Windows 11 24H2: "update cleanup" space of 8.63 GB just an artifact

hi fans,

after having read many postings in this forum for several years, i decided to create my first own posting, which was triggered by lots of recent contributions
in various forums plus many articles from around the globe, as reactions to an issue with the official release of W11.24H2 related to an apparently persistent
update cache of size 8.63 GB. some postings and articles describe this problem as update cache files being "undeletable" or "unremovable", "stealing" a
considerable amount of system disk space.

i've been playing around with W11.24H2 (not part of the insider program, w/o expiration dates) on a fully configured test system (incl. lots of user software)
since may, when i first upgraded W11.23H2 successfully to the then still unofficial version W11.24H2.26100.712. since then i've gradually applied all patches,
lifting the build number from 712 up to 1742, and most recently to 2033. this sticky update cache of 8.63 GB only appears in build 2033 and was absent from
all previous ones incl. 1742.

for each version i generated total image backups (using ACRONIS), after minimizing system disk space usage as follows: (a) remove all the usual temporary files
with CCLEANER; (b) under settings->system->storage->temporary files select all categories and click on remove files; (c) clean the WIN component store (WCS)
by:

dism /online /cleanup-image /startcomponentcleanup

(d) remove all stored update files by deleting the directory C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution (yes, i'm aware that this prevents the removal of installed patches).

now i've had a look at the sizes of my total backups for these various versions, including the original W11.23H2, from where i started upgrading to W11.24H2.
i also checked the development of used space on C:. my conclusion: not a single jump in disk space usage exists which comes even close to the ominous value
of 8.63 GB.

many of the posters didn't go down my route by starting with an unofficial version of W11.24H2 a few months back, then gradually applying patches, but instead
upgraded W11.23H2 directly to the latest official release of W11.24H2. therefore, i also wanted to test this direct upgrade path. here're my different phases:

1. start with W11.23H2 (latest version W11.23H2.22631.4317). for a "normalized" comparison with W11.24H2, i minimized the disk space by performing steps
(a)-(d) as described above.

2. apply an in-place upgrade to W11.24H2 by using the latest official ISO (which contains W11.24H2.26100.1742).

3, apply patch KB5043080 (is required for installing the following patch).

4. apply patch KB5044284 (increments the build number to 2033).

5. apply patch KB5044030 (.NET security update). with (5) the system was fully updated + patched to the latest version W11.24H2.26100.2033.

6. minimize disk space as described above.

some storage spaces (all in GB) for the phases (1)-(6) are shown in the table below:

phase used space on C: prev. installs upgrade logs update cleanup updates WCS (act/FX)
------- ------------------ -------------- -------------- ----------------- --------- --------------
1 110 - - - - 9.75/10.1
2 121 13.8 0.428 - - 8.19/8.22
3 122 13.8 0.428 - 0.701 8.19/8.22
4 128 13.8 0.429 8.63 0.701 11.95/12.83
5 129 13.8 0.429 8.63 1.31 12.11/13.01
6 109 - - 8.63 - 9.08/9.27

where "WCS (act/FX)" refers to the windows component store usage (actual and as shown by file explorer), obtained from:

dism /online /cleanup-image /analyzecomponentstore

after cleaning phase (6) storage space usage can be directly compared to W11.23H2 from before upgrading: there's no evidence for disk space "stealing", which
coincides with my previously mentioned observations when comparing the used space on C: as well as the size of total image backups for my upgrade and gradual
updates since may (W11.23H2 up to the latest W11.24H2.26100.2033). it appears as if 24H2 needs even a bit less space w.r.t. W11.23H2. i couldn't see any loss of
disk space, let alone of the order of 8.63 GB.

to me it looks as if this 8.63 GB "Windows Update Cleanup" in settings->system->temporary files is just some artifact as a result of incorrectly calculating and/or
displaying file space. from my tests it seems to be just an annoying/irritating but harmless bug which doesn't "steal" any actual disk space from C:-, but that's just
my personal conclusion as the result of tests performed on 1 single system.

finally i attempted to somewhat narrow down the origin of this effect: 8.36 GB is quite a large amount, so i checked the space occupied by files in the sub-dirs
inside "Windows": there exists only 1 dir with its used space coming close to the value of 8.63 GB: that's the WIN component store (Windows\WinSxS), as can be
seen from the table above. so i was guessing, this bug might perhaps relate to the WinSxS storage, which contains many files + dirs (in the order of 100k). after
some more testing i came up with the following observations:

1. when moving a significant number of arbitrarily chosen dirs from WinSxS to some temp dir, W11.24H2 still shows the exact same amount 8.63 GB of "update
cleanup" space.

2. however, the moving of 1 singular dir with the name:

amd64_microsoft-windows-servicingstack_31bf3856ad364e35_10.0.26100.2032_none_a54f556d772e44b1

lets the category "Windows Update Cleanup" with its 8.63 GB disappear completely after clicking on "remove files" in settings. i haven't checked whether or not the
two hex numbers embedded in the name of this dir might depend on the installation, the machine type, the installed edition of WIN (in my case it's PRO), etc.

3. the above mentioned dir contains 27 rather small files (some executables, mostly DLLs). after renaming the following 3 DLLs (the above dir was moved back to
WinSxS):

wcp.dll, wdscore.dll, wrpint.dll

to something else, the 8.63 GB update cleanup space again disappears. so my guess is, that this bug has perhaps something to do with those 3 DLLs...

since the 8.63 GB of space appears not to be "stolen", i've restored the original names of the 3 DLL's; i no longer bother about the displayed 8.63 GB of "persistent"
storage which is only an artifact.

hopefully this report might be of some help...

PS: just a few minutes ago i noticed that Microsoft has now officially confirmed this bug to be a display error - in accordance with my report.

Disk Cleanup might incorrectly report space available for cleanup
Despite cleaning up files, the application might display an incorrect estimate of space still available for cleanup

It should be deleted after 30 days.

Too much inforrmation which makes little sense when trying to put it all together. I can't tell if you are referring disk space used by window.old or not.

Bottom line if you go to C:\ and see a window.old folder after an upgrade, as was stated it should automatically remove after 30 daty. A user can force remove it by using disk cleanup as administrator Delete Windows.old Folder in Windows 11 Tutorial one of the other methods listed here.
.

It’s a bug.

Answered in 3 words, not even.

2bie said:

PS: just a few minutes ago i noticed that Microsoft has now officially confirmed this bug to be a display error - in accordance with my report.

Click to expand...

Yeah that’s been known for a while.

FreeBooter said:

It should be deleted after 30 days.

Click to expand...

Where do you get that from?

antspants said:

It’s a bug.

Answered in 3 words, not even.

Click to expand...

Technically 4 words.
Although in one of the chillout games to me]ake sentence from five words, we allow contractions as one word LOL

Do contractions count as one word or two?
Contracted words count as the number of words they would be if they were not contracted. For example,
isn’t, didn’t, I’m, I’ll are counted as two words (replacing is not, did not, I am, I will). Where the contraction
replaces one word (e.g. can’t for cannot), it is counted as one word.

cereberus said:

Technically 4 words.

Do contractions count as one word or two?
Contracted words count as the number of words they would be if they were not contracted. For example,
isn’t, didn’t, I’m, I’ll are counted as two words (replacing is not, did not, I am, I will). Where the contraction
replaces one word (e.g. can’t for cannot), it is counted as one word.

Click to expand...

So true

Disagree on artifact speculation.

My installation is ballooning with every attempt to remove those 8.63 gb. Posted in other thread about that but I'm now at 95 GB on a brand new Windows install (less than a week old) at 24H2 whereas another computer that hasn't been updated to 24H2 and has been updating for at least 3 years now is under 75 GB.

My 24H2 Windows itself is bloating out like its constipated and not purging files during cleanup, even ones that DISM recognizes as needing to be removed.

Bug (one word).

Pretty sure your storage issue is something else, and your wasted time trying to remove the ghost 8.6 gb which has been covered all over the net, IMO is your fault not Microsoft. A fix will be released in the usual Microsoft timetable
If you want genuine help with a real issue, it would help to be clear & consise.
Fill out your "My Computer" specs so others know what system you are talking about, and the guru's with relevant "subject matter" can try and assist.

ELO said:

My installation is ballooning with every attempt to remove those 8.63 gb. Posted in other thread about that but I'm now at 95 GB

Click to expand...

I don’t think the ghost 8.36GB and your OS Temp files bloating to 95GB have anything to do with each other. Me thnks you have other propblems.

The disk cleanup issue with a false report 8.36Gb cleanup remaining is an incorrect estimate of space still available for cleanup. So your trying to remove it is pointless because it isn’t actually there.

ELO said:

My 24H2 Windows itself is bloating out like its constipated and not purging files during cleanup, even ones that DISM recognizes as needing to be removed.

Click to expand...

Yes, MS has realized that people are disabling reserved storage, so they have created an undesirable storage space.
My 6 months old 24H2 never went above 20GB and a week after a clean install I am at 30GB. It happened thrice.

TairikuOkami said:

MS has realized that people are disabling reserved storage

Click to expand...

Not sure why people would disable reserved storage space? Can you give me a scenario of the benefit to do so?

antspants said:

Not sure why people would disable reserved storage space? Can you give me a scenario of the benefit to do so?

Click to expand...

+7GB? It helps to keep OS smaller and thus system images smaller, faster to create and restore, it takes 40 secs on mine.
When I clean installed 24H2 on 66GB, I had like 3GB free space left, I freaked. I knew that it is hungry, but that was insane.

And again ( and again, agian ) enough reasons to wait with this buggy/tricky "upgrade" !
To me its not an upgrade but a downgrade............

antspants said:

Not sure why people would disable reserved storage space? Can you give me a scenario of the benefit to do so?

Click to expand...

It is really only needed on devices with low storage capacity.

If my 1TB drive ever gets that low, I would need a new drive or need to clear up a lot of crap.

The reason I disable it is so space can be used reducing write demand on rest of drive. Maybe pointless but equally so is reserving space on drives with plenty of capacity.