Disk Cleanup doesn't clear Windows Update Cleanup

asturias7 · May 25, 2022

Hey folks,
try as I might, I cannot get Disk Cleanup (via clean up system files) to clean the files in Windows Update Cleanup.
It's 2.13 GB worth of update files.

I've tried everything, searched for solutions, but nothing works.
Does anyone know a sure-fire method that would clear these WU files?

glasskuter · May 25, 2022

Are you running disk cleanup as administrator? It is an option from search results page. If accessing disk cleanup from administrative tools, right click and select run as administrator.

Also verify that there is no pending restart in settings-windows update.

idgat · May 25, 2022

Never a big fan of 3rd party disk/registry "cleaning" tools, although I do make the rare exception with WiseDiskCleaner. Just use the default settings.

P.S. *N*E*V*E*R* the "nasties" riddled ccleaner.

Servo · May 25, 2022

idgat said:
Never a big fan of 3rd party disk/registry "cleaning" tools, although I do make the rare exception with WiseDiskCleaner. Just use the default settings.

P.S. *N*E*V*E*R* the "nasties" riddled ccleaner.

Nice little program, thanks for sharing

Samuria · May 25, 2022

You use storage space now more advanced than diskclean

Mark Phelps · May 25, 2022

Samuria said:
You use storage space now more advanced than diskclean

Not personally aware of anything in Windows 11 named "storage space"

There is "storage spaces" -- but that is a means of managing storage using a pool concept -- not a way to free up space.

There is Storage under Settings, but that is not "storage space".

Bree · May 25, 2022

asturias7 said:
try as I might, I cannot get Disk Cleanup (via clean up system files) to clean the files in Windows Update Cleanup.
It's 2.13 GB worth of update files.

When Disk Clean Up cleans up Windows Update it's actually calling another process to do the cleaning. You can call that exact same process from the command line, where you can see in more detail what is going on.

Open a Command Prompt (Admin). Then use the following DISM commands (they may take some time to complete).

First, to see the current size of the component store, whether there are any reclaimable packages, and whether a clean up is recommended:
DISM /Online /Cleanup-image /AnalyzeComponentStore

Then, to clean up the component store:
DISM /Online /Cleanup-image /StartComponentCleanup

After the clean up, check the size of the component store again. If all is working correctly it should have shrunk and any reclaimable packages removed.

If it has not shrunk, there are still reclaimable packages, or a clean up is still recommended, then your system is not working properly. I have seen a few cases where this has been reported, such as this Windows 10 one....

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...eclaimed/98c97f90-5396-4a84-a857-1bb465560657

The reported cure was an in-place repair install.

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

Bree · May 25, 2022

Samuria said:
You use storage space now more advanced than diskclean

Actually it calls the same process as Disk Clean Up or DISM to clean up Windows Updates. You'll see in Task Manager that it's TiWorker.exe that does the real work.

hsehestedt · May 25, 2022

Give this a try (explanation follows) ...

1) Open a command prompt (does not need to be elevated).

2) Type in the command cleanmgr /d C: /sageset:65535

3) When Disk Cleanup opens, click the "Cleanup system files" button.

4) Check all boxes (unless there is something you specifically do NOT want to cleanup).

5) Click OK.

6) Run the command cleanmgr /sagerun:65535

Explanation: In the first 5 steps you are effectively just configuring Disk Cleanup and saving your preferences for what you want to cleanup. In order to get all available options you must specify the disk drive to which Windows is installed (/d C: in the above example), AND you need to select the "Cleanup system files" option.

The "/sageset:65535" simply tells Windows to save the configuration to the registry with a configuration number of 65535. Note that you can use any number from 1 to 65535. In this way, you can store multiple different configurations for Disk Cleanup.

The last command (step 6) simply runs Disk Cleanup with the configuration you saved as number 65535.

Now that this configuration is saved in the registry, from now on you can simply run the last command again and not have to select any checkboxes. This would be especially useful in a batch file to allow a single command to perform your specific cleanup tasks.

Give this a shot and see if it does what you want.

asturias7 · May 26, 2022

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions.
I did a repair via the UUP Dump Files method and now everything is fine, no more Gigs of Windows Update files.
I'm going to presume it had something to do with an Insider build I had upgraded to and the leftover files weren't being cleaned out for some reason or other... of course I could be wrong. Anyhow, the repair worked and thanks to everyone who contributes here with suggestions, tutorials, etc, you are all of great help!

Bree · May 26, 2022

asturias7 said:
I'm going to presume it had something to do with an Insider build I had upgraded to and the leftover files weren't being cleaned out for some reason or other...

Glad to hear you got it fixed.

By coincidence, shortly before you posted I had the same problem on a machine running the production build 22000. DISM reported three packages to clean up, but was unable to clean them (some 4GB). Fortunately I had a system image from the month before, taken prior to this fault developing. I restored that rather than doing a repair install.

I suspect that a crash that had occured recently was the cause for my problems. Did your Insider build ever crash on you? From my Googling it seems to be a rare fault, but has been around for a while, certainly before Windows 11.

Anyway, that's how come I had a relevant link to hand :wink:

asturias7 · May 26, 2022

Bree said:
Glad to hear you got it fixed.

By coincidence, shortly before you posted I had the same problem on a machine running the production build 22000. DISM reported three packages to clean up, but was unable to clean them (some 4GB). Fortunately I had a system image from the month before, taken prior to this fault developing. I restored that rather than doing a repair install.

I suspect that a crash that had occurred recently was the cause for my problems. Did your Insider build ever crash on you? From my Googling it seems to be a rare fault, but has been around for a while, certainly before Windows 11.

Anyway, that's how come I had a relevant link to hand

No, none of the builds ever gave me any problems. But, I also had DISM report three packages to clean and no luck as well trying to clean them. Anyhow, thanks again.

TicTac63 · May 27, 2022

I love using this little utility
GitHub - builtbybel/burnbytes:

Open-source replica of Microsoft Disk Clean-up with aesthetics of Storage sense (aimed as community cleaner)

The-Hive · May 27, 2022

Some people like and use CCleaner, that will shift it along with the other suggestions.

Bree · May 27, 2022

The-Hive said:
Some people like and use CCleaner, that will shift it along with the other suggestions.

I like CCleaner, I use it to clean up the cache/cookies for all my browsers at one hit.

But it has no option that can do a windows updates clean up.

The-Hive · May 27, 2022

Can you not add the folder to the include section? I must use System clean-up, that get's rid of mine. I like CCleaner and use it same as you, But some people mentioning no names doesn't maybe they just had a bad experience with it once

Bree · May 27, 2022

The-Hive said:
Can you not add the folder to the include section?

Cleaning up the WinSxS component store is something that should only be done by Windows itself. Often several GB can be recovered this way.

Cleaning up windows updates should only ever be started through Disk Clean up or DISM. Deleting files in the WinSxS folder yourself is a good way to brick your system

Clean Up Component Store (WinSxS folder) in Windows 10

How to Clean Up Component Store (WinSxS folder) in Windows 10

www.tenforums.com

FrankW · May 28, 2022

Mark Phelps said:
Not personally aware of anything in Windows 11 named "storage space"

There is "storage spaces" -- but that is a means of managing storage using a pool concept -- not a way to free up space.

There is Storage under Settings, but that is not "storage space".

It is called Storage Sense and when clicking on Temp. Files it will search for redundant Windows Update files. It finds usually 2-3 GB files after each windows update that are purged and/or compressed.

AddRAM · May 29, 2022

The-Hive said:
Some people like and use CCleaner, that will shift it along with the other suggestions.

I totally recommend using it. All you need is the free version. And you don`t have to use every option it gives you.

Download CCleaner | Clean, optimize & tune up your PC, free!

Download CCleaner for FREE. Clean your PC of temporary files, tracking cookies, browser junk and more! Get the latest version today.

www.ccleaner.com

cineman195 · May 29, 2022

asturias7 said:
I did a repair via the UUP Dump Files method

Can you please give me any reference as to how to do this, thanks

Disk Cleanup doesn't clear Windows Update Cleanup

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