Want the very latest Windows Insider Dev Channel build? Check your disk space

You might need to free up 24GB. A bug for now, but might be sign of way things are going

Remember when you could run Windows from a floppy disk? The latest Windows 11 Dev Channel Insider build could need at least 24GB of free space to download and install.

Microsoft dropped the news into its Known Issues list for build 25179 and said the problems that might occur should insufficient bytes be available was a bug and would be fixed. However, onlookers fear this is an indicator of the direction of travel for the ever-expanding waistline of Microsoft's flagship operating system.

To be fair, the company set the minimum storage needed for a fresh install of Windows 11 at 64GB in its most recent set of hardware requirements. Windows 10 was a mere 20GB for 64-bit editions; those rounded corners and fluent icons clearly chew through the disk space.

However, demanding 24GB of free space just to get an update that doesn't seem to contain very much, seems excessive, even for Microsoft. Perhaps a cue was taken from the gaming division, where games such as Sea Of Thieves or Flight Simulator regularly demand the player spend hours downloading updates before they fire up.

Dare we point out that the 27 game modes of the Atari 2600's Combat somehow squeezed in a space measured in kilobytes rather than gigabytes?

As for what Microsoft has done that needs 24GB of free space to download and install, well, there's a language-neutral word list (although you'll need a Microsoft Account to make it work – AAD support is "coming soon"); if you haven't already got the neat File Explorer Tab and Navigation updates, those should arrive; and the Tamil Anjal keyboard was added for the Tamil language.

There was also a raft of fixes, including crashes in apps during attempts to print and "a few issues impacting explorer.exe reliability." Problems in new features, such as the taskbar overflow flyout displaying on the wrong side of the screen and issues with the recognition of date and time in Suggested Actions, were also addressed.

Additionally, Microsoft updated the Beta Channel with builds 22621.575 and 22622.575, although it noted that Insiders with domain-joined PCs might suffer from "Insufficient system resources" errors when attempting to use their credentials after an update. Enabling Credential Guard should fix the problem, otherwise a pause in updates is probably needed.

Sound has also mysteriously stopped working for some Insiders in both the Dev and Beta Channels, according to Microsoft. The company is apparently working on a fix.

In the Windows Insider program, nobody can hear your PC scream. ®