Windows 7 Disk Cleanup Not Deleting Updates

N

Nerva

Weaksauce
Joined
Oct 12, 2008
Messages
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I run the Disk Cleanup tool, click on the "Clean up system files" button, after which it shows there is 4.55 GB of "Windows Update Cleanup" that can be removed. I click "OK" and then click "Delete Files", after which the progress bar moves along slowly but surely, and then the cleanup app closes. I check my disk space... and nothing has changed...

I've tried this four times the last few weeks and it has not worked. Any idea what could be keeping the cleanup from working? I really need the space now.
 
It is probable that Windows Update Cleanup won't delete updates until they are a certain age (in case a recent update causes a problem that a user needs to roll back).

Run CCleaner. You can also manually delete everything in the Windows/SoftwareDistribution/Download folder. Leave the WinSxS folder alone, you can't clean that manually without breaking your Windows install.

I've also seen old Content.ie5 folders (the temporary files location for Internet Explorer) seemingly be overlooked by any of these methods for reasons unknown to me, particularly on very old Windows installs; I've been known to turn off hidden system folders and files, run searches for the various Content.ie5 folders (there can be a lot of them) and manually delete everything in them.

Hidden usage of disk space can often be a result of hard links. SysInternals Disk Usage (du.exe) can get a more accurate count of disk usage without counting hard links, but even it can't see everything.
 
You have the reboot the PC to finalize the cleanup.

I believe that option reduces the size of the winsxs folder.
 
My winsxs folder is almost 20 gigs, is there any way to remove those files without breaking my windows 7 64bit installation?
 
chaikovski2002 said:
My winsxs folder is almost 20 gigs, is there any way to remove those files without breaking my windows 7 64bit installation?
Click to expand...

No.... I have looked for a while, since that folder gets huge on our servers, where shared storage is expensive.
 
chaikovski2002 said:
My winsxs folder is almost 20 gigs, is there any way to remove those files without breaking my windows 7 64bit installation?
Click to expand...

Other than a fresh install of Windows 7, no. It's one of the unfixable flaws of Windows 7 (It's under much better control in Windows 8.x). The relatively new feature in Win7's Disk Cleanup that Nerva is trying to use is Microsoft's way of mitigating some of it, but it's far from complete.

As I said before, don't even try to mess with your WinSxS folder manually. You'll just break your install in a really bad way.
 
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