In today’s tutorial we will show you how to delete update files that are no longer needed, i.e. old file corpses from previous updates, and thus save a lot of disk space on your computer!
When Windows 10 installs new updates, these updates are very often relatively large, so you always have a certain amount of Have to have memory available for the installation of these updates.
Most of these Installation files are not deleted after the installation, but remain on your system.
This is usually quite useful, because these installation files also contain the uninstaller for these updates, so that they can be removed without any problems.
But if after the installation of the update for a certain time everything is OK, then you can calmly assume that this update will not cause any more problems in the future.
In such a case it is quite sensible to remove old update installation files that are no longer needed and thus create again somewhat more free place on the non removable disk.
This directory contains the Windows 10 installation files for the Windows updates
The installation files of Windows 10 updates are usually placed in the system directory, and so we will now go to this directory.
Open an explorer window and go to the directory where your Windows 10 system is installed.
If you have not changed the default settings during the installation of Windows 10, then the installation directory of Windows 10 is "C:\Windows".
Inside the directory C:\Windows there is another directory Directory (folder), which is called"Installer" which is hidden.
Therefore you have to activate the option to show hidden files first to see this folder.
If you haven’t done this yet, just follow our tutorial where we show you how to show only hidden folders and files.
To show hidden items, please go to the menu View.
In the menu View you will find a little bit further on the right an option called "Hidden Items" names.
Here you have to tick the checkbox in front of "Hidden items" set to enable this feature and allow viewing hidden files and folders.
If you have not changed anything in the default settings in Windows Explorer, then hidden items are displayed in blue font when you open the View for hidden objects activated off.
In the folder Installer all installation files for the Windows 10 updates are stored.
At this point I would like to give you a very important hint.
Never delete the Installer folder, because it is also needed for the installation of further Windows 10 updates and various other file storage and you may get error messages if this folder does not exist anymore.
Please always delete only contents of the folder Installer, but never the folder itself.
show how much space the Windows 10 update files occupy in the Installer folder
Possibly it is for you also very It is interesting to know how much space the update installation files actually occupy in the Installer folder.
In order to find out how much disk space is lost by the Windows update files, please click on the Installer folder with the right mouse button and then select the entry"Properties" from.
In the middle area of the window "Properties of Installer" you will see the size of this folder, i.e. the amount of space this folder occupies on your hard drive.
In our example, the update files occupy a good 5 GB of disk space.
How do you find out which are the update files for the Windows 10 updates in the folder Installer??
Good, then let’s have a look into the folder Installer.
You will immediately notice that there are a lot of files in this folder.
Not only old Windows update files are stored here, but many other files as well.
The folder Installer is not only necessary and important for the installation of Windows 10 updates, but also for many other system processes or. System programs that store data here.
So how do you find out which are the update files for the Windows 10 updates in the Installer folder??
To find out the files that belong to the Windows 10 update files, you must now search for Files with the file extension".msp" search.
The best way to do this is to use the search function in Windows Explorer.
Enter the search term * in the top right-hand corner of the Explorer search field.msp on.
Now only files with this file extension are displayed, i.e. only the files that are Windows 10 update files.
The List of msp files lets you now best sort by the modification date, so you have an ordered selection of update files in front of you and can thus better search for the desired update file that you would like to delete.
Create backups of update installation files on external drives!
If you know the period by which the Windows 10 update was installed, then look for the corresponding date of the msp file here and delete it.
Of course, provided you are also quite sure that you want to do this.
Always remember that you can not undo the update installation if you have deleted the file that is necessary for it.
But do not panic!
The best way to combine security and no unnecessary waste of disk space is the Store the installation files as a backup on an external drive.
If you are already using an external backup storage, like a NAS station, i.e. a network data storage or an external hard disk, then you always have a backup copy of this file available and can restore it if necessary.
In practice, it has proven to be very useful to sort the list of update files by the current modification date and then delete the update files that are already a little longer ago.
For example, the update files from last year, because here the probability is very low that you will need them at all again.
If there would have been problems with these updates until now, then you would have noticed it for sure already.
So, that’s it again today with our tutorial.
Now you know where to find old Windows 10 installation files of Windows updates and delete them.
Then I wish you a lot of fun exploring many more interesting tutorials on our home network and wifi help pages.com.
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Delete unnecessary and obsolete Windows 10 Update files!
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