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
    2022-10-02T10:56:15+00:00

    I know I am little late with a potential solution but I too had this problem but I managed to get disk cleanup to work after trying lots of different things but more on that later:

    Try this fix first:

    1. Press Win + R on the keyboard to open the run dialog.
    2. Type in "OptionalFeatures.exe" and press OK.
    3. Make sure ".NET Framework 3.5" is checked or has a - in the box as in the screenshot:Image
    4. If ".NET Framework 3.5" is not installed check the box and click OK.
    5. Reboot the computer when it has finished installing and try running the disk cleanup again.
    6. Also run Windows Update to make sure all the .NET Framework updates are current.

    Long explanation of how I came to this conclusion and possible not recommended alternative solution:

    I was trying to fix this problem on my pc for ages trying various disk cleanup DISM and SFC commands and I finally managed to get disk cleanup to clean windows updates by running all these command lines (from an administrator prompt) whilst booted into "Safe Mode with Networking" but I have no idea which one actually "solved" it:

    • DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
    • sfc /scannow
    • DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase
    • DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /spsuperseded /hidesp

    After that I ran disk cleanup two more times whilst still in safe mode to make sure that it had worked and it had finally cleaned those pesky updates!

    However, when I rebooted back into normal mode, I found that half of my programs wouldn't start anymore and would give errors (I can't remember what the errors said).

    I think the problem was that update cleanup was trying to remove some versions of .NET Framework even it was still in use by running programs!

    Anyway I fixed this new self inflicted problem by turning on ".NET Framework 3.5" and running Windows Update which made everything work again.

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-10-27T05:53:38+00:00

    I just tried the .NET trick but it didn't work for me. I have also reinstalled the 22H2 ISO and it worked one time only. After the install I was able to clean previous updates but the next one could not be cleaned-up. Still waiting for a solution.

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-10-30T20:40:48+00:00

    I found a solution that apparently works, at least for my two computers: Boot from an external USB (or CD) with a different OS (any live Linux distro or Windows utility app should work), and from there delete all content of the folder C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution. After rebooting, take care of whatever is left your trash can. Run again the clean-up app and those extra gigabytes are gone. Windows Update shows only the typical residual small files but no more gigantic Updates. Everything seems to work fine and new updates will keep coming when available. As soon as they become huge again, repeat the process and you are done.

    Another way to do this from "inside" Windows (in a running Windows), instead of "outside", is to stop the services Windows Update and Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) before deleting the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder, and then start them again.

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