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Storage Sense and Automatic maintenance

yunsong 20 Reputation points
2025-09-10T06:39:50.37+00:00

Hello, I have some questions about Storage Sense and Automatic Maintenance. From what I understand, Storage Sense used to be turned off by default, but I read on a forum that starting with the 22H2 update, it is now turned on by default. Is this true?

Also, what is the difference between Storage Sense and Automatic Maintenance? Both appear to perform disk cleanup. If storsvc.dll is related to Storage Sense, does Automatic Maintenance also have an associated DLL configuration file? And do both of them rely on cleanmgr.exe or the Silent Cleanup Task?

The two features seem very similar, and I find it confusing!

Windows for home | Other | Files, folders, and storage
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  1. DaveM121 877.9K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2025-09-10T07:16:53.4266667+00:00

    Microsoft indicate Storage Sense is not enabled by default in Windows.

    Storage Sense is basically the same as Disk Cleanup that runs on a schedule, but it also will clear out the Downloads folder and also OneDrive local cache for files not used in a while, it will only delete data if your drive is short on space to ensure Windows can run efficiently.

    Automatic Maintenance has nothing to do with storage on your drive, it is run on a schedule to perform tasks like installing updates, running diagnostic system scans and security scans, and also optimizing disks (file system) on your PC.

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