Microsoft has claimed that users who upgrade to Windows 10 will save significant storage space, Digital Spy reports.

The operating system is said to demand less hard drive space than its predecessors and uses a compression algorithm to free up between 1.5GB and 2.6GB.

Furthermore, Windows 10 no longer requires a separate recovery image to reset a PC to factory settings, and these can occupy as much as 12GB.

This particular saving only applies to computers and tablets, as smartphones do not require a recovery image to restore factory settings.

"Through the capacity savings of system compression and recovery enhancements, Windows devices can be lightweight and highly mobile, yet, when you need it, have the full capabilities of the Windows OS," said Microsoft in a blog post.

The consumer version of Windows 10 will be released for smartphones, tablets, PCs and more later this year.