[Top 4 Ways] How to Delete Windows 10 Update Files?

What are Windows update files?

Many Windows users may want to delete Windows 10 update files when they ran out of space on their computer. However, they do not understand what Windows update files are and whether it is safe to delete them.

Windows update files refer to files that information about old Windows automatically formed in your PC after you update the Windows OS. They can solve some compatibility issues, keeping your computer running smoothly. If you want to return to the previous version of Windows, it will help you do it.

Deleting these Windows update files is completely safe and will not cause any ill effects on your PC, but only if you don't want to revert back to an older Windows version anymore. Next, we will share some methods on how to delete Windows 10 update files.

Three ways to remove Windows update files

In fact, there are several ways to help you manually find and delete Windows update files on Windows 10. In the following, we will introduce the detailed methods one by one.

│Method 1. Delete Windows update files via Disk Cleanup

How to delete old update files on Windows 10? First, you can try Disk Cleanup, a common Windows built-in cleaning tool. It can remove unwanted files from your computer, including Windows update files, temporary Internet files, installation log files and more.

Step 1. Press "Windows + R" and type "cleanmgr.exe", then hit "Enter" to open Disk Cleanup.

Step 2. Select "Windows Upgrade Cleanup" in the pop-up window, then click "OK".

│Method 2. Delete Windows Update files through Settings

The magic "Settings" program can also help you clean up Windows update files. The detailed steps on how to delete Windows update files on Windows 10 are as follows:

Step 1. Press "Windows + I" to quickly open the Settings program. Then tap the "System" and "Storage" in turn.

Step 2. Find and click the "Temporary Files", tick "Windows Update Cleanup" and "Delivery Optimization Files" in the new pop-up window, then click "Remove files".

│Method 3. Delete the Windows update files in the SoftwareDistribution folder

It's also a good idea to stop the Windows Update service in the SoftwareDistribution folder. The SoftwareDistribution folder is a specific folder, all downloaded updates are stored in it for later use. Please follow the steps below.

Step 1. Type "Services" in the "Start" search bar, press "Enter" to open it.

Step 2. Find and right-click "Windows Update Service" in the pop-up window, then select "Stop".

Speed up your computer with more powerful tool

You may be well aware that it's not just Windows update files that are slowing down your computer. Just know how to delete Windows 10 update files will not completely clean up your PC. Thus, to deeply clean up your PC, we recommend you to use a powerful computer cleaning expert - AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional.

It can not only find and delete all junk files in the computer, but also scan large files larger than 16MB in the entire computer and identify files that can be deleted, freeing up space in the most favorable state for the computer.

As a comprehensive computer manager, its functions are not limited to cleaning the PC. It can also help you clone hard drive, allocate free space, recover lost data, convert dynamic disk to basic, etc.

Step 1. Download and open AOMEI Demo, click "Free up" and "Delete Large Files".

Step 2. Choose the partition you want to free up and click "Start Scan".

Step 3. All the large files found will listed on the interface, select the target large files and click "Delete".

Step 4. You can see how much space you can get after deleting those large files, click "Delete Now" all the large files you chose.

Tip: If you don't want to uninstall the applications in the drive that is full of space, you can use the "App Mover" function to migrate all the programs and related files to another drive.

Conclusion

How to delete Windows 10 update files? In this article, we have explained it's safe to delete Windows update files in detail and shared 3 ways to do it.

If you want to clean up Windows Server further, you can go to the Server Version. In addition, to meet the needs of multiple users at the same time, the Unlimited Edition is created.