No need to 'safely remove hardware' on Windows 10 anymore, Microsoft confirms

Like all of us, it seems Microsoft was also fed up of politely requesting users to eject their flash drives through a safely remove hardware option.  But now, as of Windows 10 version 1809, users can simply remove their flash drive.

Microsoft recently confirmed that users would no longer have to worry about yanking their USB out without having to click “Eject” and then wait for the “Safe to Remove Hardware” notification.

The “Quick Removal” feature on Windows which allows users to remove a flash drive or Thunderbolt-enabled external device directly from a PC without waiting for the “Safe to Remove Hardware” prompt is now set to default on Windows 10 version 1809.

Although Microsoft previously introduced this setting in October last year, The software giant has only recently been vocal about the new change. However, the only downside to this new change is slower data transfer rates.

“Better Performance” was the previous default setting, which involved caching data during transfer or opening files, to enhance performance. With “Quick Removal” set to default, Windows will no longer cache disk writes, which means slower data transfer rates.

There’s no reason to worry about slow data transfer speeds as Windows lets users choose between “Quick Removal” or “Better Performance” for each USB drive. Here’s how you can switch between both options for each drive:

Right-click Start – select Disk Management – right click the Flash Drive – choose Properties – Policies – then select one of the two options – And you’re good to go.

But before you start pulling out flash drive left and right, ensure that the data isn’t being transferred and Windows is updated to version 1809. You can also use the steps mentioned above to ensure “Quick Removal” is set to default.