Windows 10 PCs to stop telling their users off for unsafely removing USB sticks after Microsoft update

No more annoying tones or feeling like you're being told off

(Alamy )

It is one of the pains of every PC users life: regularly being told off for unsafely removing a USB drive from their computer, and being told they could have ruined the data contained within it.

But that difficulty is now over after Microsoft made a change to the way that Windows 10 devices deal with those USB sticks, allowing them to be ripped out at any time.

Until now, PC users have been told to make sure they safely eject any USB drives that's plugged into their computers. It means either clicking through menus to do so or ignoring it and being harangued and threatened with the possibility of losing data.

But the latest Windows 10 update, in version 1809 and later, gets rid of that reminder and changes the way that computers deal with storage.

Microsoft isn't simply taking off the nagging reminders, but changing the way that PCs deal with USBs that are stuck into them to make sure the reminders are not needed anymore.

In previous versions of Windows, computers defaulted to the setting that allowed for better performance by using a feature called "write caching". That meant the computers would be in more constant contact with the USB storage, letting them work more quickly and reliably.

The new change now defaults to the quick removal setting, rather than better performance one. That means it is ready to be torn out of the computer without doing any damage.

That alteration does mean that system performance might be reduced by the new setting, and Microsoft encourages people who want that consistent performance to switch back to the previous setting and make sure that any USB drives are safely removed.