Solved 24H2 - how to remove the two (un)reclaimable that always show in DISM

gunrunnerjohn · Oct 22, 2025

Levitate11 said:
Just musing... Odd that MS doesn't correct these errant packages and/or just remove them in an update.

Since they put them back if you do a repair install, I'd guess that they intended them to stay. I've stopped worrying about a pitiful little block of drive space for two packages that aren't affecting me at all.

pietcorus2 · Oct 22, 2025

Never WU-problems in 24H2 , while I always removed these "reclaimable "packages !
Seems changed in 24H2 , will never remove them in future ..........
btw , removed them in 6901 by accident , will see next month.........

gunrunnerjohn · Oct 23, 2025

pietcorus2 said:
Never WU-problems in 24H2 , while I always removed these "reclaimable "packages !
Seems changed in 24H2 , will never remove them in future ..........
btw , removed them in 6901 by accident , will see next month.........

I had two 24H2 machines that I had to do a repair install after I removed them. After the repair install, they're back, and I'll leave them until Microsoft decides they can go.

blueskyler · Nov 17, 2025

hi, this problem seem not fixed in win11 25H2 26200.7171
Can i use safely the command
dism /online /remove-package /packagenameackage_for_RollupFix~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~26100.1742.1.10 ?

BrianInEngland · Nov 17, 2025

gunrunnerjohn said:
I had two 24H2 machines that I had to do a repair install after I removed them. After the repair install, they're back, and I'll leave them until Microsoft decides they can go.

I've left them alone, they're not doing any harm being there

gunrunnerjohn · Nov 17, 2025

blueskyler said:
hi, this problem seem not fixed in win11 25H2 26200.7171
Can i use safely the command
dism /online /remove-package /packagenameackage_for_RollupFix~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~26100.1742.1.10 ?

I'm with Brian here, I removed them and had update problems. The repair install I had to do on two machines put them back. Since they're not hurting anything and I have hundreds of gigabytes of free storage on my Windows drive, I'm not screwing with them anymore!

Don't fix stuff that ain't broke!

FrancoDT · Nov 17, 2025

blueskyler said:
hi, this problem seem not fixed in win11 25H2 26200.7171
Can i use safely the command
dism /online /remove-package /packagenameackage_for_RollupFix~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~26100.1742.1.10 ?

I've used that command in the past and had future update issues as well. I consider it a forced removal of two component store packages that aren't meant to be removed and may very well be needed for the next update or recovery operation you need to do. Better to leave them be if they don't remove during the normal component store clean up.

Levitate11 · Nov 23, 2025

gunrunnerjohn said:
I'm with Brian here, I removed them and had update problems. The repair install I had to do on two machines put them back. Since they're not hurting anything and I have hundreds of gigabytes of free storage on my Windows drive, I'm not screwing with them anymore!

Don't fix stuff that ain't broke!

When I was in IT, we had a motto: "Just because it's not broken doesn't mean we can't fix it.".

uncyler825 · Nov 23, 2025

Package_for_RollupFix~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~26100.1742.1.10 is part of the KB5043080 package. KB5043080 is a checkpoint cumulative update, even if you remove this update package, it will be reinstalled in the next security update. When you run Windows Update to download security updates, the KB5043080 update package will also be downloaded. The official Windows 11 25H2 image file also includes this update package. You do not need to remove this checkpoint update package.

larysid · Dec 29, 2025

Hello! I have a fresh formatted laptop dell alienware with win 11 25 h2 and there are 4 reclaimable packages which of course cannot be deleted with the start component cleanup...Is this normal? I believe that the best option is to not touch them... Another weird thing is that there are 760MBs in windows update cleanup in settings delete temporary files, which cannot be deleted with the cmd command dism reset base...Do you agree that it is normal behaviour, so leave them as they are?

Rollback_Jockey · Dec 29, 2025

larysid said:
Hello! I have a fresh formatted laptop dell alienware with win 11 25 h2 and there are 4 reclaimable packages which of course cannot be deleted with the start component cleanup...Is this normal? I believe that the best option is to not touch them... Another weird thing is that there are 760MBs in windows update cleanup in settings delete temporary files, which cannot be deleted with the cmd command dism reset base...Do you agree that it is normal behaviour, so leave them as they are?

The majority of the posts above suggest they are needed, personally i leave them alone since my last 3 cumulative updates have bit me on the ass.

FrancoDT · Dec 29, 2025

larysid said:
Hello! I have a fresh formatted laptop dell alienware with win 11 25 h2 and there are 4 reclaimable packages which of course cannot be deleted with the start component cleanup...Is this normal? I believe that the best option is to not touch them... Another weird thing is that there are 760MBs in windows update cleanup in settings delete temporary files, which cannot be deleted with the cmd command dism reset base...Do you agree that it is normal behaviour, so leave them as they are?

Kind of unusual you have 4 unreclaimable packages as most of us usually have just 2 unreclaimable. However if they are indeed unreclaimable I would leave them alone for now as they may be needed for future updates and may get cleared out after a future update:

Key Reasons for Unreclaimable Packages:

Hard Links: Files are shared across the system; a component might show as reclaimable but its files are actively used elsewhere, so DISM can't remove them.
Safety & Fallback: Windows retains older, "staged" components as backups for rollbacks or future feature installs, preventing corruption if newer updates fail.
Baseline Components: Some packages, often from major updates, act as foundational layers and are locked until the next large update confirms they're no longer needed.
Incomplete Cleanup: DISM is conservative; it won't delete everything to avoid breaking critical functions, leaving some items marked as "reclaimable" but not actually removable.
Interrupted Updates: Failed or incomplete updates can leave behind staged components that DISM struggles to process.

Ghot · Dec 29, 2025

larysid said:
Hello! I have a fresh formatted laptop dell alienware with win 11 25 h2 and there are 4 reclaimable packages which of course cannot be deleted with the start component cleanup...Is this normal? I believe that the best option is to not touch them... Another weird thing is that there are 760MBs in windows update cleanup in settings delete temporary files, which cannot be deleted with the cmd command dism reset base...Do you agree that it is normal behaviour, so leave them as they are?

Open Terminal (Admin), and run the following command, to remove all BUT the two packages...

Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase

This topic is how to remove the final two packages, if desired.
I removed the last two before, and then had trouble with Windows Updates.
Not everyone has experienced the same issue.

gunrunnerjohn · Dec 29, 2025

larysid said:
Hello! I have a fresh formatted laptop dell alienware with win 11 25 h2 and there are 4 reclaimable packages which of course cannot be deleted with the start component cleanup...Is this normal? I believe that the best option is to not touch them... Another weird thing is that there are 760MBs in windows update cleanup in settings delete temporary files, which cannot be deleted with the cmd command dism reset base...Do you agree that it is normal behaviour, so leave them as they are?

Unless you have a burning desire to reclaim the small amount of disk space or are experiencing actual problems, my advice is to ignore them.

I had two of them, and I did the manual exercise to remove them. All seemed well, but the next significant upgrade went awry and I ended up having to do a repair install to get Windows Update working again. This happened twice, I stopped tempting fate after that.

Yes, you'll hear stories of folks that removed them and had no problems. You'll also find quite a few stories of folks that removed them and then had a similar experience to mine. You can take your choice if you want to shoot the dice. :lmao:

If you decide you must remove them, I suggest an image backup before you do, makes the recovery quicker.

Bree · Dec 29, 2025

gunrunnerjohn said:
Yes, you'll hear stories of folks that removed them and had no problems. You'll also find quite a few stories of folks that removed them and then had a similar experience to mine.

I've not had any issues with any of my RTM 24H2 (now 25H2) machines, but I did have update issues with the Insider Dev/Beta Channel.

gunrunnerjohn said:
If you decide you must remove them, I suggest an image backup before you do, makes the recovery quicker.

If you don't have an image, then an in-place repair install through Windows Update or with an ISO will reinstate them. That's what I did for my Insider builds.

Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade

This tutorial will show you how to do a repair install of Windows 11 by performing an in-place upgrade without losing anything. If you need to repair or create a new recovery partition or having problems with the Windows 11 operating system on your PC, and the usual solutions will not fix it...

www.elevenforum.com

pietcorus2 · Dec 30, 2025

Better stay safe , dont remove them ( next updates may fail........) , not worth the risk............!

hader · Dec 30, 2025

Too all:
I can explain why those two packages are still there with 24H2 and 25H2.

First of all inside the Component Store of 25H2 ALL packages still have the same version numbers that 24H2 has: 26100.xxxx. So it's wrong to think that 25H2 is a new version. Since 25H2 came out; don't find you odd that every update talks about applying it against 24H2 26100.xxx AND 25H2 26200.xxx? Deep down in the engine they are still the same. Only Winver and Setting-System are changed in such a way that it will display 25H2, 26200.xxxx. 25H2 is not more than a fancy version of 24H2. I suspect this will change when 26H2 will be released. We have to wait and see if that will be the case.

Second; 26100.1742 is the base version (some kind of backup-version) of 24H2/25H2. Any build updates after that will affect the new version that has been placed next to this base version. (old version gone, new one back in it's place and that base version will remain untouched) That's why we always see two versions inside the Component Store; 26100.1742 and 26100.xxxx. Why is that then? In case of damage of the "new" version. It always can revert to the old package 1742 in order do do repairs. If we had only the new version and stuff is damaged? Windows will not start etc. Reinstall Windows with all the risk that is coming with it; we would lose all our personal data. That's why if we do a In-Place-Installment we are back at 26100.1742 again. After everything has been installed, The update will download the (latest) new version and place it besides the base version; We are at the latest build version again. Windows has been refreshed without losing all our personal data..... (The base version has been renewed and the latest build is placed besides it)

So removing those 2 packages for cosmetic purposes (should be 0!!!, Dism says so...) Yes; their lays the real problem. MS is not taking in account that DISM will show us "2 more packages can be cleaned up..." It can easily avoided if they made an exception only for those 2 packages and show us 0 packages to be cleaned up.... They woke up the dogs by this way. I stopped removing them. Because every time I'll do an In-Place-Installment they are back again. So I understand the reason why now and can't be bothered with it anymore. Already told this to MS support but as always it fell onto deaf ears. They have their reasons.

pietcorus2 · Dec 30, 2025

" They have their reasons "..................curious , what these reasons could be......!

hader · Dec 30, 2025

pietcorus2 said:
" They have their reasons "..................curious , what these reasons could be......!

Maybe "can't be bothered either....... 26H2 is coming... They are busy." or "Will be fixed with 26H2." ?

Bree · Dec 30, 2025

hader said:
Maybe "can't be bothered either....... 26H2 is coming... They are busy." or "Will be fixed with 26H2." ?

If the Insider Canary Channel 26H1 is any guide, 'fixed' looks possible.

Solved 24H2 - how to remove the two (un)reclaimable that always show in DISM

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