Top 3 Ways to Delete Old Windows Update Files

Windows updates provide new features, security improvements, and bug fixes to your computer. However, these updates leave behind old installation files, Which can consume a significant amount of storage space. On your computer, you can reclaim storage space once you know how to get rid of old Windows update files.

Windows 10 and Windows 11 have dedicated folders for storing updates that failed to install. Until you install the updates, a huge amount of files remain on your computer's storage space. Fortunately, there are several ways to delete old Windows update files. We'll share these solutions to help you get more storage space on your primary hard drive or partition. So, without further ado, let's get started.

Why and When You Should Delete Old Windows Update Files

One of the biggest benefits of deleting old Windows update files is that it frees up storage space. Especially if you're using a small SSD, deleting old update files will free up quite a few gigabytes on your drive.

However, you should never delete these files after installing a Windows update, as doing so will remove the option to roll back to a previous version. Therefore, it's best to remove old Windows update files only if your computer is operating without problems and you don't intend to roll back to a previous version.

Next, let's take a look at three easy ways to remove old Windows update files from your computer. While we used a Windows 11 computer to capture the screenshots for this article, you can use all of these methods on Windows 10 as well.

1. Delete old Windows update files via the Settings app.

The Storage section of the Settings app provides a detailed breakdown of all Temporary files on your computer , including old Windows update files. Here's how to access it to remove old versions of Windows updates.

Step 1: Right click on Start menu icon and select Settings From the menu. You can also tap Windows key + I to turn on Settings app quickly.

Step 2: in System tab , Go to Storage in the right pane.

Step 3: Click Temporary files.

Step 4: Check the boxes that read Windows Update Cleanup و “Delivery Optimization Files”. Uncheck everything else.

Step 5: Once selected, click Delete files button At the top. When prompted, click "Continue".

Wait while Windows deletes the selected files and frees up storage space.

2. Delete old Windows update files using Disk Cleanup tool

disk Cleanup It's a useful Windows tool that lets you free up valuable storage space on your computer by deleting unnecessary files. You can also use it to remove old Windows update files. Here's how.

Step 1: Click Search code on Taskbar , And type Disk Cleanup and select Run as administrator.

Step 2: Use the drop-down menu to select your primary drive and click "OK".

Step 3: Check the boxes for “Windows Update Cleanup” و Delivery Improvement Files. Then click "OK".

Step 4: Choose delete files For confirmation.

3. Delete old Windows update files from the SOFTWAREREDISTRIBUTION distribution folder.

Windows stores all downloaded update files. In the SoftwareDistribution folder. Sometimes, these downloaded files are found when Windows Update downloads are stopped or not fully downloaded. After Windows installs these updates, you can delete the files from the SoftwareDistribution folder to free up storage space. To do this, you must first stop the Windows Update service by following the steps below.

Step 1: Click on Windows key + S To enter the search menu, type Services In the box and select First result that appear.

Step 2: in Services window You will find all services listed in alphabetical order. Scroll down to select Windows Update Service Location , right click on it and select turning off.

after Stop the Windows Update service You can use the following steps to remove old Windows update files from the folder: SoftwareDistribution.

Step 1: Right click on start menu and select running from the resulting list.

Step 2: Type C: \ Windows \ SoftwareDistribution 1. Open And press Enter.

Step 3: Locate all files in SoftwareDistribution folder and click trash icon At the top to delete it.

After deleting the folder, open Services window Again (check the steps above) and start. Windows Update service.

Free up storage space on Windows

Deleting old Windows Update files is an easy way to free up storage space without compromising your personal data. What's more, it's completely safe to do so. You can use any of the methods above to remove old Windows update files with just a few clicks.

Still running out of storage space? Learn how to enable and use Storage Sense to configure Windows to automatically delete unwanted files.