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
    2022-05-23T04:25:41+00:00

    Thanks, Derrick, but I've gone through all of those operations and everything is fine as far as services are concerned. I've gone through the Windows Update reset procedures that have been posted in the Microsoft documents, including the manual ones to reset everything and there is no change in this. Something has changed. My machines (all three Windows 11 ones) have all suddenly stopped automatically installing Defender definition updates yesterday and, now, all three of them have a group policy set to not automatically install, but to just notify. I went through all of the group policy options and that one is not present. This is a peer to peer network, not on a domain, and things are going wacky all at once. I may end having to do a clean install of all three machines though I really don't want to. If that's the case, I will have to wait a month or so to get the time to do that.

    If you have any more ideas, I'm open. Thanks, again.

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-05-23T04:54:28+00:00

    Hi

    Thanks for your reply.

    This is really a very strange problem. I think it may be caused by some programs modifying the current system configuration file. You can try to enter safe mode to see if it can be deleted normally because safe mode can do many things that the system cannot do when running.

    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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  3. Anonymous
    2022-05-23T15:41:26+00:00

    Glad that I can pose a challenge (not really). I tried the safe mode thing back when this first started.

    I'm beginning to think that your first impression was correct, even if it wasn't the correct update. Something changed my settings on these computers as I found they are now sharing settings which I had turned off. All three now have group policies which are identical and not available in the group policy editor. All three indicate the same for what is available to remove in Windows Update, but none will actually remove that. However, I'm beginning to think that the files have been removed, but the size which Disk Cleaner sees is incorrect.

    If this doesn't sort out in the next few days, I'm going to set a week aside to take down the network and do a clean install of Windows 11 and all software on all three machines.

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-05-23T21:40:12+00:00

    same issue for me, and nothing removes this 2.10 GB of space.

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  5. Anonymous
    2022-05-24T01:36:57+00:00

    Hi

    Thanks for your reply.

    For now, you could try torestore your computerto the correct time period before using the restore point to see if it can be changed.

    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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