Hello.
I am creating this post in the event MS will notice this issue.
I have just updating a laptop from 16299.251 from 16299.309 and the process of cleaning Windows Updates is taking more than one hour. This isn't acceptable in my opinion.
Command used was: dism /online /cleanup-image /startcomponentcleanup
Clean Up Component Store (WinSxS folder) in Windows 10 Windows 10 Tutorials
The best way to get MS to notice an issue is to post a note to the Feedback Hub through Windows itself. MS does scan these forums, but that doesn't get into official feedback channels anywhere near as well, as fast, or as noticeably as posting to Feedback Hub. How do I know this? That's what every single MS marketing/development person who addressed us MVPs at the Summit in Redmond last week said. Every.Single.One.
HTH,
--Ed--
You know you're in for the long haul when it says there are 3.99TB that can be cleaned up.
Obviously that's not a real figure, but in one particular way it's true. The updates are stored in WinSxS where a lot of hardlinks are used (these allow a file to be listed in multiple folders, but only one physical copy is held on the drive). Ironically, hardlinks are used to reduce the storage required, but apps like File Explorer or Disk Clean-up count each hardlink towards the total used space. 3.99TB just seems to be the maximum Disk Clean-up can count up to.
Analyze Component Store (WinSxS folder) in Windows 10
There seems to be no discernible reason why some updates produce so many hardlinks, but that's where the real bug lies. It seems it's not a bug in poor Cleanmgr that has to clear up the mess after one of these 'over-enthusiastic' updates throws hardlinks here there and everywhere. A hardlink takes just as much time to delete as a physical file, so 'don't shoot the messenger'.
(I'm even seeing the '3.99TB' after some Windows 7 updates now)
I hope you understand that cleanmgr and dism are two entirely different things.
It doesn't really matter how you start the clean up of the WinSxS component store, Disk Clean-up or dism. Task Manager shows TiWorker doing the actual work and the end result is the same.
The problem is all those hardlinks that have to be removed, and the cause is the way the update was structured.
Maybe they should change this a bit. I recall Win7 cleanmgr to be a lot faster but maybe that is not even the case nowadays.
As I said earlier, I still have Windows 7 on some machines and I've seen the 3.99TB to be cleaned up appear in Windows 7 now. This seems to have happened since the updates for Windows 7 adopted the Windows 10 format of monthly roll-ups. I'm sure it's something in the way updates are installed that's the cause, cleanmgr is just the effect.
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