When an update package is damaged or fails to install, Windows 10 may keep the corrupted file on the drive, so it will further cause issues with updates. Here is how to delete the downloaded Windows Update files that Windows 10 doesn't delete itself.
Windows 10 checks for updates automatically unless you disable this feature manually. The operating system comes with the Windows Update service, which automatically downloads and installs the updates from Microsoft.
There are certain reasons for having corrupted Windows Update files. It can be an improper shutdown, OS crash, power failure, or something gone wrong with your Registry. After that, Windows Update may fail to do its job properly. The OS may fail to check for updates, or fail to install them.
Sometimes, the Windows Update page in Settings cannot be opened! To fix most of the Windows Update issues in Windows 10, usually it is enough to run the built-in Windows Update troubleshooter.
When you run into issues though with updates, you may spend hours or even days figuring out what is going wrong. In such case, you can try to delete downloaded Windows Update files to start over. The SoftwareDistribution folder contains files related to updates obtained via Windows Update, it is present on all versions of Windows. It could have a couple of hundreds megabytes of size. But if this folder is much larger, this indicates that some updates are corrupted.
Restart Windows 10 and check for updates. See if this fixed your issues. The command net stop wuauserv stops the Windows Update service. The del command erases the contents of the Download folder and its subfolders.
Windows has presented me with a list of updates that are needed but I only want to download and install the Windows Defender security update files. How do I pick and choose which of the presented files to download and install? Can you provide any additional help? Hi Martin, what happen if i deleted the downloaded file? It simply removes the cached update files but does not impact the system in any other way. It does not remove installed updates.
Hope they go away soon… or learn to be polite. For particularly pernicious cases, I have a script to do all of it. It also clears out catroot: net stop wuauserv net stop bits net stop cryptSvc net stop msiserver. Easier just to rename the SoftwareDistribution file. The OS will rebuild it again on the next reboot.
Okay, tech-challenged senior here…am running Win7, do I need to do this? Is it really something I should try? Or is this for Win10 only? Is this something I even really need? I have very little idea what these comments are even about. There are some exceptions: a if you run into update issues as described in the article, b if you want to clear up space after all updates are installed properly and leftover files are still in the folder.
This works in all recent versions of Windows, not only in Windows Great, thanks, Martin. But thanks again. I had MG! Thank you!!!!! Amazing results: Began with only MB available storage on my C drive before emptying the SoftwareDistribution folder, which contained Win 10 ver repeatedly failing to complete installation over the past month I tried and tried, not enough space.
Immediately after: 5. After restarting: 5. Manufacturers are now no longer allowed to pre-install Win 10 on low storage 32 GB devices. Glad I found this aricle, saved me! I follow the process you shared and it delete the patch but when i click on check for updates under windows update in windows R2 wsus client or any other wsus client all the patch which i deleted came again.
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Please click on the following link to open the newsletter signup page: Ghacks Newsletter Sign up. Ghacks is a technology news blog that was founded in by Martin Brinkmann. It has since then become one of the most popular tech news sites on the Internet with five authors and regular contributions from freelance writers.
Search for:. How to delete downloaded Windows Update files. Find out how to delete downloaded cached Windows Update files on all supported versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system. Martin Brinkmann. Check the size of the update and find the file with the same or closest size in the Download folder and delete it. After that, the OS will download the update files again.
Keep in mind this is just a possible solution for an update that fails to install and in some cases, it might not fix the problem. Guides Windows. Related Articles. How to install and use the TikTok app in Windows Mar 26,
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