Last Updated on November 20, 2016 by Dave Farquhar
Thanks to a new tool that Microsoft pushed out in 2013, it’s very easy to clean up after Windows Update and free up a bunch of disk space.
In 2013, Microsoft released a new Disk Cleanup tool. Click your start button and type “Disk Cleanup” to launch it. If you see a new option called “Clean Up System files,” you got the update. If you don’t see it, visit this page (Internet Explorer-only, unfortunately) to grab it.
Click that button, and Windows deletes the obsolete backup files from the WinSxS directory. In my case, I had about 4 GB of old updates to purge. If you run Windows on an SSD like I do, you’re going to want that space back.
Now if you’d like to automate the process, the knowledge base entry linked above has instructions for a corporate environment. For a standalone machine, it’s a little simpler.
Open an administrative command prompt and enter this:
cleanmgr /sageset:11
Now select your cleanup options (be sure to include Windows Update Cleanup).
Now, any time you issue this command:
cleanmgr /sagerun:11
Windows will clean up its old update files.
Create a scheduled task to run this command occasionally, keeping some distance from the second Tuesday of the month just in case Microsoft releases a patch you need to reverse (rare, but not unheard of), and you’ll keep more of that space free.
How often do you need to run it? I built this system in question in November 2010, using a completely slipstreamed copy of Windows, so 4 GB represents about three years’ worth of updates. So, based on that, a month’s worth of update backups consumes about 113 MB of disk space. I think I would run it every two months at most, for safety’s sake.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.
Cool, thanks. Only good for 4+ GB on my machine too, but I’m also running an SSD – and thanks for that tip as well.