Disk Cleanup, Windows 10

Greetings,

My name is Rhaine, I'm Independent Community Volunteer. I’m so glad assisting you today

I am also using Windows 10 pc. Let us work together to sort this out.

You can refer to this link on how to perform disk cleanup , screenshots are available as reference. Just follow the steps don't install any applications.

https://www.howtogeek.com/125923/7-ways-to-free...

Disclaimer: This is a non-Microsoft website. The page appears to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the site before you decide to download and install it.

You can also clean the temp files to free up space.

Press Windows Key + R

Type Temp and hit enter

Press CTRL + A to select all the temp files and Shift + Delete to delete them permananently.

Once done type %temp% and hit enter repeat the same process.

and lastly type prefetch and hit enter in the run box , repeat the same process in deleting them to free up space.

I hope the information above helps. Please let me know how it goes.

Have a wonderful day ahead and stay safe.

With Warm Regards,

Rhaine C.

Howdy, Alan.

Unfortunately, you are not going to get an MS employee to answer this question here. As for this forum, you will too often get the same copy-and-pasted information from other volunteers who lack any real insight into Windows internals.

With regards to Windows Update Cleanup files, this boils down to a couple things: files that cannot be deleted and-or a bug in how this size is calculated. In general, when your system performs updates, past iterations of updated files need to be kept in place in the event you ever need or want to roll back an update. These are stored in the Windows SxS folder and should really shouldn't be deleted using file explorer as many a forum has advised. The other cost-calculation comes from C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder.

If you do wish to go the route of cleaning up these folders, you should explore using DISM commands to do so: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardwa...

A more general guide can be followed here: https://www.winhelponline.com/blog/disk-cleanup...

I KNOW HOW TO USE DISK CLEANUP!!!

The problem is that Disk Cleanup IS NOT WORKING!!

Is it something to do with the fact that Disk Cleanup has a padlock icon next to " Temporary Internet Files"? If so, how is this affecting other categories.?

Greetings,

I appreciate your time in getting back to this thread, if the steps did not work, no worries since this is an open forum, we can ask assistance from other community volunteers about their feedback and suggestion with this issue.

By default, Disk cleanup should delete the Windows.Old files and the old Windows Defender files

Have a wonderful day ahead and stay safe.

With Warm Regards,

Rhaine C.

I KNOW how to use Disc Cleanup. What I WANT to know is why Disc Cleanup is NOT doing it's job.

I also know where the temp files folder is and how to manually delete the files; it's just that i shouldn't have to do so.

Your reply also doesn't answer my original question: how to clear out old Windows Update files and old Windows Defender files; these are NOT in %temp%.