Windows 11 Cumulative Updates are HUGE now!?

[Space_Munkey]

Hi All,

 

Anybody else struggling with the sheer size of the recent CU's? I understand it's because they now come bulk loaded with AI / Copilot features?

 

We have 60 x Lenovo 100e's with only 64GB storage. They're only used for word processing and web browsing and maybe a bit of python. We didn't budget to refresh them this year because I recommended that they would have gone again for another year, had the updates stayed within a reasonable size... (they had around 7-10Gb free storage).

 

The last few updates seem to be many GB's each which has now put this devices in a constant state of without storage space.

 

We have some 300e's which we use for some TA's and by some stroke of luck, they have an extra unfilled m.2 slot - This was going to be my fixed, only i have just this second found out that the 100e's do not 😭.

 

[DalekSec]

Whats your fix with the 300es? You can't span the C drive across the 2 drives unless you RAID them.

 

As for the 100es, 64GB hasn't been enough for Windows 11 since the start (once you start putting Office etc on it also), it's not even enough for iPads now! The only fix is to upgrade the storage or move to another lighter OS like ChromeOS or a Linux distro. 

[JazzFlute]

3 minutes ago, DalekSec said:

Whats your fix with the 300es? You can't span the C drive across the 2 drives unless you RAID them.

 

As for the 100es, 64GB hasn't been enough for Windows 11 since the start (once you start putting Office etc on it also), it's not even enough for iPads now! The only fix is to upgrade the storage or move to another lighter OS like ChromeOS or a Linux distro. 

 

I fitted new NVME's in my 64GB 300e's and at a cost of only £25 each was well worth the money to get another couple of years out of them but not all 300'e have the spare slot as in the link so I'd always open one up first to check before buying.

 

 

[Synkrox]

I have a few 64Gb devices. These are issued to individual students so thankfully profile bloat isn't too bad.

I keep the software list small, just the basics.

Installed 25H2 with a USB stick as it allows you to use it for temp storage during install. After install it was left with about 8GB free.

 

They are destined for the recycler over the summer though!

 

 

[synaesthesia]

Yeah, anything like that should either be in WEEE or have ChromeOS Flex installed, then they'll last until they're either physically destroyed or out of support with Google.

But as things are price-wise it's easy to understand why people are scraping the barrels. I'm absolutely in awe of the fact (negatively) that windows 11 needs a) so much space and b) so much bloody RAM. Take away the AI nonsense and ensh**ification of the OS and browsers, even with security updates in mind, and 4GB should still be a usable amount of RAM. 

The fact that since the last round of updates all our 8GB staff laptops are HORRID to use is absolute evidence of the ensh**ification and it'll be a cold day in hell before I'm bulk buying RAM to get around the laziness and horridness of this system.

I think turning staff devices into Chrome would be an easier sell to SLT at the moment!

 

[machy]

I remember having some windows 10 devices on 32GB, aswell as having to do a custom image to strip stuff out, we had to reimage them every year to keep them updated. 

Can you stick whatever the current stripped version is on them? 

[synaesthesia]

Our digital signage runs on old laptops - Win 11 LTSC. With latest updates up to May 2026 "26H1" the install footprint is 43GB. Thats the base LTSC image and Chrome only with no other apps, doing something that can be done (and I used to do) on Windows 10 LTSC on the Intel ComputeSticks which I think were 2GB ram and 32GB storage.