14 DAY TRIAL // The leaked Windows 9 screenshots that reached the web a few days ago revealed quite a lot of unknown things about the upcoming operating system, including the introduction of a new feature called Storage Sense, that’s borrowed from Windows Phone.
As we reported a couple of days ago, the first sign showing that Storage Sense appeared in a leaked screenshot presenting the new PC settings screen, which also included a reference to the new feature that could already be part of the Windows 9 preview build scheduled to see daylight this month.
Storage Sense is already available on Windows Phone 8.1, but it appears that it could also make its debut on the desktop with the help of Windows 9 in order to assist users as they’re trying to keep things organized on their hard drives and remove unnecessary files.
At this point, it appears that the option is only available in the Modern UI of Windows 9, but before the public debut of the operating system it could also be introduced in the desktop Control Panel.
Simple design, useful features
Storage Sense is an option that displays information about how much space the operating system and libraries are actually eating up on the local drives.
As you can see in these leaked photos, the Windows 9 Storage Sense option doesn’t provide too many options and seems to be even more basic than the one in Windows Phone.
Users are only provided with a storage overview and default save locations for music, pictures and videos in order to keep space on the main drive for other files.
Not much can be done with Storage Sense, but keep in mind that these leaked screenshots come from only an early testing build of Windows 9, so lots of things could change until the final product is ready for shipping.
Not the only option coming from Windows Phone 8.1
Storage Sense is just one of the two very important features that are coming from Windows Phone 8.1 on Windows 9, as Microsoft is also working to bring personal Assistant Cortana on PCs.
At this point, Cortana appears to be implemented in Windows 9 preview builds in the form of a reminder, but Microsoft is clearly working on the project to make its personal assistant available on the desktop with full features by April 2015.
At the same time, the notification center that will be part of Windows 9 will also be based on the one in Windows Phone 8.1, with features and looks very similar to what you can find right now on smartphones powered by Windows.
