Disk Cleanup not working in 2004 (19041.207)

NMI said:

Windows Update Cleanup works for you on Version 2004?
And StartComponentCleanup completes on Version 2004?

Hi,

This is what I'm getting :

It seems that 'StartComponentCleanup' doesn't work here too. I didn't notice that cause I used Cleanmng+.
Disk Cleanup could not find/remove leftovers but Cleanmng+ did it.
I don't remember how much space it freed up, but it certainly did.

HeM said:

What I've suggested above (#16) is exactly a manual way to remove residues unless you prefer to be able to choose everytime, between hundreds of thousands of files/folders for what to keep and what to merge/remove.

Even if Disk Cleanup did the job, there would be still some thousands of files to remove, files which needed in case of roll back. And here comes the idea of constantly backup which is faster, safest and much better than a roll back.

PS: I've never noticed such a problem as @Bree mentioned above (#18) and Disk Cleanup, almost always, cannot remove update leftovers.

I'm not sure whether I tried it on first reading your post.

Regardless, I tried it now. Ran it as administrator.

No go. Windows Update residuals were not removed.

bobkn said:

...Windows Update residuals were not removed.

First, I upgraded from 1909 to 2004 using an ISO from UUPDump which includes kb4545706 and kb4550936 cabs (v.19041.207). When upgrade was finished there was 22.7GB free space on disk (Windows.old deleted) and I created a backup.

Now, I've restored that backup just for testing, then I checked for updates...:

As you can see kb4550936 was installed again.
Updates were installed, with no restart required and free space on disk was reduced to 21.9GB.

Then, I ran Cleanmgr+ with this result:


After that I deleted 'C:\Windows\servicing\LCU' content and 'C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download' content and free space on disk was again 22.7GB

I repeated above test but this time I used DISM :


As you can see, it worked. Then I ran again DISM and...:

So, I got this because there are no leftovers and not because it didn't work.

Disk Cleanup could not find/remove any update leftover.

PS: v.19041.208 has not been received here yet.

Disk Cleaner will remove windows.old.

It will not clear "Windows Update cleanup", which accounts for 1.75GB in my current build (19041.208). Neither will CleanMgr+.

The total contents of C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution are about 24MB.

I don't desperately need the space. My C: drive is a nominal 1TB. I've been in the habit of tidying up after a build update. (I frequently image the drive, so there is little risk.) I have no idea how long Disk Cleaner has been misleading me.

I'm going to mark this as solved.

bobkn said:

It will not clear "Windows Update cleanup", which accounts for 1.75GB in my current build (19041.208). Neither will CleanMgr+.

...I'm going to mark this as solved.

It's probably not physically occupying anything like 1.75GB. Typically the figure reported by Disk Clean-up is an overestimate due to extensive use of hard links in WinSxS.

Determining the size of the Windows Component Store is complicated by the fact that many of the files are used by Windows from directories outside the Windows Component Store using a technique known as hard linking. In such cases, the files from a component version appear both inside and outside the Windows Component Store. By using hard linking Windows is able to appear to keep multiple copies of the same file without actually taking the added space for multiple copies.

Analyze Component Store (WinSxS folder) in Windows 10


The last time I saw this was on one of my machines running RTM 1909. That solved itself eventually after a few more CUs, this one should too.

bobkn said:

It will not clear "Windows Update cleanup", which accounts for 1.75GB in my current build (19041.208)...

Whether using Disk Clean-up or Dism to clean up windows updates, the underlying process is the same. So this known issue in 19041.208 may be relevant. If so, watch out for the next servicing release...

Microsoft said:

We are aware of an issue where using the DISM (Deployment Image Servicing and Management) tool to repair corruption on systems running the May 2020 Update does not always report the correct status. This will be fixed in an upcoming servicing release.

Windows 10 May 2020 Update 20H1 RP build 19041.208 - April 30

A follow-on:

MS claims that Disk Cleanup is fixed in 19041.264.

Just updated, and tried it. Appears to be true.

My joy is complete.