I need to delete Windows Software Development kit. will this cause any harm to my computer?

Question

I have been deleting apps to free up space and noticed the Windows SDK is taking up 2GB of storage! I want to delete it but I don't want to risk doing any damage to my computer. is there a way to fix the storage issue without having to uninstall this or will uninstalling it be ok? I use this laptop for college and I don't want to lose anything important.

Answer 1

Windows SDK is mainly used by Visual Studio
There is no risk to delete it, apart for VS
Or you can compress the folder (Advanced Properties)

Answer 2

Hello @The Tickler 85

The need of SDK highly depends on what you have installed and what you use. I can recommend the next article for both .NET and SDK removal:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/install/remove-runtime-sdk-versions?pivots=os-windows

Other options that can give you great success to reduce space are:

Free up drive space in Windows with Storage Sense: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/free-up-drive-space-in-windows-a18fae02-a0fa-8df9-9838-8970f9939de4#WindowsVersion=Windows_10
Run Disk Cleanup in Windows 10: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/disk-cleanup-in-windows-10-8a96ff42-5751-39ad-23d6-434b4d5b9a68

and

CleanUp WinSxS folder: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/clean-up-the-winsxs-folder?view=windows-11

Hope this helps with your query,

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Answer 3

Is this device yours or was it furnished by your school?

Are you taking any programming classes?

Are any programming/development tools like Visual Studio installed on the device?

Answer 4

I uninstalled the Windows Software Development Kit from my sister's laptop (since she is not involved in any programming activities) but she hasn't reported any issues with the laptop's functionality.

Answer 5

its safe to delete apart from visual studio. free up some space! :)