Windows Update Cleanup disk usage doesn't change

zeon

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Disk Cleanup is failing in removing 972MB from Windows Updates, no matter how many times I run it, it always shows the same value, I've tried many things like troubleshooting windows update, running sfc scans and other things I don't remember. I'm using Windows 8.1 btw.
 
Disk Cleanup is failing in removing 972MB from Windows Updates

From where?? what folder?

That operation is _ Windows Update Cleanup

Not remove windows updates
 
Fix what??

What are you trying to remove? what files? what folders?
 
Fix what??

What are you trying to remove? what files? what folders?

I'm not the one removing anything. The size of Windows Update Cleanup doesn't change no matter how many times I run the Disk Cleanup, I also try restarting after running it.

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Do you have all your windows updates installed?

run this from command prompt(admin)

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase

and then go to

"C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download" you can manually delete the files in that download folder
 
Do you have all your windows updates installed?

run this from command prompt(admin)

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase

and then go to

"C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download" you can manually delete the files in that download folder

Didn't work, Windows Update Cleanup still shows the same value, almost feels like a bug. What do you mean if I have all my windows updates installed? I downloaded all of the updates that Windows Update gave me.
 
First of all 972MB isn't very much(not quite a GB).
Secondly, how long has this been happening? Longer than a couple of weeks? Sometimes it takes up to a month before windows can(is allowed) to clean up certain files(until they're superseded or taken over). It's probably a built in protection so you can roll back if you have a problem with an update(been happening a lot of users lately).
 
Copied from TechRepublic
You'll want to restart your system once Disk Cleanup completes its operation. When your system restarts, any unnecessary Windows Update files will be completely removed. As you survey the results, keep in mind that the Windows Update Cleanup feature will only remove files that it finds are no longer needed by the system, so you may find that a lot of files have been removed from your system or you may find that very few files have been removed from your system.
For example, after running the Windows Update Cleanup feature on my Windows 8 system, the number of files only dropped from 58,739 to 58,130 and the size of the WinSxS folder only dropped from 6.89 GB to 6.83 GB -- a very small gain. However, on my Windows 7 system, the number of files dropped from 54,524 to 47,454, and the size of the WinSxS folder dropped from 11.1 GB to 7.86 GB -- a modest gain of 3.24 GB of hard disk space.
 
Using the /ResetBase switch with the /StartComponentCleanup parameter of DISM.exe on a running version of Windows 8.1 removes all superseded versions of every component in the component store.
 
Using the /ResetBase switch with the /StartComponentCleanup parameter of DISM.exe on a running version of Windows 8.1 removes all superseded versions of every component in the component store.
That's what I love about your answers Jimmy,:thumbsup: you use the command prompt, which is a lot easier for the poster to do (C&P) and easier than explaining the path to get to a certain option, also it works at a kernel level as well and not UX or UI, making results faster.

One thing for the OP after cleaning you need to reboot so Windows installer can do it's magic while the services and files are offline.
 
First of all 972MB isn't very much(not quite a GB).
Secondly, how long has this been happening? Longer than a couple of weeks? Sometimes it takes up to a month before windows can(is allowed) to clean up certain files(until they're superseded or taken over). It's probably a built in protection so you can roll back if you have a problem with an update(been happening a lot of users lately).

It's been a week.
 
That's not too long. Try what Jimmy said in post #7, and if nothing or little changes, wait a couple of weeks then try again. Unless you're pressed for space(very small drive), it's really no big deal. Actually Windows manages everything itself in time when it's pressed for room. In a lot of settings it ask for percent disk space and not a set amount(kb or MB). And it even cleans up updates by itself. Sometimes you'll see "Windows installer configuring updates" when you didn't update, that's Windows cleaning out unused language packs and/or old updates. In my opinion it only needs to be manually done before preparing a system image or cloning/data migration to a smaller disk.
 
please guys any help ? i have the same problem with 47 mb of non removed windows update cleanup , and every time i delete them they just reappear. I know it's not much but i have a small drive and i'm OCD about it so please can anyone confirm is waiting for a month is THE solution cause tried everything else and nothing worked
 
please guys any help ? i have the same problem with 47 mb of non removed windows update cleanup , and every time i delete them they just reappear. I know it's not much but i have a small drive and i'm OCD about it so please can anyone confirm is waiting for a month is THE solution cause tried everything else and nothing worked

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