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Can I delete the "Packages" files?

Anonymous
2017-07-25T13:13:11+00:00

My Surface tablet's hard drive  has gradually become full and the device is now essentially useless because there is no empty disk space.  (I have the original Surface RT.)

But I have removed all my files, except those on the SD card. So essentially all the space on the drive is taken up by Microsoft software. 

Three or so years ago, I went to a Microsoft store and they kept the device for a few days, and returned it with more free disc space.  they told me they cleaned out unnecessary old software files. When I went again a few months ago, they declined to do that again and basically told me to buy a new one, which I declined to do. 

It seems as if there is a lot of extra stuff cluttering up my drive, and it must be almost all Microsoft's files.  So I suspect there are old software versions that can be deleted.

I did some exploring and found a folder called "Packages" in the directory Windows/Users/David/AppData/Local/Packages, with more than 36,000 files in more than 1600 folders and totaling about more than 3.5 GB!!!

I suspect these are the Microsoft monthly updates for several years.  So couldn't these be deleted?  That would free up at least a little space that might help the device at least load a program now and then so I can use it. 

These are the only files I found that look to me as if they might be candidates to delete. there is nothing in the Download folders, for example.

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Surface | Other

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-07-25T14:02:22+00:00

    Thanks!  I appreciate the fast response!  Reading through the linked thread, it does look as if there may be some files I could delete but figuring out which ones could be time-consuming and might have unforeseen results. 

    Phooey, I was hoping I had an opportunity to get some free space.

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