released Windows 10 Redstone 5 Build 17692 to Windows Insiders.

They listed off several new enhancements that are being tested in this build via their official release notes however, I just came across a slick feature that was not mentioned.

As I was doing some post install and upgrade maintenance, including removing the backup copy of the previous version of Windows, I saw a new set of options in the Windows Settings > System > Storage > Storage Sense > Change how we free up space automatically settings.

Windows 10 Redstone 5 OneDrive Storage Cleanup

As you can see the new option here will help with the maintenance of files you have selected from OneDrive to always be stored on your device. You will also see an entry here for each OneDrive account you have on your device including OneDrive for Business. The retention/clean-up settings can be selected independently for each OneDrive storage account.

When OneDrive Files On-Demand returned to Windows 10 last year it improved upon the previous iteration of the cloud storage services ability to store files locally. Not only could you now see your entire OneDrive storage directory structure, which had been a very popular feature before it was pulled a few years earlier, but you could also mark certain files to always be available on a particular device.

This meant those files would be accessible even without an Internet connection. OneDrive already manages Files On-Demand when you are connected by dynamically downloading files for local use and synching those changes back to the cloud. It monitors your file accesses and will mark some files for local storage so they are always available.

This new feature provides a clean up option that will monitor OneDrive Files On-Demand for you and mark locally stored files as cloud-only after they have not been accessed for a selected duration of time.

Windows 10 Redstone 5 OneDrive Storage Cleanup

As you can see there are several options available in these settings:

  • Never
  • 1 day
  • 14 days
  • 30 days (the default)
  • 60 days

This setting is turned on after installing Windows 10 Redstone 5 Build 17692 and set for a default of 30 days. If you want that period of time to last longer or to be completely disabled then you make that choice and selection here.

Of course, this is a development build of Windows 10 for the next feature update which is expected in the fall of this year. That means this feature might not survive all the way to public release but I do like the idea behind it to help manage local storage for my OneDrive accounts.

What do you think?

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