Recover Your Disk Space with the New Windows Update Cleanup

Every time   Microsoft patches Windows,  the obsolete versions of earlier files and their settings  are normally stored in the WinSxS folder( C:\Windows\WinSxS) . This helps  if you  needed to roll back a patch, Windows  can pull it  out  from the  previous version  stored in the WinSxS folder. But it consumes huge amount of disk space. You can't just manually delete everything in that folder, because some files are needed   if  you want  to roll back a Windows Update .

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Microsoft has  recently released a tool  "Windows Update Cleanup"  for  Windows 7  that adds a new option in the Disk Cleanup tool.With this update (KB 2852386)  you can free up several gigabytes of hard drive space .Once you have it installed, run Disk Cleanup and click the "Clean up system files" button to find the new Windows Update Cleanup option.After you install this update, you can use the Windows Update Cleanup option to delete Windows updates that you no longer need.

Right-click on your C: drive -> Properties-> Disk Cleanup button .Here you can see a summary of what files Windows can clean up -- temporary files, Recycle bin and  log files. It is not bad , if you  are  able to retrieve  1GB to 3GB -- or more -- of C: drive on all of your Win7 SP1 machines .

Notes

            The Windows Update Cleanup option is available only when the Disk Cleanup wizard detects Windows updates that you do not need on the computer.

        To enable you to roll back to previous updates, updates are stored in the WinSxS store even after they are superseded by later updates. Therefore, after you run the Disk Cleanup wizard, you may be unable to roll back to a superseded update. If you want to roll back to a superseded update that the Disk Cleanup wizard deletes, you can manually install the update

        You needed to run Windows Genuine  Validation to install Windows Update Cleanup

Download the update package for x86-based versions of Windows 7

Download the update package for  x64-based versions of Windows 7

Category: Hard Disk, Updation, Utility, Windows 7