Windows 11 is getting a new security feature that might cause confusion — here's what it does and why

• Windows 11's latest preview patch has a security addition
• It stops users who aren't admins from accessing the Storage panel in Settings
• This was done to prevent unauthorized people from messing with the contents of your drive(s), but it wasn't announced, and might confuse some folks

Windows 11's latest patch – which it should be noted is a preview release – has made a change to the operating system's settings that could confuse some people.

Windows Latest discovered that the KB5074105 patch applies a tweak under the radar whereby Windows 11 now requests admin permission when you go into Storage settings.

In other words, when you open the Storage panel in the Settings app, Windows 11 will pop up a 'user account control' dialog box before giving you access, one that contains different options depending on the type of local account you have.

If you have an admin account – which will be the case if yours is the only local account ever set up, and it's your PC – then you just need to click 'Yes' to the question about whether you want the app (Settings) to be able to make changes to your device. Then you'll be able to see all the Storage options as normal.

However, if you aren't an admin – which would be the case for other family members, for example, with a family PC that lots of people use – you will be blocked from going into this Storage panel (unless you enter the admin password, that is, which will be requested for access).

Analysis: a sensible move, but one that could confuse some folks

In short, this is stopping anyone who isn't an admin from messing with anything to do with storage.

As such, it's giving Windows 11 users a bolstered level of security in a case where a family member might go 'rogue' – or an unauthorized person with local access gets on the PC somehow – meaning they can't mess with your drive and, say, delete content. (It could also prove to be a hurdle for a hacker, even, who is potentially leveraging remote access to get onto your PC, although it wouldn't be much of a meaningful roadblock in that scenario – but still, it's something).

So, keeping the workings of the storage panel as accessible only by the primary user of the PC (the owner or admin) does make some sense.

The problem is that with this change sneaking in unannounced, when the box pops up out of the blue the first time the storage panel is accessed, there could be some bewilderment about why this question is appearing (when it never did before). It also disrupts the flow of the interface to have these warning prompts summoned, adding another click to any given storage-related operation.

Overall, though, it seems sensible to keep certain more sensitive parts of the Windows 11 interface behind what's effectively a locked door – but we should have had some kind of notification from Microsoft about this move.

Note that this is an optional change for now – in the preview update which arrived late in January – but it will become part of the full Windows 11 update for February, which lands next week, assuming Microsoft is happy with how this functionality is working.

On that latter note, it seems there may be a minor bug with this introduction, because as Windows Latest points out, a couple of drive clean-up options appear to have vanished from the Storage panel. This pertains to temporary files which are from old Windows updates and device drivers, we're told, so hopefully Microsoft will be aware of this, and fixing it so these can be cleaned out again. They are still removable via Disk Cleanup, Windows Latest informs us, as an alternative.

The best laptops for all budgets

➡️ Read our full guide to the best laptops
1. Best overall:
Apple MacBook Air 13-inch M4
2. Best budget:
Asus Chromebook CM14
3. Best Windows 11 laptop
Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch
4. Best gaming:
Razer Blade 16
5. Best for pros
MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro)

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