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I'm trying to get rid of the excessive files inside the winsxs folder. However, there is no "Windows Update Cleanup" option in my Disk Cleanup dialog. I am told that installing this hotfix enables the option.

After installing the hotfix, there is still no option for "Windows Update Cleanup".

Anthony Mastrean
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Ke.
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  • The reason is simply this: "Windows will only give the option to clean up Windows Updates if it can find any that have been superseded or are no longer needed for any reason." Check out here: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/1a3d0e5b-5009-4cb7-bac5-ab38ac5e9584/windows-update-cleanup-option-is-missing-when-running-disk-cleanup?forum=winservergen – Axel Podehl Jan 07 '20 at 16:24

4 Answers4

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Run disk cleanup as admin to get the option shown. When you run it as normal user it only shows data for your local account but no system settings.

magicandre1981
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As neither of the proposed answers worked for me directly, I put here the steps I have to do in order to get "Windows update cleanup" option:

1) Make sure that KB2852386 is installed. You can check in Programs and features -> Installed updates. If it is missing, you can install x64 version from here. It requires a restart and some patience before it is fully configured (at startup).

2) You can either run Disk Cleanup as Administrator OR run it normally + press Clean up system files and the option will show.

Alexei
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5

For some reasons I wasn't able to see "Windows Update Cleanup" either with a Local Admin and Domain Admin.

I ended up loading DiskCleanup with this preset:

%SystemRoot%\System32\cmd.exe /c Cleanmgr /sageset:65535 & Cleanmgr /sagerun:65535

Florian Bidabé
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    That didn't do it for me either. It opened an empty cleanup dialog quickly, but when I clicked OK it just started scanning again and ended with the regular one without that option. – Dave Van den Eynde Nov 12 '15 at 16:25
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    For me too, neither Local nor Domain Admin worked. When opened with given preset, it gave me the option for Windows Update Cleanup. On clicking OK, it started scanning and disappeared (auto closed) after scanning. Not sure how many different behaviours one operating system can have... Any advices to get around? – Tushar Tarkas Jun 13 '17 at 04:31
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There is another workaround

From an elevated command prompt, type the following:

Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup

Then

Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase

A full explanation can be found at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/clean-up-the-winsxs-folder

TheAlbear
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