Top 4 Ways to Delete Windows Update Files Windows 10

Is it safe to delete Windows Update files?

Windows Update is an excellent way to bring security improvements and new features to your PC. However, after installing the latest Windows version, many temporary files will be left behind. Undeniably, these leftover files are going to consume your limited disk space.

To bring out the best performance of your computer, some users have raised questions:

After updates, it’s OK for you to delete old Windows Update files and this process has no impact on your personal files. The only drawback is that you may fail to restore your previous versions of Windows. 

How to delete Windows Update files Windows 10?

Are you bothered by how to delete Windows Update files Windows 10? Please get four feasible fixes below.

Solution 1. Delete Windows 10 update files manually

Windows Settings is a part of Microsoft Windows. Users are allowed to configure their operating systems, manage their connected devices, and modify their preferences based on their needs. Please refer to the following steps to delete Windows Update files using it.

Step 1. Press “Win + I” to open Windows Settings. Then click Update & Security > Windows Update > View update history.

Step 2. Click the “Uninstall updates” button.

Step 3. Right-click on your unwanted Windows update version and click the “Uninstall” button.

Solution 2. Delete Windows 10 update files via Windows Settings

As mentioned above, temporary files also save several versions of old Windows Update files. To free up the limited storage space, it’s time for you to delete Windows 10 update files after finding temporary files.

Step 1. Press “Win + I” to open Windows Settings. Then click the “System” button.

Step 2. Under the Storage tab, click the “Temporary files” button and open it.

Step 3. Select “Windows Update Cleanup” and “Delivery Optimization Files” in the Temporary Files folder. Then click “Remove files” > “Continue” to delete Windows Update files.

Solution 3. Delete Windows 10 update files via Disk Cleanup

Although Disk Cleanup (cleanmgr.exe) has been deprecated and replaced by the above feature in Settings, you can also use this utility to free up the disk space of computers’ hard drives. Let’s show how it works.

Step 1. Press “Win + E” to open Windows File Explorer. Then click This PC > the local C drive.

Step 2. Right-click on your C drive and select the “Properties” option. Then click the “Disk Cleanup” button.

Step 3. Tick “Delivery Optimization Files” and click the “OK” button. If you also want to delete Windows Update Cleanup, click “Clean up system Files” to scan.

Step 4. After scanning, under File to delete, tick “Windows Update Cleanup” > OK.

Solution 4. Delete Windows 10 update files from the SoftwareDistribution folder

Windows OS will automatically save all the downloaded Windows Updates files in the SoftwareDistribution folder. Thus, you can delete Windows 10/11 update files from this folder.

Step 1. Press “Win + E” to open Windows File Explorer.

Step 2. Go to This PC > C drive > Windows > SoftwareDistribution > Download.

Step 3. Press “Ctrl + A” to select all the files in the Downloaded folder and right-click to “Delete” them. If you’re familiar with CMD, you can type net stop wuauserv in the command prompt windows and press Enter to begin the process.

Related Windows Update issues

Varied error codes are components of Windows Update issues. For instance, if your update files are missing because of the error 0x80073712 or this device cannot start code 10, please run Windows Update Troubleshooter to fix them.

Apart from that, there’s a typical Windows Update issue, files missing after Windows 10 update. If there’re no hidden files, your missing files are probably in a deletion state.

In this scenario, you’re supposed to restore backups or use professional data recovery software like MyRecover to recover them.   

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Keep the recovered files based on their original paths, filenames, and format.

During Quick Scan and Deep Scan, enter filenames in the search bar to locate your desired files quickly or wait to find all the deleted and other lost files on your PCs.

Support NTFS, exFAT, FAT32, and ReFS file systems.

Download MyRecover on your Windows 7, 8, 10, 11, or Windows Server computers to restore your deleted temp files!

Step 1. Run MyRecover on your PC, and select the partition that includes your desired files. Then click the “Start Scan” button.

Step 2. Quickly locate your needed files by Name, Date, Type, Size, or Path. You can also wait to view all the deleted and other missing files after Quick Scan and Deep Scan.

Step 3. Go to the Deleted Files/Other Missing Files folder, and click “Recover x files” to get your selected files back. After recovery, please save them in a new location.

Wrapping up

How to delete Windows Update files Windows 10? Please get an overview of Windows Update files first and get four feasible methods to delete Windows Update files.

For the deleted files, there’s no better way than using a third-party tool to get them back because tools could exempt you from necessary backups and do their best to recover files.

Naturally, if you never made backups with Windows features. Not to mention using any backup tools. If you want to prevent data loss at the source, please utilize free backup software for Windows to back up files, folders, partitions, disks, or the system regularly.