How to Delete Windows 10 Update Files

There are numerous cases where Windows Update induces problems in itself and fails to update the components which it downloaded. You might see the ‘pending changes’ notification on your update module which refuse to install despite attempting several times. In cases like these, it is recommended that you delete the already downloaded windows update files.

The update module will check if it has the files present. If it doesn’t, it will reinitialize the entire process and start downloading the updates again. The update files getting downloaded partially is not something and this will fix that issue.

Method 1: Deleting contents of the temporary folder

The temporary folder on your computer holds the files when they are being downloaded and the installer fetches the files from this folder when attempting to install them to the correct directory. The installer never downloads files to the same folder where the installation is selected to happen.

We can try deleting the contents of the temporary folder to fix whatever issue you are having by accessing it using the Run terminal.

1. Press Windows + R, type “%temp%” in the dialogue box and press Enter.
2. In the directory, you will see hundreds of entries if you haven’t cleared your temp folder ever. It is also advisable that you make a copy of this folder to another location so you can restore if anything wrong happens.

Select all the items, right-click them, and select Delete.

1. Power cycle your computer after this and see if this action fixed whatever problem you were having.

Method 2: Deleting content of SoftwareDistribution folder

SoftwareDistribution is a folder located in windows directory which is used to temporarily store files which may be required to install the latest windows updates on your computer. This is a requirement for the update module and the read/write operation to this is managed by WUagent.

Deleting the contents of this folder will delete your update history. Deleting the history can have its own perks, for example, the update module will no longer take large amounts of time to initialize. Before we delete the contents, we have to disable the update module.

1. Press Windows + S, type “command prompt” in the dialogue box, right-click on the application and select “Run as administrator”.
2. In the command prompt, type “net stop wuauserv” and “net stop bits”. Don’t close the command prompt yet, we may need it later on.

Now we will navigate to Windows Update directory and delete all the updated files already present. Open your file explorer or My Computer and follow the steps.

1. Navigate to the address written below. You can also launch the Run application and copy paste the address to reach directly.

1. Delete everything inside the Software Distribution folder (you can also cut paste them to another location in case you want to place them back again).

Note: You can also instead rename the software distribution folder. Name it something like “SoftwareDistributionold”.

Now we have to turn the Windows Update service back on and launch it again. Initially, the Update Manager might take a few minutes to compute details and prepare a manifest for the download.

1. Press Windows + S, type “command prompt” in the dialogue box, right-click on the application and select “Run as administrator”.
2. In the command prompt, type “net start wuauserv” and “net start bits” and press Enter.

1. Now restart your computer and try doing the activity which prompted you to delete the Windows update files.

Solution 3: Deleting the XML files

Windows maintains an XML file to keep track of all the update files downloaded, or currently in queue to be downloaded. When we delete this XML file, all the list be lost and when Windows will find the list missing, it will create a new one and reinitialize all the operations.

Note: Instead of deleting the list, it is wise to cut paste the file to another location so you always have the option to restore if anything goes wrong.

1. Press Windows + R, type “C:\Windows\WinSxS\” in the dialogue box and press Enter.
2. Search the directory for a pending XML file and delete

1. Restart your computer properly and check if windows update files are deleted successfully.

Solution 4: Resetting the CatRoot2 folder

Catroot and catroot2 are folders which are essential for Windows Update operation. These are used to store the signatures of the update packages and they help in its installation process. Resetting the catroot2 folder is a known fix for several Windows update problems.

Note: Do not delete or rename the catroot2 folder. This folder is automatically recreated by Windows but it isn’t recreated if the latter is done.

1. Press Windows + S, type “cmd” in the dialogue box, right-click on the application, and select Run as administrator.
2. Once in elevated command prompt, execute the following command statements one by one:

Now delete all the contents of catroot2 folder and after deleting, execute the following command:

The catroot folder will be reset whenever you launch Windows update again.

How to Delete Windows 10 Update Files and Cached Data?

How to delete downloaded Windows 10 Update files Correctly

Remove or delete Windows 10 update files will free the system drive space and speed up your PC too. When you update your Windows, the update files will be cached on your Windows system drive. You must manually delete Windows 10 update files or use some third-party application. The built-in Disk Cleanup’s of Windows feature is great for deleting Windows temporary files. But for deleting Windows 10 update files, you can use the Windows 10 installed Update section.

Related Articles:

This is the most common problem user asked us about. Unless we had explained for previews Windows, like Windows 8.1 and Windows 7. Fortunately, it works the same for all Windows. So try to clean up your system temporary files to speed up the performance of your computer, specialty Windows 10.

Delete Windows 10 Update Files

There are two ways to delete Windows 10 update files. The first one is deleting from Windows update an installed update file which sometimes causes the issue. The second is delete the update cached files in Windows 10 using disk cleanup.

Delete Windows 10 update files and temporarily cached files:

1. Check Windows 10 Update files.
2. Delete an installed update file.
3. Remove Windows 10 temporary files.
4. Cleanup Windows 10 with Disk Cleanup

Follow the below step by step guide to delete Windows 10 update files, temporary files, and other cached files. Let’s begin with uninstalling an update file.

1. Press Windows+R to open the Run and type “appwiz.cpl” on the Windows Run to open Program and Features. On the programs and feature page, select View installed updates.

Delete Windows 10 Update Files and Temporary Cached Files – Technig

2. To delete an installed update, select and right click the installed update you want to uninstall, then click Uninstall.

Note: Some Windows updates are not removable, you can’t simply uninstall it with Windows Programs and Features section.

Remove Windows Update Files and Cached Data

This is the second method to delete Windows update files and other cached data or temporary files. Just follow up the below guide.

1. Open your File Explorer (This PC or My Computer). Right-click the Windows system drive and click Properties to open the Local Disk (x) Properties. The system drive is where your Windows 10 has been installed currently.

Windows 10 System Drive Properties – Technig

2. On the Properties of the system drive, click Disk Cleanup to open Disk Cleanup for the drive (C:). Then select all from Download Program files to Thumbnail files under Files to delete. When you have selected all of them, click Clean up system files.

Delete Windows 10 Update Files

3. Now on the Disk Cleanup tab, select all options again, then click OK to delete all Windows 10 update files and temporary files.

If you want to delete System Restore and Shadow Copies, select More Options tab and click Clean up to remove system restore and shadow copies.

Delete Windows 10 System Restore and Shadow Copies

Remember: This action will remove all system restore point, you will not be able to restore to preview point unless the system will create a new restore point.

4. Just click Delete Files to make sure that all files will remove successfully. Until it will not finish, don’t close the process window or shutting down your system.

Are you sure you want to permanently delete the files

5. Now all Windows 10 update files and other cached files must be deleted. Close the System Properties window.

That’s it, easy and simple.

To do the same task or need to more about deleting system cached files or remove Windows update files, I recommend you to read the below articles.

How to delete downloaded Windows Update files

This is the manual task you can do to delete downloaded Windows update files. It is easy to delete all cached update files. This works on all supported versions of Windows, including Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10.

How to delete downloaded Windows 10 Update files – Technig

1. Open the Run.
2. Type services.msc.
3. Right-click on the result, and select “run as administrator” from the context menu.
4. Locate the Service Windows Update. The services listing is sorted alphabetically by default. Click on the name to revert the order so that you don’t need to scroll as much.
5. Right-click on the service Windows Update and select Stop from the menu.
6. Go to C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download using Explorer or any third-party file browser. If you navigate to the folder manually, you may need to enable the showing of hidden files first.
   1. Do so with a click on File > Change folder and search options.
   2. Go to View, and scroll down until you find “Hidden files and folders” listed.
   3. Select “Show hidden files, folders and drives”.
   4. Remove the checkmark from “Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)”.
   5. Click Apply, then OK.
7. Select all files of the folder. The easiest way to do that is to use Ctrl-A while the folder is active.
8. Hit the Delete-key on the computer keyboard.
9. Windows may need administrator privileges to delete certain files. Select “do this for all current items” and click continues to grant the permissions.
10. Go back to the Services window.
11. Right-click on the Windows Update service, and select Start from the list of options.

Cleanup Windows 10 with third-party Software

PC Scan & Repair by Reimage software is also a good tool to completely scan and repair your computer. Download and install it then start scanning. The below screenshot is the scan result’s of my Laptop.

PC Scan & Repair by Reimage

Also, there are more third party apps will do this for your, but doing Windows task with built-in Windows app is better and free. It will let you discover your computer features and functions more.

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