Windows 11 Disk Cleanup will not Remove Windows Update Cleanup

Anonymous
2022-05-16T16:04:16+00:00

I recently ran disk cleanup on Windows 11 Pro to clear about 2 gig of Windows Update files. This has always worked in the past, but, now, it acts like it's working except that the process moves much too quickly compared to how it used to work. If I run it again, it says that the same amount of space is still present and available to be deleted.

I have tried all of the posted (here, in Microsoft docs, and elsewhere on the net) to try to resolve this issue, but nothing has worked. Those include renaming the Software distribution folder, rebooting and removing the old one, checking services to make sure the proper ones are running, running SFC and DISM and going through the Microsoft published process of manually resetting the Windows Update and cleanup systems.

I have a four computer peer to peer network. Three computers are on Windows 11 and one on Windows 10. The Windows 10 computer is working properly, but all three of the Windows 11 machines are exhibiting this problem. Is this something that Microsoft is aware of or is it a temporary thing because of the problems with the recent updates?

Any suggestions are welcome, but I have tried all of the things previously posted about this problem. Thanks.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Windows update

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-05-23T01:56:58+00:00

    Hi

    Thanks for your reply.

    Thank you for your patience. It may be caused by a patch of win11. You can try to uninstall it to see if there is space to recover.

    The kb3194798 is to update multiple hard links that store system files in C: Windows software distribution and C: Windows winsxs. Because there are too many hard links and the Disk Cleanup tool is not configured to exclude hard links from the equation, you will eventually see this extremely inaccurate calculation.

    1. Press Windows + I keyboard shortcut or click Start -> Settings to open Windows Settings app.
    2. Click Windows Update in the left panel.
    3. Click Update history in the right window to view the update history of your Windows 11 computer.
    4. You can check the list of recently installed Windows 11 updates in your system. 
    5. Scroll down to click Uninstall updates Select the target update and click Uninstall to uninstall the update from your Windows 11 computer.

    Best regards

    Derrick Qian | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

    * Beware of scammers posting fake support numbers here.

    * Please check and vote this answer if it helps as it will be beneficial to more community members reading here.

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-05-17T04:07:57+00:00

    Computer 1 has 648 GB available on C:, .99 GB on D: and 3.09 TB on F:. E: is a BD drive.

    Computer 2 has 641 GB on C:, 867 GB on D: and 1.30 TB on F: E: is not present.

    Computer 3 has 651 GB on C:, 753 GB on D: and 3.12 on F:. E: is a DVD drive.

    So disk space should not be an issue here.

    Anti virus and anti malware software has been disabled during many of these tests and I have also attempted running the clean in safe mode with no differences noted.

    I really don't want to do three fresh installations with the reinstalling of all software and getting things back to running order. The last time I did that, it took almost two days per computer to get things working as I need them. If that will be required, I will live with the ongoing loss of disk space for a while until I have sufficient time to mess with it.

    Good suggestions though. I should have included that in the first message.

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-05-17T03:36:07+00:00

    Hi

    Welcome to the Microsoft community.

    What is the C disk space of your three windows 11 computers? Is it possible that the system cannot allocate extra space due to insufficient space.

    By the way, you can delete the anti-virus software in your computer. The anti-virus software may also cause many redundant spaces to be deleted in time.

    Looking forward to your good news.

    You are welcome to reply to this topic, and I sincerely thank you for your support of Microsoft products and services.

    Best regards

    Derrick Qian | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

    * If your problem is not solved, you could reply to the post again and we would continue to provide technical support for you.

    * Please check and vote this answer if it helps as it will be beneficial to more community members reading here.

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