No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Questions on how we spend our money and our time - consumer goods and services, home and vehicle, leisure and recreational activities
User avatar
Topic Author
LadyGeek
Site Admin
Posts: 95466
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2008 4:34 pm
Location: Philadelphia
Contact:

No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by LadyGeek »

Whenever Microsoft Windows performs an update, the update file is permanently saved on your hard drive. Those updates can take up Gigabytes of storage that could be better used elsewhere.

As of Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (and Windows 8), Microsoft has a built-in utility that will remove those files. See: Windows Update Cleanup For Windows 7 And Windows 8

Follow the article's instructions and be sure to reboot. Windows will go through a full configuration process on shutdown and at boot time. It might take a few minutes to do the actual cleanup when rebooting.

I freed up 2.5 GB of room on my hard drive.

For the finishing touch, clean up your temporary files and registry with CCleaner. Only use the free version and be careful not to install any extra bloatware when you install the program.

Finally, defrag your hard drive.
Wiki To some, the glass is half full. To others, the glass is half empty. To an engineer, it's twice the size it needs to be.
Puakinekine
Posts: 856
Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2007 9:18 pm

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by Puakinekine »

Thanks for cleaning up a mystery for me. I often use the disk cleanup utility before backing up, and was wondering why this morning there were ~2gbs of files to be removed rather then the usual 1 or 2 megabites. Now I know.
investor1
Posts: 1050
Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2012 8:15 pm

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by investor1 »

I reboot my Windows machine daily, and run clean manager every time a boot. I have it automated. As stated in that article, you can save the settings used when running clean manager, then run the same settings from the command line. Here is another doc that describes how to do that.

Once I had the settings saved, I created two files. A batch script that runs clean manager with the saved settings, and a VBS script that runs the batch file (just so I don't have to look at a command prompt window. Here is what they look like:

clean.bat:
@echo off
cleanmgr.exe /sagerun:0
rmdir /S /Q %TEMP%
Note that that also deletes the system temp directory similar to how Linux works.

clean.vbs:
Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WshShell.Run chr(34) & "C:\clean.bat" & Chr(34), 0
Set WshShell = Nothing
I then dragged and dropped the clean.vbs file into Start > Program Files > Startup so the script is run when Windows starts. A dialog pops up when running clean manager each time I boot, but I don't have to interact with it.

I actually take it a step further and make heavy use of my system temp directory. I changed the location of my system temp directory so the system temp and user temp are the same location by following the directions in the answer found here.

I also set the default download directory for my web browser to be the temp directory.

The result is most of the files that I don't need get deleted every time I reboot.
dgdevil
Posts: 938
Joined: Sun Feb 20, 2011 12:42 pm

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by dgdevil »

I would love to delete "Intel Network Connection Drivers 16.1" and its 1 million MB, which I apparently haven't used in 2 years, from my Windows XP - but I fear unintended consequences.
Novine
Posts: 1240
Joined: Mon Nov 17, 2008 8:07 pm

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by Novine »

I wouldn't recommend using registry cleaners. There's no significant benefit from using them and they can cause real problems. There are times for manually editing the registry but I wouldn't rely on those programs to do that.
Jack
Posts: 3254
Joined: Tue Feb 27, 2007 1:24 am

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by Jack »

LadyGeek wrote:I freed up 2.5 GB of room on my hard drive.
Now that is the ultimate Boglehead. HDD storage costs about a nickel a GB these days so you saved about 12.5 cents.

By the way, I still pick up pennies off the sidewalk out of habit -- and then at the first opportunity put them in the leave-a-penny-take-a-penny tray at the cash register because I don't want to carry them around. Go figure.
User avatar
Peculiar_Investor
Site Admin
Posts: 2431
Joined: Thu Oct 20, 2011 12:23 am
Location: Calgary, AB 🇨🇦
Contact:

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by Peculiar_Investor »

LadyGeek wrote:Finally, defrag your hard drive.
Unless it is a SSD.
Normal people… believe that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain’t broke, it doesn’t have enough features yet. – Scott Adams
FreemanB
Posts: 374
Joined: Thu May 22, 2014 5:55 am

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by FreemanB »

Jack wrote:Now that is the ultimate Boglehead. HDD storage costs about a nickel a GB these days so you saved about 12.5 cents.
Unless it is an SSD, which are still running about $0.50/GB. In that case, the total comes to about $2.50, enough for a decent beer during Happy Hour :happy
Browser
Posts: 4857
Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2012 4:54 pm

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by Browser »

Went through the process described in the article, but the option "Windows Update Cleanup" does not appear so I can't select it. How come?
We don't know where we are, or where we're going -- but we're making good time.
User avatar
Doom&Gloom
Posts: 5398
Joined: Thu May 08, 2014 3:36 pm

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by Doom&Gloom »

Browser wrote:Went through the process described in the article, but the option "Windows Update Cleanup" does not appear so I can't select it. How come?
Be sure not to leave out the step to run Disk Cleanup as Administrator. I skipped that the first time I tried, and the Windows Update Cleanup option did not appear.
mschmitt
Posts: 77
Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2007 7:16 pm

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by mschmitt »

Just to highlight something from the article: "After performing this cleanup, you may not be able to uninstall any of the updates currently applied."

I don't think I'd do this unless it's down to the last few GBs.
User avatar
Topic Author
LadyGeek
Site Admin
Posts: 95466
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2008 4:34 pm
Location: Philadelphia
Contact:

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by LadyGeek »

dgdevil wrote:I would love to delete "Intel Network Connection Drivers 16.1" and its 1 million MB, which I apparently haven't used in 2 years, from my Windows XP - but I fear unintended consequences.
Network drivers interact with your motherboard (which should have an Intel chipset), so it's best to leave them alone.
Wiki To some, the glass is half full. To others, the glass is half empty. To an engineer, it's twice the size it needs to be.
User avatar
Topic Author
LadyGeek
Site Admin
Posts: 95466
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2008 4:34 pm
Location: Philadelphia
Contact:

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by LadyGeek »

mschmitt wrote:Just to highlight something from the article: "After performing this cleanup, you may not be able to uninstall any of the updates currently applied."

I don't think I'd do this unless it's down to the last few GBs.
That's up to you, but make sure you have about 20% of free space available.

Microsoft recommends having at least 20% available space in order to be able to run the defrag utility (read that somewhere, can't find the direct source).
Wiki To some, the glass is half full. To others, the glass is half empty. To an engineer, it's twice the size it needs to be.
User avatar
SpringMan
Posts: 5422
Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2007 11:32 am
Location: Michigan

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by SpringMan »

dgdevil wrote:I would love to delete "Intel Network Connection Drivers 16.1" and its 1 million MB, which I apparently haven't used in 2 years, from my Windows XP - but I fear unintended consequences.
In a case like this I would rename the file or folder and see if there are unintended consequences. If there are you can rename it back to the original, if not then delete the renamed file/folder.
Best Wishes, SpringMan
Browser
Posts: 4857
Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2012 4:54 pm

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by Browser »

Doom&Gloom wrote:
Browser wrote:Went through the process described in the article, but the option "Windows Update Cleanup" does not appear so I can't select it. How come?
Be sure not to leave out the step to run Disk Cleanup as Administrator. I skipped that the first time I tried, and the Windows Update Cleanup option did not appear.
Did that and still didn't work. I then found out you have to be logged on as the Administrator for this to work. I usually am not logged in as Administrator when I'm on my computer (security reasons). So... it would have been nice if the article had mentioned that. Once I did that I removed almost 5Gb of windows update stuff.
We don't know where we are, or where we're going -- but we're making good time.
User avatar
Doom&Gloom
Posts: 5398
Joined: Thu May 08, 2014 3:36 pm

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by Doom&Gloom »

Browser wrote:Did that and still didn't work. I then found out you have to be logged on as the Administrator for this to work. I usually am not logged in as Administrator when I'm on my computer (security reasons). So... it would have been nice if the article had mentioned that. Once I did that I removed almost 5Gb of windows update stuff.
Glad you figured it out. I consider it a good day anytime I learn something new about my computer :happy
Lynette
Posts: 2404
Joined: Sun Jul 27, 2014 9:47 am

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by Lynette »

.....
Last edited by Lynette on Wed Dec 06, 2017 7:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
gd
Posts: 1638
Joined: Sun Nov 15, 2009 7:35 am
Location: MA, USA

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by gd »

If you haven't done this yet, be advised the restart (which it did not prompt for) on my computer took perhaps 1/2 hour, with 2 of the "configuring, do not shut your computer off" messages lasting maybe 15 minutes each. Very unusual and unnerving, and would have been a minor disaster if I'd restarted the next morning to quickly check essential work information before rushing off for appointments. So now I have 225 GB free, instead of 220.
sschullo
Posts: 2839
Joined: Sun Apr 01, 2007 8:25 am
Location: Long Beach, CA
Contact:

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by sschullo »

Thx Ladygeek
Never in the history of market day-traders’ has the obsession with so much massive, sophisticated, & powerful statistical machinery used by the brightest people on earth with such useless results.
Browser
Posts: 4857
Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2012 4:54 pm

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by Browser »

gd wrote:If you haven't done this yet, be advised the restart (which it did not prompt for) on my computer took perhaps 1/2 hour, with 2 of the "configuring, do not shut your computer off" messages lasting maybe 15 minutes each. Very unusual and unnerving, and would have been a minor disaster if I'd restarted the next morning to quickly check essential work information before rushing off for appointments. So now I have 225 GB free, instead of 220.
I just found this out myself. After the "configuring" phase, I got the message "Cleaning Up", which lasted for at least 15 minutes. I'd never seen this before after a Windows update.
We don't know where we are, or where we're going -- but we're making good time.
User avatar
magellan
Posts: 3489
Joined: Fri Mar 09, 2007 3:12 pm

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by magellan »

Another way to free up a good chunk of disk space is to disable hibernation. With hibernation enabled, windows keeps a file on the system drive that's the same size as your system's ram.

If you don't use hibernation you can disable it and reclaim the disk space. Even if you do use hibernation sometimes, turning off hibernation before a disk clone or disk backup operation will reduce the system image size considerably and speed up the clone or backup.

Here are some instructions for disabling hibernation and reclaiming the disk space:
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tr-doj ... -function/

Jim
Browser
Posts: 4857
Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2012 4:54 pm

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by Browser »

Afterwards, Norton told me that my computer downloaded a file named TrustedInstaller.exe that is 254Mb in size. Did a search and found that it is needed for installing Windows Updates. I guess that the purge removed it. I also found that this thing consumes a lot of processor power and slows system performance for a time after the updates have been installed. I always wondered what was causing this.
We don't know where we are, or where we're going -- but we're making good time.
User avatar
VictoriaF
Posts: 20122
Joined: Tue Feb 27, 2007 6:27 am
Location: Black Swan Lake

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by VictoriaF »

Thank you, LadyGeek,

I am still using Windows XP, and I think the updates do not apply in my case. But I did install CCleaner yesterday and was amazed how much stuff it has found and removed.

I also had a "learning experience." I had an old backup drive that I wanted to throw away. The problem was that I wanted to clean it before disposing. In CCleaner I specified "erase" with 3 rounds. Once CCleaner started working on it, it showed that the process will take several days. I decided to stop it and change erasure to 1 round. The problem is that the initial work on the erasure has removed some key system files, and the drive became unreadable, CCleaner could not work on it now. It's not a big deal, but I hope my story will help others to avoid the same mistake.

Victoria
Inventor of the Bogleheads Secret Handshake | Winner of the 2015 Boglehead Contest. | Every joke has a bit of a joke. ... The rest is the truth. (Marat F)
User avatar
bertilak
Posts: 10711
Joined: Tue Aug 02, 2011 5:23 pm
Location: East of the Pecos, West of the Mississippi

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by bertilak »

VictoriaF wrote:Thank you, LadyGeek,

I am still using Windows XP, and I think the updates do not apply in my case. But I did install CCleaner yesterday and was amazed how much stuff it has found and removed.

I also had a "learning experience." I had an old backup drive that I wanted to throw away. The problem was that I wanted to clean it before disposing. In CCleaner I specified "erase" with 3 rounds. Once CCleaner started working on it, it showed that the process will take several days. I decided to stop it and change erasure to 1 round. The problem is that the initial work on the erasure has removed some key system files, and the drive became unreadable, CCleaner could not work on it now. It's not a big deal, but I hope my story will help others to avoid the same mistake.

Victoria
Victoria, Perhaps if you reformat the drive you can restart the erase process. The erase process should NOT work on a file-by-file basis but should work all sectors of the disk to be sure that previously delete files are not leaving data anywhere on the drive. Point being, a reformat should not prevent an effective erase process.
May neither drought nor rain nor blizzard disturb the joy juice in your gizzard. -- Squire Omar Barker (aka S.O.B.), the Cowboy Poet
User avatar
VictoriaF
Posts: 20122
Joined: Tue Feb 27, 2007 6:27 am
Location: Black Swan Lake

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by VictoriaF »

bertilak wrote:
VictoriaF wrote:Thank you, LadyGeek,

I am still using Windows XP, and I think the updates do not apply in my case. But I did install CCleaner yesterday and was amazed how much stuff it has found and removed.

I also had a "learning experience." I had an old backup drive that I wanted to throw away. The problem was that I wanted to clean it before disposing. In CCleaner I specified "erase" with 3 rounds. Once CCleaner started working on it, it showed that the process will take several days. I decided to stop it and change erasure to 1 round. The problem is that the initial work on the erasure has removed some key system files, and the drive became unreadable, CCleaner could not work on it now. It's not a big deal, but I hope my story will help others to avoid the same mistake.

Victoria
Victoria, Perhaps if you reformat the drive you can restart the erase process. The erase process should NOT work on a file-by-file basis but should work all sectors of the disk to be sure that previously delete files are not leaving data anywhere on the drive. Point being, a reformat should not prevent an effective erase process.
It's a great solution, but it's too late for me. After the second attempt at ERASE did not work, I spent over three hours physically destroying the drive.

Victoria
Inventor of the Bogleheads Secret Handshake | Winner of the 2015 Boglehead Contest. | Every joke has a bit of a joke. ... The rest is the truth. (Marat F)
Browser
Posts: 4857
Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2012 4:54 pm

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by Browser »

Why did it take hours to destroy the drive? One whack with a sledgehammer should have done it. :) I wouldn't trust a software erase anyway.
We don't know where we are, or where we're going -- but we're making good time.
User avatar
magellan
Posts: 3489
Joined: Fri Mar 09, 2007 3:12 pm

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by magellan »

Browser wrote:Why did it take hours to destroy the drive? One whack with a sledgehammer should have done it. :) I wouldn't trust a software erase anyway.
+1. Actually, +3 or +4. It's too much fun to only hit it once.

My favorite secure wipe "toolkit" consists of a sledge hammer, a masons chisel, a pair of safety glasses, and a couple of plastic grocery bags to help contain flying debris.

If you haven't tried a secure erase with this toolkit yet, I highly recommend it. It's both effective and therapeutic.
User avatar
Rob5TCP
Posts: 3811
Joined: Tue Jun 05, 2007 7:34 pm
Location: New York, NY

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by Rob5TCP »

dgdevil wrote:I would love to delete "Intel Network Connection Drivers 16.1" and its 1 million MB, which I apparently haven't used in 2 years, from my Windows XP - but I fear unintended consequences.
One million MB is a Terabyte. Most hard drives on new machines are a terabyte. I have a feeling that is a false reading. It's probably 1 million KB which is a gigabyte. Most XP machines had drives of 1 or 2 TB at best; so it's doubtful that is a true reading.
User avatar
Topic Author
LadyGeek
Site Admin
Posts: 95466
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2008 4:34 pm
Location: Philadelphia
Contact:

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by LadyGeek »

^^^ I saw that "1 million MB" and assumed dgdevil meant it like "1 MB (million bytes)."
Wiki To some, the glass is half full. To others, the glass is half empty. To an engineer, it's twice the size it needs to be.
dgdevil
Posts: 938
Joined: Sun Feb 20, 2011 12:42 pm

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by dgdevil »

Rob5TCP wrote:
dgdevil wrote:I would love to delete "Intel Network Connection Drivers 16.1" and its 1 million MB, which I apparently haven't used in 2 years, from my Windows XP - but I fear unintended consequences.
One million MB is a Terabyte. Most hard drives on new machines are a terabyte. I have a feeling that is a false reading. It's probably 1 million KB which is a gigabyte. Most XP machines had drives of 1 or 2 TB at best; so it's doubtful that is a true reading.
Must be a false reading. I did the math afterwards and realized 1 million Mb = 1 terabyte, which is unlikely on my ancient Dell. So how do I fix this?
User avatar
Topic Author
LadyGeek
Site Admin
Posts: 95466
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2008 4:34 pm
Location: Philadelphia
Contact:

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by LadyGeek »

Do you mean your Dell PC is reporting 1 TB for driver storage space? Start a new thread to discuss this in detail, more info is needed - it's much more than deleting a file. Post the link here if you want.
Wiki To some, the glass is half full. To others, the glass is half empty. To an engineer, it's twice the size it needs to be.
dgdevil
Posts: 938
Joined: Sun Feb 20, 2011 12:42 pm

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by dgdevil »

LadyGeek wrote:Do you mean your Dell PC is reporting 1 TB for driver storage space? Start a new thread to discuss this in detail, more info is needed - it's much more than deleting a file. Post the link here if you want.
Yes, in the add/remove programs part of the control panel. But if it's not really 1 million MB (sic) then I'm reassured.
Browser
Posts: 4857
Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2012 4:54 pm

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by Browser »

1,048,576 megabytes = 1 terabyte
We don't know where we are, or where we're going -- but we're making good time.
User avatar
HueyLD
Posts: 9782
Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2008 9:30 am

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by HueyLD »

...........
Last edited by HueyLD on Sat Feb 07, 2015 1:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
VictoriaF
Posts: 20122
Joined: Tue Feb 27, 2007 6:27 am
Location: Black Swan Lake

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by VictoriaF »

magellan wrote:
Browser wrote:Why did it take hours to destroy the drive? One whack with a sledgehammer should have done it. :) I wouldn't trust a software erase anyway.
+1. Actually, +3 or +4. It's too much fun to only hit it once.

My favorite secure wipe "toolkit" consists of a sledge hammer, a masons chisel, a pair of safety glasses, and a couple of plastic grocery bags to help contain flying debris.
I used a large screwdriver and a small Phillips screwdriver to take off the plastic enclosure. The enclosure was mostly a molded plastic with very tight seams. After I removed the enclosure (which took good two hours) I proceeded to the destruction of the disks. The disks were seemingly undestructible; whacking with a hammer did not seem to make a dent. In the end I just bent them into esoteric shapes.

Victoria
Inventor of the Bogleheads Secret Handshake | Winner of the 2015 Boglehead Contest. | Every joke has a bit of a joke. ... The rest is the truth. (Marat F)
User avatar
Rob5TCP
Posts: 3811
Joined: Tue Jun 05, 2007 7:34 pm
Location: New York, NY

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by Rob5TCP »

dgdevil wrote:
Rob5TCP wrote:
dgdevil wrote:I would love to delete "Intel Network Connection Drivers 16.1" and its 1 million MB, which I apparently haven't used in 2 years, from my Windows XP - but I fear unintended consequences.
One million MB is a Terabyte. Most hard drives on new machines are a terabyte. I have a feeling that is a false reading. It's probably 1 million KB which is a gigabyte. Most XP machines had drives of 1 or 2 TB at best; so it's doubtful that is a true reading.
Must be a false reading. I did the math afterwards and realized 1 million Mb = 1 terabyte, which is unlikely on my ancient Dell. So how do I fix this?
Go the my computer - right click - look at properties see how large your hard drive is. If it shows up as 500GB (which is likely if your system is a few years old;
then you know it can not be a 1TB file. Also see how much space you have left. While your in my computer go to the drive and look up the properties of that
file - it might show the actual size.
User avatar
Topic Author
LadyGeek
Site Admin
Posts: 95466
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2008 4:34 pm
Location: Philadelphia
Contact:

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by LadyGeek »

VictoriaF wrote:I used a large screwdriver and a small Phillips screwdriver to take off the plastic enclosure. The enclosure was mostly a molded plastic with very tight seams. After I removed the enclosure (which took good two hours) I proceeded to the destruction of the disks. The disks were seemingly undestructible; whacking with a hammer did not seem to make a dent. In the end I just bent them into esoteric shapes.

Victoria
If you work on electronics, add Torx drivers to your repertoire. A T-8 screwdriver would have opened the case in under a minute (you might also need a T-10).

As for safety, perhaps it's a good thing you didn't perform a complete disassembly. Those Neodymium magnets are incredibly strong. Without taking proper precautions, you will get hurt if they decide to clamp down on your fingers.
Wiki To some, the glass is half full. To others, the glass is half empty. To an engineer, it's twice the size it needs to be.
User avatar
VictoriaF
Posts: 20122
Joined: Tue Feb 27, 2007 6:27 am
Location: Black Swan Lake

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by VictoriaF »

LadyGeek wrote:
VictoriaF wrote:I used a large screwdriver and a small Phillips screwdriver to take off the plastic enclosure. The enclosure was mostly a molded plastic with very tight seams. After I removed the enclosure (which took good two hours) I proceeded to the destruction of the disks. The disks were seemingly undestructible; whacking with a hammer did not seem to make a dent. In the end I just bent them into esoteric shapes.

Victoria
If you work on electronics, add Torx drivers to your repertoire. A T-8 screwdriver would have opened the case in under a minute (you might also need a T-10).

As for safety, perhaps it's a good thing you didn't perform a complete disassembly. Those Neodymium magnets are incredibly strong. Without taking proper precautions, you will get hurt if they decide to clamp down on your fingers.
Thank you, LadyGeek! Can I become your apprentice?

Victoria
Inventor of the Bogleheads Secret Handshake | Winner of the 2015 Boglehead Contest. | Every joke has a bit of a joke. ... The rest is the truth. (Marat F)
User avatar
Topic Author
LadyGeek
Site Admin
Posts: 95466
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2008 4:34 pm
Location: Philadelphia
Contact:

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by LadyGeek »

HueyLD wrote:LadyGeek,

Does the fix work on Windows Vista?
Vista does not have the built-in feature to remove Windows Update files, but this forum thread shows a way to do this manually. Can we delete Windows update KB Files to clear disk space? I can't attest that it works, as I don't have Vista.

For more basic info: How do I... Use the Disk Cleanup tool in Microsoft Windows Vista?
Wiki To some, the glass is half full. To others, the glass is half empty. To an engineer, it's twice the size it needs to be.
rec7
Posts: 2369
Joined: Tue Oct 28, 2008 7:22 pm

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by rec7 »

Thanks I have Vista and had never done this in 8 years. The computer runs better now. I was having trouble on Amazon and now it runs smooth on Amazon. Other sites I did not have to much trouble on.
Last edited by rec7 on Sun Aug 24, 2014 11:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
jebmke
Posts: 25271
Joined: Thu Apr 05, 2007 2:44 pm
Location: Delmarva Peninsula

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by jebmke »

I keep my OS in a separate "small-ish" partition. I did this clean up earlier this summer and it freed up a significant amount of space percentage-wise. I also noticed that it seemed to significantly shorten the time to run a malware scan. Those programs must scan those update files.
Stay hydrated; don't sweat the small stuff
rec7
Posts: 2369
Joined: Tue Oct 28, 2008 7:22 pm

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by rec7 »

WOW got rid of almost 7G of junk. How often should a person do this?
User avatar
Topic Author
LadyGeek
Site Admin
Posts: 95466
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2008 4:34 pm
Location: Philadelphia
Contact:

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by LadyGeek »

I'd say once a year. Throw "Windows file cleanup" in with your annual portfolio rebalancing and end-of-year tax return preparations. If you start to run out of disk space, then do it more frequently.
Wiki To some, the glass is half full. To others, the glass is half empty. To an engineer, it's twice the size it needs to be.
Jack
Posts: 3254
Joined: Tue Feb 27, 2007 1:24 am

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by Jack »

rec7 wrote:WOW got rid of almost 7G of junk. How often should a person do this?
At a nickel a GB, you recovered 35 cents worth of disk space. How often do you think you should do that?

Disk space is so cheap that there is an argument to be made to never delete anything ever. Have you ever deleted something permanently and gone "Oops!" Unless stuff is literally getting in your way, why delete it?
rec7
Posts: 2369
Joined: Tue Oct 28, 2008 7:22 pm

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by rec7 »

Jack wrote:
rec7 wrote:WOW got rid of almost 7G of junk. How often should a person do this?
At a nickel a GB, you recovered 35 cents worth of disk space. How often do you think you should do that?

Disk space is so cheap that there is an argument to be made to never delete anything ever. Have you ever deleted something permanently and gone "Oops!" Unless stuff is literally getting in your way, why delete it?
True but my disk space is only 138GB to start with so 7GB helps my system a lot. I notice the difference in performance.
Last edited by rec7 on Sun Aug 24, 2014 10:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
JoeJohnson
Posts: 627
Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2011 2:34 pm

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by JoeJohnson »

Jack wrote:
rec7 wrote:WOW got rid of almost 7G of junk. How often should a person do this?
At a nickel a GB, you recovered 35 cents worth of disk space. How often do you think you should do that?

Disk space is so cheap that there is an argument to be made to never delete anything ever. Have you ever deleted something permanently and gone "Oops!" Unless stuff is literally getting in your way, why delete it?
Not a single person in here is worried about the economics of deleting files from their HD. :oops:
User avatar
Epsilon Delta
Posts: 8090
Joined: Thu Apr 28, 2011 7:00 pm

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by Epsilon Delta »

JoeJohnson wrote:
Jack wrote:
rec7 wrote:WOW got rid of almost 7G of junk. How often should a person do this?
At a nickel a GB, you recovered 35 cents worth of disk space. How often do you think you should do that?

Disk space is so cheap that there is an argument to be made to never delete anything ever. Have you ever deleted something permanently and gone "Oops!" Unless stuff is literally getting in your way, why delete it?
Not a single person in here is worried about the economics of deleting files from their HD. :oops:
Of course we're worried about the economics, so we don't do it. My times worth more than $.35/GB, at least for small files.
magneto
Posts: 1060
Joined: Sun Dec 19, 2010 9:57 am
Location: On Chesil Beach

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by magneto »

Many thanks for all the good information.
'There is a tide in the affairs of men ...', Brutus (Market Timer)
User avatar
Teetlebaum
Posts: 461
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 4:27 pm

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by Teetlebaum »

On Windows 8.1, I found that there wasn't that much to remove. Maybe because I regularly use Glary Uilities 5?

Also, defragging is automated on Windows 8/8.1, so it's not really necessary to do it manually.
User avatar
Topic Author
LadyGeek
Site Admin
Posts: 95466
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2008 4:34 pm
Location: Philadelphia
Contact:

Re: No room on your Windows hard drive? Cleanup Update files

Post by LadyGeek »

You can also schedule Windows 7 to do automatic defragging: Schedule Disk Defragmenter to run regularly

Also, for Windows Vista.
Wiki To some, the glass is half full. To others, the glass is half empty. To an engineer, it's twice the size it needs to be.
Post Reply